Commercial Creates Community
... as well as sovereign in the native land. The economy created by the people, who resettled in North America, was based largely on agriculture. English merchant-capitalists financed the settlement of American colonies, hoping that they would gain profits from their investments. The kind of farming and other economic pursuits differed from region to region. Each colonial region had their own means for commercial gain. Each developed its own eccentric economy. Staple export economies, using slaves, developed in the southern colonies. Booming tobacco prices in the seventeenth century led Virginia planters to export the crop, and production Doyon 2 spread throughout the Chesapeake region (Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina) before the century ended. In spite of lower price and slow diversification of crops, most planters in that region still exported tobacco on the eve of the Revolution. In New England, the colonies of Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Connecticut and Rhode Island, farms were in general quite small, with frequently rocky soil. Corn was the basic crop, and the colonists made it a staple of their diet, as cornmeal, bread or mush. The sea was just as important to the New England economy. Many fishing villages sprang up along the coast, and hundreds of fishing boats went out to gather cod and haddock from the rich waters. Shipbuilding flourished as the colonists used their forests for this new industry. Ships were in demand as New England merchants developed a busy trade with Europe, Africa, and even China. A few towns developed during the eighteenth century such as Boston, New York, Philadelphia and Charleston. These towns served mostly to collect agricultural goods from the countryside and disperse English manufactured goods to farmers. Such commercial activity bounded by rustic needs, not only employed merchants but also artisans as coopers and shipbuilders. As trade grew, town populations increased, which led to the rise of the internal life of towns. Furthermore, the population in the Americas began to grow immensely due to natural increase. Immigration began to come to a halt. America was becoming quite a d...