Monthly Research Highlight

The Atlantic world economy and colonial Connecticut
by Avitable, Joseph


  My dissertation situates Connecticut's integration within the evolving Atlantic economy, stressing its central role in the development of a market economy in the colony. To compensate for the colony's missing port records, I have constructed a detailed database of the volume of shipping between Connecticut and the Atlantic World using all extant port records from the rest of British America, merchant records and account books, all extant shipping lists in colonial newspapers, as well as the Dutch West Indian port records. My research has revealed that earlier images of Connecticut's "minor" role in the Atlantic World Economy are misplaced. Connecticut producers eagerly exploited the growing markets throughout the Atlantic World, exporting lumber, foodstuffs and livestock. Connecticut was the largest single supplier of horses, cows, sheep, and oxen to the sugar plantations in the West Indies. In addition, my research on Dutch port records indicates a much larger volume of smuggling between Connecticut and the foreign West Indies. Furthermore, Connecticut had a considerable shipbuilding industry. For many years, Connecticut shipyards supplied vessels to resident merchants and merchants throughout the Atlantic World. Connecticut's integration into the Atlantic economy fostered the development of a market economy in the colony. Scholars have generally agreed that colonial port towns and their immediate hinterlands throughout British North America were integrated into the Atlantic economy not long after their initial settlement. What is not so clear is the process of the expansion of the market from the port towns deeper into the hinterland. The unprecedented increase in colonial American consumption of British manufactured goods and tropical groceries after 1700 induced the "industrious revolution" in Connecticut, as households devoted greater efforts to produce for market exchange to obtain the means to pay for these imported commodities. Transportation improvements opened the countryside to direct access to production for Atlantic markets. Distributing imports and collecting commodities produced in the countryside, retail stores and taverns spread the market economy throughout Connecticut. The process was quite complex. In the seventeenth century, commerce with the West Indies promoted specialization in maritime activities in the urban towns of Connecticut. As the scale of trade increased, Connecticut merchants drew larger regions into production for market exchange to supply commodities for export markets and the growing resident urban population. Over time, a domestic market developed within Connecticut. The entire process of market expansion within Connecticut was clearly tied to the vicissitudes of the Atlantic economy.

Dissertations & Theses Europe Full Text: History
Source:
ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global
Udgiver:ProQuest Dissertations Publishing
År:01/2009
ISBN:1109424671, 9781109424676
Genre:Dissertation/Thesis
Emner:
American history
Sprog:English