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You are here: Experts > Homework Help > Women's History > General History > Trading in Colonial America
Expert: Hank Hokamp - 10/29/2009
Question
Hi Hank, I just found this site and I am so excited that there is stuff like this out there to help!
My son Dustin is working on a report about the Trading industry in the English Colonies (Colonial America) during the 1600-1700's
Can you tell us what was traded, how and to where as well as any other great and interesting information about trading?
Answer
Good Morning, Amy & Dustin. THANK YOU for your question - Trading in Colonial America.
What early colonial prosperity there was resulted from trapping and trading in furs. But throughout the colonies, people lived primarily on small farms and were self-sufficient. In the few small cities and among the larger plantations of South Carolina, and Virginia, some necessities and virtually all luxuries were imported in return for tobacco, rice, and indigo exports.
Supportive industries developed as the colonies grew. A variety of specialized sawmills, and gristmills appeared. Colonists established shipyards to build fishing fleets and, in time, trading vessels. They also built small iron forges. By the 18th century, regional patterns of development had become clear: the New England colonies relied on shipbuilding and sailing to generate wealth; plantations (many using slave labor) in Maryland, Virginia, and the Carolinas grew tobacco, rice, and indigo; and the middle colonies of New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware shipped general crops and furs. Except for slaves, standards of living were generally high, higher, in fact, than in ENGLAND itself. Because English investors had withdrawn, the field was open to entrepreneurs among the colonists.
From 1650 on, England instituted a series of laws of trade and navigation known as the Navigation Acts. Their purpose was to limit colonial trade to the British only. In order to accomplish this, all trade between colonists and the British was to be conducted on either English vessels or colonial-built vessels. If colonists intended to trade with any other nations, all goods had first to be shipped to England, giving her an opportunity to handle them and collect revenue from taxation. In addition, there were certain products that could be traded only with Britain, such as tobacco, sugar and cotton. As time went on, the list of enumerated goods grew -- continually decreasing merchandise that the colonists could sell to other nations.
That's it from here, my friends. Have a safe Halloween.
HANK
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