In the Past Several Decades There Has Been a Significant Increase in Our Knowledge of the Economic History of the United States
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In the past several decades there has been a significant increase in our knowledge of the economic history of the United States. This has come about in part because of the development of economic history, most particu- larly with the emergence of the statistical and analytical contributions of the "new economic history," and in part because of related developments in social, labor, and political history that have important implications for the understanding of economic change. The Cambridge Economic History of the United States has been designed to take full account of new knowledge in the subject, while at the same time offering a comprehensive survey of the history of economic activity and economic change in the United States, and in those regions whose economies have at certain times been closely allied to that of the United States, Canada and the Caribbean. Volume I surveys the economic history of British North America, in- cluding Canada and the Caribbean, and of the early United States, from early settlement by Europeans to the end of the eighteenth century. The volume includes chapters on the economic history of Native Americans (to i860), and also on the European and African backgrounds to colonization. Subsequent chapters cover the settlement and growth of the colonies, including special surveys of the northern colonies, the southern colonies, and the West Indies (to 1850). Other chapters discuss British mercantilist policies and the American colonies, and the American Revolution, the constitution, and economic developments through 1800. Volumes II and III will cover, respectively, the economic history of the nineteenth century and the twentieth century. Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008 Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008 THE CAMBRIDGE ECONOMIC HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES VOLUME I The Colonial Era Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008 i Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008 THE CAMBRIDGE ECONOMIC HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES VOLUME I The Colonial Era Edited by STANLEY L. ENGERMAN University of Rochester ROBERT E. GALLMAN University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill I CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008 CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, Sao Paulo Cambridge University Press 32 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10013-2473, USA www.cambridge.org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521394420 © Cambridge University Press 1996 This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published 1996 Reprinted 2002, 2007 Printed in the United States of America A catalog record for this publication is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data The Cambridge economic history of the United States / edited by Stanley L. Engerman, Robert E. Gallman. p. cm. Includes index. Contents: v. I. The Colonial era ISBN- 0-521-39442-2 (he) 1. United States - Economic conditions. I. Engerman, Stanley L. II. Gallman, Robert E. HC103.C26 1996 330.973-dc20 95-860 CIP ISBN 978-0-521-39442-0 hardback Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party Internet Web sites referred to in this publication and does not guarantee that any content on such Web sites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate. Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008 CONTENTS List of Maps page vii Preface ix The History of Native Americans from Before the Arrival of the Europeans and Africans Until the American Civil War i NEAL SALISBURY, Smith College The African Background to American Colonization 53 JOHN K. THORNTON, Millersville University of Pennsylvania The European Background 95 E. L. JONES, Melbourne Business School, University of Melbourne The Settlement and Growth of the Colonies: Population, Labor, and Economic Development 135 DAVID w. GALENSON, University of Chicago The Northern Colonies: Economy and Society, 1600-177 5 209 DANIEL VICKERS, Memorial University of Newfoundland Economic and Social Development of the South 249 RUSSELL R. MENARD, University of Minnesota Economic and Social Development of the British West Indies, from Settlement to ca. 1850 297 B. w. HIGMAN, University of the West Indies, Mona British Mercantilist Policies and the American Colonies 337 JOHN j. McCUSKER, Trinity University The Revolution, the Constitution, and the New Nation 363 CATHY MATSON, University of Delaware Bibliographical Essays 403 Index 447 Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008 Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008 MAPS North America in 1763 page xi Areas of Non-Indian Settlement and Locations of Selected In- dian Groups, ca. 1763 2 Slave origins 54 African slavery, 1750 55 The West Indies 298 vn Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008 Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008 PREFACE TO VOLUME I OF THE CAMBRIDGE ECONOMIC HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES Prefaces to sets of essays, such as this one, are often devoted to explaining why publication was delayed or why certain planned essays are missing from the completed book. This Preface is an exception. All of the authors met their deadlines — or near to — and they produced a very close approxi- mation to the volume that the editors had imagined when they laid out their original plans. These plans did not imply, however, that all authors would agree on the interpretation of specific events and patterns of change. Rather, aware of the present state of historical knowledge and the disagreements among scholars, we expected that some differences across chapters would appear, and, in that expectation, we were not disap- pointed. Two moderately unusual ideas informed our original plans for the series. While the volumes were to be concerned chiefly with the United States, we decided that the American story could not be properly told unless some attention were given to other parts of British North America. Specifically, we thought that the volumes must contain essays on Canada and the British West Indies, the latter at least down to the time of emancipation. Second, we thought that the first volume should begin by treating the prior economic histories of the societies that came together during the colonial period - the societies of Native Americans present in North Amer- ica before Columbus, of Africans who were involved in trade with Europe- ans, including the slave trade, and of Europeans. These ideas were carried out. Three of the nine chapters are concerned with the origins of the populations that mingled in America during the colonial period; a fourth treats the West Indies. The remaining chapters are organized around the subject of economic change. One treats the IX Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008 x Preface overall population change and economic development of the mainland colonies; a second is concerned with the southern regions; a third is on the North, including parts of what was to become Canada; a fourth takes up British economic policy toward the colonies; and the last is devoted to the Revolutionary war, the Articles of Confederation, and the Constitution. Volume II covers the long nineteenth century, from 1790 to 1914, and Volume III, World War I and the years following it, down to the present. These volumes, like all Cambridge histories, consist of essays that are intended to be syntheses of the existing state of knowledge, analysis, and debate. By their nature, they cannot be fully comprehensive. Their pur- pose is to introduce the reader to the subject and to provide her or him with a bibliographical essay that identifies directions for additional study. The audience sought is not an audience of deeply experienced specialists, but of undergraduates, graduate students, and the general reader with an interest in pursuing the subjects of the essays. The title of Peter Mathias's inaugural lecture (November 24, 1970) when he took the chair in economic history at Oxford was "Living with the Neighbors." The neighbors alluded to are economists and historians. In the United States, economic history is not a separate discipline as it is in England; economic historians find places in departments of economics and history — most often, economics, these days. The problem of living with the neighbors nonetheless exists since economic historians, whatever their academic affiliations, must live the intellectual life together, and since historians and economists come at things from somewhat different direc- tions. Another way to look at the matter is to regard living with the neighbors not as a problem but as a grand opportunity, since economists and historians have much to teach one another. Nonetheless, there is a persisting intellectual tension in the field between the interests of history and economics. The authors of the essays in these volumes are well aware of this tension and take it into account. The editors, in selecting authors, have tried to make room for the work of both disciplines. We thank the authors for their good and timely work, Rosalie Herion Freese for her fine work as copy editor, Glorieux Dougherty for her useful index, Eric Newman for his excellent editorial