Colonial Economics
In Review - Chapter 1 and 2
Pangaea – the emergence and evolution of two
ecologically different continents
Human Migration – the movement of people
throughout the world
Civilization – complex societies developed throughout
the world, some areas faster than others.
Age of Enlightenment – as populations grew so did the
ability to critically think
Age of Exploration – Europeans started to venture out
in search of new discoveries
Columbian Exchange – the movement of plants,
animals and diseases between Europe and America
Globalization – one world, integrated economies, the
reemergence of Pangaea
Clash of the Cultures – Europe, Africa and America
Chapter Three
The Establishment of the English 13 Colonies
These are the four main points:
Colonization – How did it happen, why
were certain colonies successful?
II. Government – What rules needed to be
established in order to survive?
III. Religion – Why did people leave
Europe, what role does religion play
and what impact does it still have on us?
IV. The Land – How was land understood
and how did the location of land impact
the development of the colonies?
I.
Chapter Four - The Colonies Develop
There are four main points to Chapter Four:
I.
Financial Implications– How did money
impact the development of the colonies?
II. Development of Slave Industry– Why did the
slave industry develop differently in the
colonies?
III. Growth of Cities– What was the impact of
urban growth in the colonies?
IV. Immigration– How did the migration of the
various European people in the colonies
impact the culture?
What does economics mean and where did it come from?
 Economic issues have concerned human beings for
millennia, ever since the early primitive hunters
considered how to distribute the meat from the
day's kill among the members of the tribe.
 Although trade and markets existed in ancient
societies, the concept of an economy did not
emerge until the Middle Ages.
 As a field of study, however, economics began as a
branch of philosophy, emerging as an independent
discipline in the 18th century.
Economics is the social science that analyzes the
production distribution and consumption of goods and
services.
what is going on at this time
 1400’s
 1500’s
 1500’s
 1600’s
 1688
 1689
 1500-1600’s
The Renaissance
The Reformation
England/Catholic Church split
The Enlightenment
The Glorious Revolution
The English Bill of Rights
The European Wars
Colonial America
1607 – Jamestown founded
1620 – Mayflower lands in Plymouth
1630 – Puritans land in New England
1651 – Navigation Acts
1675 – King Philip’s War
1679 – Bacon’s Rebellion
1681 – William Penn founds Pennsylvania
England sees the colonies
as a financial opportunity!
The English colonies were
created to make money for the
mother country. England was
also motivated to export
Protestant Christianity to the
New World.
A European financial practice known as
Mercantilism began to emerge. Mercantilists
sought to increase England’s wealth through the
use of government policies to export goods and
restrict imports.
 These laws created a trade system whereby
Americans provided raw goods to Britain,
and Britain used the raw goods to produce
manufactured goods that were sold in
European markets and back to the colonies.
 Around 1650, the British government
introduced s financial policy called
mercantilism.
 Mercantilism states that in order to build
economic strength, a nation must export
more than it imports.
 To achieve this favorable balance of trade,
the English passed regulatory laws
exclusively benefiting the British economy.
In addition financial breaks were
given to the English ships and
merchants which excluding other
countries from sharing in the
wealth.
Since the colonies were
only prepared to supply
only the natural resources.
They could not compete
with Britain in terms of
manufacturing.
Triangular Trade
 British mercantilism led to the triangular
trade.
 Trade routes linked the American Colonies,
West Indies, Africa, and England.
 Each port provided shippers with a payoff
and a new cargo.
 New England rum was shipped to Africa
and traded for slaves, which were brought
to the West Indies and traded for sugar and
molasses, which went back to New
England.
 Other raw goods were shipped from the
colonies to England, where they were
swapped for a cargo of manufactured
goods.
Between 1651 and 1673, the English Parliament passed
four Navigation Acts meant to ensure the proper
mercantilist trade balance. The acts declared the
following:
 Only English or English colonial ships could carry
cargo between imperial ports.
 Certain goods, including tobacco, rice, and furs,
could not be shipped to foreign nations except
through England or Scotland.
 The English Parliament would pay “bounties” to
Americans who produced certain raw goods, while
raising protectionist tariffs on the same goods
produced in other nations.
 Americans could not compete with English
manufacturers in large-scale manufacturing.
The Navigation Acts severely restricted colonial trade, to
the benefit of England.
Navigation
Acts
How does this impact
the colonists
perception of England?
 The Navigation Acts were intended to make the
colonies a supplier of raw materials and a consumer of
manufactured goods of the mother country, in
accordance with mercantilist doctrine.
 They also encouraged development of the British
Navy.
 Although the Navigation Acts benefited the British
Empire, they marked the beginning of American
resentment