How Did the 13 Colonies Survive Under Economic Oppression?

Imagine people crossing new frontiers, we know they faced dangers in nature but what about the economy?

SOURCE: http://www.landofthebrave.info/ 

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A website, Education Portal, with videos and articles for teachers provided information about the The 13 Colonies: Developing Overseas Trade and University Groningen provided background on Colonial Economy.

In the early years before America had become a country, the state of the American economy was in a confused state. The huge population growth, from 40,000 in 1625 to 235,000 in 1700 due to immigration from England, greatly improved the state of economy in the colonies, leading the white population in the colonies to have a particularly high standard of living. However, to monopolize the Colonies, the British had installed the Colonial System, where the British put restrictions on what the colonies could produce and only permitted that the colonies trade with Britain. This created a heavily concentrated group of people who were all doing simple jobs that kept the villages running.

A large majority of those working did agricultural work in the pre-industrial society that the Thirteen Colonies were made up of. A Market Economy was established due to the processing of natural resources through mining, gristmills and sawmills, and with the export of products made agriculturally. Grains, such as wheat, rice, corn, Indian Corn and flour, and tobacco were the leading agricultural exports. The colonies were forced to depend on Britain for many of their commercialized, finished goods because the British instituted laws that made the colonists unable to produce these things within the colonies. Laws like this were to ensure that the British would make money and basically exploited the colonists into buying overpriced goods, because they had no where else to buy from.

In the beginning years, the colonists began to create a working society in the midst of Britain’s oppression. Their dedication to have success in the new world is vital to the success of the colonies, and later the new United States of America. The economy, although run by Britain, was shaped by the colonists through the exports and imports of the new world and developed into a independent and fully functioning economic system.

          I think that the oppression put onto the colonies by Great Britain was vital to the early success of our country. Without having to fight for what the people wanted and experiencing the abuses of Britain, colonists, and later Americans, knew what they wanted and didn’t want out of their country and their government. The establishment of the colonial economy also helped lead to the country’s success because if something failed financially in the colonies, Great Britain would take care of it; whereas if America had started out as a new nation by itself, it wouldn’t have had nearly as much success because if they struggled financially, the country probably wouldn’t have had survived. Although it was a trying time,  it made the future country and its’ citizens much stronger and more capable.

QUESTIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH:

1. How did the oppression of Great Britain strengthen the Colonial Economy to prepare them for the American Revolution and future endeavors against Britain?
2. What were the leading areas of economy that kept the colonial finances afloat?
3. How did the colonists deal with the change of the economy as the colonies became more independent?