The
economy of Plymouth Colony was based on agriculture,
fishing, whaling, timber and fur.
The
Plymouth Company investors initially invested about £1200 to £1600 in the
colony before the Mayflower even sailed. The colonists had to pay this money
back over seven years by harvesting supplies and shipping them
back to the investors in England to be sold.
Each
investor in the Plymouth Company was issued shares worth £10 and each adult
colonist received one share and were given options to purchase more shares
later on. For the first seven years, everything was to remain in the “common
stock” which was owned by all the shareholders.
The
common stock helped supply the colonists with things like food, tools and
clothing. At the end of the seven years, the shareholders would divide the
profits and capital (which included houses, land and goods) equally.
Plymouth on a map of New England, circa 1720
Yet,
in 1623, the common-stock plan was abandoned and the land and houses were
divided so that each colonist could reap the rewards of their own labor.
The
colony had been barely producing enough food to survive and the Governor of the
colony, William Bradford, felt that the communal aspect of the colony was
discouraging many of the colonists from working hard because they felt they
were working for others rather than themselves.
When
the common-stock plan was abandoned and the new plan put into place, the colony
suddenly began to flourish and they soon had an abundance of food. Corn
production dramatically increased and famine was averted.
Bradford
described in his diary, which was later published under the title Of
Plymouth Plantation, the reasoning behind the change of
plans and why it worked:
“The experience that was had in this common course
and condition, tried sundry years and that amongst godly and sober men, may
well evince the vanity of that conceit of Plato’s and other ancients applauded
by some of later times; that the taking away of property and bringing in
community into a commonwealth would make them happy and flourishing; as if they
were wiser than God. For this community (so far as it was) was found to breed
much confusion and discontent and retard much employment that would have been
to their benefit and comfort. For the young men, that were most able and fit
for labour and service, did repine that they should spend their time and
strength to work for other men’s wives and children without any recompense. The
strong, or man of parts, had no more division of victuals and clothes than he
that was weak and not able to do a quarter than the other could; this was
thought injustice. The aged and graver men to be ranked and equalized in
labours, victuals, clothes, etc., with the meaner and younger sort, thought it
some indignity and disrespect unto them. And for men’s wives to be commanded to
do service for other men, as dressing their meat, washing their clothes, etc.,
they deemed it a kind of slavery, neither could many husbands well brook it.”
The
fur trade industry was the colony’s economic salvation. For the first few years
that the colony existed, the colonists struggled to make enough money to
pay the investors back. In fact, they had to ask for more money just to keep
the colony running and by the mid to late 1620s, they were deeply in debt to
the investors.
To
help pay down the debt they still owed, the colonists established a beaver fur
trading base in Kennebec, Maine by 1625. Beaver were plentiful in Maine where
the local Native-Americans tribe had hunted them for generations.
This
fur trading business was very successful for the colonists and quickly became
an essential part of their economy. Their success in this trade continued well
into the 1630s and 1640s but by the 1650s beaver became scarce in New England.
Unable
to expand their hunting grounds due to pressure from other colonies, the
colonists finally sold their land in Kennebec in the 1660s and fish and lumber
eventually became the staples of the colony’s economy.
According
to the book Cape Cod and Plymouth Colony in the 17th Century, whaling was a
particularly vital part of the economy in Plymouth:
“The whale processed on Cape Cod were Atlantic
right whales, so called because they were the correct, or ‘right,’ whales for
human use. They were a coastal, migratory whale, which floated when dead, and
produced a good quality oil. Most of the whales utilized by Seventeenth-century
Cape Codders were beached whales, which had run aground themselves. Other
whales were taken directly at sea. Some were killed at sea or driven on to
the shore from boats, and others were
‘drift’ whales which had died at sea and were later hauled to shore. Over the
century, the number of whales increased, as efforts to kill them at sea failed,
and their wounded or dead carcasses later washed up on the shore. However
obtained, whales, and especially their oil, were an important item in the
economy of Plymouth Colony. Despite whale’s obvious economic significance, the
historical sources are strangely silent respecting their number and processing,
and it is difficult to determine how much oil a particular whale would yield.
The official records are similarly of little help, referring only to whale oil
owed to the colony or to those who processed it for the town. One clue comes
from Edward Randolph. Writing to England in January 1687/88, he estimated
Plymouth had exported two hundred tons of whale oil in the previous months, and
predicted that whale oil would replace the fur trade as a staple of the
colony’s economy. Another comes from Wait-Still Winthrop. In a letter to his
brother he mentioned a report of twenty-nine whales having been killed in one
day, and that on a previous visit to Plymouth he had learned of a group who had
killed six whales within a few days. Offsetting these rather generous
estimates, is Thomas Hinckley’s reference to small whales which produced
between seven and twenty barrels of oil.”
Woodcut depicting whaling in the 16th century
In
1627, the Plymouth Company investors were unhappy with the lack of return they
saw from the colony and the colonists agreed to buy them out for £1800, which
was to be paid in installments of 200 pounds a year over nine years.
Eight
colonists pledged their personal credit to buy the investor’s shares. These colonists were
William Bradford, John Howland, Myles Standish, Isaac Allerton, Edward Winslow,
William Brewster, John Alden and Thomas Prence.
In
reality, it took much longer than nine years to pay back the money and the
pilgrims didn’t finish paying it off until over 20 years later in 1648.
Ultimately,
Plymouth colony never achieved the level of economic success that its neighbor,
the Massachusetts Bay Colony, did
and was eventually merged with the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1691 and became
a royal colony known as the Province of Massachusetts Bay.
Comments
Socialism
was tried in the US in the 1600s and it failed. It is being tried again in the
US and it is failing again. Despite all the examples of socialist countries
going broke, this failed economic model is being used to promote corruption in
our governments and is getting support in our churches.
Our current
crop of church leaders have criticized Trump and I suspect that they are using scriptures
selectively to defend socialism. Despite the fact that scripture supports
private property, like “Thou shalt not steal”.
Charity is praised in the “Good Samaritan”, but it was person to person
and didn’t involve government.
I suspect
that the churches have entered the devils bargain described in UN Agenda 21 and
are being promised the end of war in exchange for the “new world order”. They
forgot that these communists want to eliminate religion and have the state
replace it. They are also missing the
point that church attendance has been declining, because of their leaders’
liberal leanings.
Norb
Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader
