From Dependency to Independence

Marshaling an enormous array of research data, Margaret Ellen Newell demonstrates that colonial New England's economic development and its leadership role in these two American revolutions were interrelated. After a disastrous depression in 1640, New Englanders aggressively sought out markets overseas and began to develop a nascent manufacturing economy - all with the aid of town and provincial governments, which fostered economic growth through a wide range of promotional programs, culminating in the emission of paper currency. Newell analyzes the colonists' discourse and finds that by the mid-eighteenth century many New Englanders were committed to a vision of a diverse, developed economy that put them on a collision course with English interests and policies.