October 28th- Economic Development

• when europeans came to the new world: new society, refuge, fertile land, new oppotunities, get away for most
• mix of new environment and old english ways leads to market revolution
• most first colonist got land easily and didn't work for anyone
• production was limited by labor at first which results in a mostly equal landowning society in new england
• fish market-NE tobacco-VA
• trans atlantic trade along coast
• settlers move to seaports
• VA broke through wage barrie with slaves and indentured servants which leads to concentrated wealth
• outside coastal aread into interiors: geography closes off transportation (very costly)
• people moving into interiors: sustinence agriculture (most people at the end of 1700s)
• not a market economy
• 2 distinct cultures
• market economy along the coast which encourages wealth in lots of money
• sustinence economy offers no rewards, only what is needed, and no way to accumulate extra money, sense of community, family, and many children
• results of sustinence economy
• demands for more labor=more kids
• success with 6-8 children, 20 acres of land, marriage not until men could provide (early-late 20s) always a father and mother
• not much time for romance
• life of hard work and many children out of neccesity
• needed cheap land to provide for children to keep economy going
• paternal authority- controls labor and makes major decisions
• division of labor based on gender and age
• women were responsible for cooking, maintaining gardens, poultry, dairy animals, clothing (textile work) food preservation
• husbands worked fields, livestock, hunting and fishing, collected firewood, maintained buildings
• children expected to work to full potential- grew up to be almost exactly like parents, burdens lighten as age increases which allows for additional surplus
• also becomes heavier as parents age and kids grow
• fathers authority is tied to legal ownership of land- owed nothing to anyone, only to growing children, could deny share of property til he gave them permission to marry or leave the house
• as fathers struggled to provide for sons, daughters had to look for prospective sons
• results in neighborly alliances
• families are not completely self-sufficient: if it wasnt harvest time skilled farmers would go around and provide for neighbors (shoemaking, preaching, saw mill, blacksmith etc), only provide for neighbors, not market/selling economy, labors could be swapped
• migration becomes inevitable: run out of divided land, built settlements increases prices for land around already owned land, resulted in frontier land migrating or working for others, fathers forsaw this and would sell the family farm and move out west for cheaper land and would start the process all over again
• in sustinence world, families are mostly equal
• dependence on neighbors causes differences to dissappear
• sustinance cultures make it vulnerable to market revolution
• as cheap land moves west, cost of migration becomes unattainable for people in the east: shrinks land in east which results in large number of landless farmers, laborers, and craftsmen left behind
• crisis in the east (no land)= increase in age of marriage, decrease in birthrate, increase in poverty and pre marital children, and decrease in paternal authority, small farmers join struggle for supplementary income (competing)
• driven by a need for income, farmers are forced to find markets outside neighbors
• encourages unity in MA in towns such as Bedford (shoemakers)
• merchants provide raw materials to farm families which in turn make the crafts then give back to merchants for money who give to peddlers to sell from town to town
• made shoes, cloth, clocks, fans, utensils, brooms etc
• livestock farming becomes popular as soil becomes less fertile (after 1820 beef becomes "cash crop" in NE)
• encourages farmers to specialize
• dependence on market increases as even farmers realized it is easier to specialize and buy from country stores (east)
• partial cash economy
• changes in merchant class result from rural changes
• keeps triangular trade going
• allows cities to lend money, finance country store, invest in rural real estate, underwrite peddlers adn shipbuilding
• prosper as wars break out in europe: britain and france looking for aid
• collapses when embargo act is passes
• hurt during the war of 1812 but continues after the war