U.S. Technology: History

Lesson 1: Introduction and Early Technology

Early Colonial Economies

The early economy of the European settlers in America was based on trade with Europe. Each colony tended to be founded in a different manner and at a different time. For example, Virginia and Massachusetts were founded by companies in the seventeenth century; while New York was founded by the Dutch. Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware and Connecticut were proprietary colonies. Maryland was also a proprietary colony that was created to be a haven for English Catholics. Each of what would become the thirteen colonies was founded for a slightly different reason by different people.

Each colony ,though, had to build an economy if it wanted to survive. For many of the colonies this meant looking to the forests. White pines were turned into ship masts, smaller trees were used for houses, barns, and forts - whatever needed wood. Much of this wood was sent back to Europe in trade for products from home.

Tobacco was used as a means of trade in many of the southern colonies. Tobacco led the growth in the southern colonies to become agricultural economies.

Wheat was another important crop that could be grown in the Colonies and sent back to Europe. These crops were labor intensive and the southern Colonies began importing indentured servants and as the 18th century rolled along they would import slaves.

Fishing also became something that could be done in the Colonies by Europeans. Fishing fleets began sailing along the Atlantic and became an important part of many northern colonial economies. The early colonists were amazed at the amount of fish they were able to catch along the shores of Massachusetts and other northern colonies.

Entire industries were built around fishing and whaling. Boats had to be produced for the fisherman and whalers, which stimulated the lumber industry, and the textile and cotton industries who had to build the sails. It was not long until the colonies, although settled for different reasons, began to depend on each other in order for their individual economies to thrive.

This interdependence led to another important aspect in any economy - merchants. It was not long until merchants were selling tobacco, wheat and cotton from the southern colonies to the northern colonies; as well as lumber, textiles and fish to the southern colonies from the northern colonies. They were also running importing and exporting businesses with European merchants. As the economy grew in the Colonies the technologies around it grew too. In any growing economy someone will feel the need to improve whatever is driving it. This was the beginning of what we now call “Yankee Ingenuity”; which is the need to figure out how to do something better, i.e. to come up with ingenious means by which something can be done better than it was done before.

Food for Thought: Think about what you know of early colonial life and try to list the different economies.