American history: From economic hell as subjects of a monarchy to prosperity and economic freedom to now life under the control of a would-be socialist "king" and his Progressive minions!
Excerpt: "...Finding themselves in a hard place Americans found a way to prosper and grow like a young plant reaching for the sun. Freed from the rigid restraints of the home country and then guaranteed freedom by the constitution and the limited government it provided America surged to the front ranks of nations..."
Guest Post: If I Wanted to Make America Prosperous Again
First, I would ask myself how did our ancestors build
America from an agricultural colony on the edge of civilization into the number
one manufacturing and commercial nation the world had ever known.
Why reinvent the wheel if round ones still roll?
The early American colonies of the British were founded
based upon the economic ideas of Mercantilism.
Governmental regulation of industries, trade, and commerce characterized
Mercantilism as every aspect of the economy was utilized for national policy.
This was especially true with foreign trade, which was determined more by
national aims rather than individual or local interests.
The definition of wealth began to change in the sixteenth century.
During the Middle Ages, wealth was
defined by the amount of productive land a nation possessed. As
transportation, especially by sea, improved so did the ability to conduct
foreign trade bringing with it an increase in the amount of cash generated by
that trade. The definition of wealth came to be the amount of cash a
nation possessed. Therefore every nation sought to have a favorable
balance of trade. They also sought to develop monopolistic type
environments wherein they provided their own raw materials thus avoiding
imports which meant money flowing out and fostering the export of finished
goods raising the level of money flowing in. Defining wealth as the
accumulation of cash, the nations of Europe desired to conduct foreign trade on
a larger scale, and they began looking for foreign sources of gold, silver, and
raw materials.
This brings us to the British effort to develop North
America as a source of wealth.
The Chesapeake
colonies of Virginia and Maryland were the first successful British
colonies in what was to become the United States of America. Though the
initial colonists came looking for gold they soon learned that prosperity came
not from a shovel but instead from a plow. It was tobacco that primed the
pump and lifted the colonies from a burden to a benefit for the mother country.
After years of mounting expenses for the British and years of starvation for
the colonists the cultivation of tobacco brought prosperity. Virginia’s
production of tobacco grew from 200,000 pounds in 1624 to 3,000,000 pounds in
1638 overtaking the West Indies as the number one supplier of tobacco for all
of Europe thus boosting Britain’s balance of trade.
The cultivation of tobacco fostered a plantation system
based upon indentured and slave labor. A gentrified class of great
planters sought to replicate the social structure of Britain with a small
number of very rich ruling a large number of small land holders who prospered
to a certain extent but never enough to challenge the status quo. The
wretched poor of Britain who had come to the Chesapeake colonies to find a
better life did find more opportunity and the ability to advance from the
landless poor to the ranks of yeoman farmer. However, there was little
opportunity to enter the ranks for the gentry which became a type of American
nobility.
New England, because of the soil, the climate, and the fact
that there was no major cash crop that grew well in the area, did not lend
itself to large plantations. Most farmers were operating at a subsistence
level. If they did generate a surplus it was in crops that were not
easily transported across the ocean, and they were also crops that could be
grown in England and were not needed as imports.
This climatic and environmental adversity did not condemn
New England to being a poor relation to the Chesapeake nobility. Instead
the New English diversified, innovated, and used individual enterprise to not
only match but to surpass Chesapeake and every other colony in the British
Empire. Those who settled New England were Puritans who sought to
purify the Anglican religion of ceremony and return it to what they saw as the
simplicity of early Christianity. They did not believe that good works
brought salvation but they did believe that salvation brought good works.
Therefore they sought to occupy their time with productive activity to glorify
God through their labors. This was a manifestation of what the
sociologist Max Weber later called
, “The Protestant work ethic.” Whatever you choose to call it, it was
this drive to succeed no matter what the adversity that led the New English to
look beyond the soil, beyond the climate and to the opportunity.
First they exploited the fisheries of the Northeast.
In 1641 the New English caught 600,000 pounds of fish much of which was
exported to Britain. By 1645 they were catching more than 6,000,000
pounds per year employing more than a thousand men on 440 ships. They
came to dominate the fish trade shipping not only to Britain and its empire but
also to Spain, Portugal, the Azores, Madeira, and the Canary Islands.
By the end of the 1600s the merchants of the New English
coast began to circle the globe trading the fish, surplus crops, and lumber of
their area to all parts of the British Empire. They became such shrewd
traders that soon American ships were carrying trade from one colony to another
even when the cargo didn’t originate in New England. This secondary
carrying trade generated a growing profit that in turn rebounded in a number of
ways. The increased profits brought home financed increased industry and
growth at home, and it also spawned a shipbuilding industry which exploited the
vast resources of the northern forests.
Between 1674 and 1714 the New English built more than 1200
ships, totaling more than 75,000 tons. By 1700 there were fifteen
shipyards in Boston which produced more ships than all the rest of the British
colonies combined. Only London had more shipyards. This was a
significant engine of economic growth. To build one 150 ton merchant ship
required as many as 200 workers, mostly skilled craftsmen. The shipyards
also supported the growth of numerous enterprises to supply their needs such as
saw mills, smithies, barrel makers, sail makers, iron foundries, and rope
makers. In addition, the farmers of New England benefited by feeding the
craftsmen, supplying the ships, and providing the timber.
By 1700 Boston was the third city of the Empire behind only
London and Bristol and the New English shippers were earning freight charges
for carrying produce and material that was neither produced, shipped to, or
shipped from their home colony. The enrichment of the area spread
prosperity far beyond the sphere of shippers, sailors, and their sundry
suppliers. According to Boston’s shipping register for 1697-1714 over 25%
of the adult males in Boston owned shares in at least one ship.
All of these linkages produced an economy filled with
diversification and development as opposed to the stratified monoculture of the
Chesapeake colonies.
These trends continued as time went on leading to the
industrial North eventually overwhelming the agricultural South. The
expansion and growth of America was based upon a foundation of hard work and
innovation born of adversity. Finding themselves in a hard place
Americans found a way to prosper and grow like a young plant reaching for the
sun. Freed from the rigid restraints of the home country and then
guaranteed freedom by the constitution and the limited government it provided
America surged to the front ranks of nations.
Today, America labors under self-imposed adversity. We
are in the grip of an oppressive Progressive Movement that after 100 years of
incremental advance is poised to transform America from
what she has always been into what they want her to be. America has
traditionally been a constitutionally limited Republic operating on democratic
principles providing individual liberty and economic opportunity. The
Progressives envision America as a centrally-planned highly regimented social
democracy where
the wealth is spread around from each
according to their abilities to each according to their needs.
If I wanted to make America prosperous again I would take
off the self-imposed shackles of a central government on steroids, stop
imposing new regulations, and reduce taxes everywhere on everyone. Then I
would stand back and watch our economy takes off like a rocket and we take our
place beside our ancestors as free people with economic liberty and a will to
succeed.
Dr. Owens teaches History, Political Science, and Religion
for Southside Virginia Community College.
He is the Historian of the Future and the author of the
History of the Future @ http://drrobertowens.com
© 2012 Robert R. Owens drrobertowens@hotmail.com
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Owens on Facebook or Twitter @ Drrobertowens
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