EconAir

        INTRODUCTION   In 1600, England had been an insular and agricultural nation, trading primarily with nearby northern Europe. By 1700, England’s commerce was complex and global, as London competed successfully with Amsterdam for American produce and Asian luxuries.      Alan Taylor,     American Colonies:  The Settling of North America, 258. England's rise to global power and wealth depended on new sources of trade in the 1600s. In Asia, this was a result of trade developed by the English East India Company (EIC). In America, new sources of trade were created by the English settlements in North America and the West Indies. Because of these developments, total tonnage carried in English ships doubled between 1660 and 1688. From Asia came pepper and other spices along with Indian cotton cloth. From America came tobacco and sugar. The rapid increase in sugar production after 1660 in the West Indies led to slave trade with Af...

  Colonial Farm Kitchen. Notice clock in the corner.   SUMMARY OF AMERICAN COLONIAL HISTORY ECONOMY Although predominantly agricultural, America prospered as a British colony because:   §    America was an important part of the British trading system, as regulated by the Navigation Acts.  Based on Atlantic trade, this was a dynamic and growing international trade zone. o     The richest Americans in 1775 were the rice planters of South Carolina and the tobacco growers of Virginia and Maryland. Both groups had a monopoly in the English markets. §    Tobacco growers imported large numbers of slaves in the 1700s because of a lack of indentured servants from Europe. o     New England provided ships, shipping services, and related merchant services to the English system. New England ships handled most of the trade with the West Indies.  o     In the Middle Atlantic colonies, farm surpluses entered ...