Families and Farms: Mentalite in Pre-Industrial America

Henretta, James A.

doi:10.2307/1922569

Cited by 134 publications

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“…46 See Rothenberg (1992); Henretta (1978); and Kulikoff (1979). Some household members may have left agriculture to seek work in nearby cities, but that effect is captured in our conjectures because the agricultural share of the labor force changes with urbanization.…”

Section: Sensitivity Analysismentioning

confidence: 96%

Economic growth in the Mid-Atlantic region: Conjectural estimates for 1720 to 1800

Rosenbloom

Weiß

2014

Explorations in Economic History

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We construct decadal estimates of GDP per capita for the colonies and states of the Mid Atlantic region between 1720 and 1800. They show that the region likely achieved modest improvements in per capita GDP over this period despite a number of demographic factors that tended to slow the pace of growth. Nonetheless the rate of growth we find is below that commonly assumed to have prevailed in eighteenth century North America and calls those estimates into question. The striking feature of the region's economy in the eighteenth century was not rising livingstandards, but its ability to achieve rapid extensive growth without a decline in living standards. To contemporaries this extensive growth and short-term volatility in incomes must have been much more visible than any trend improvement in overall well-being.This work is an outgrowth of a larger research project carried out in collaboration with Peter C. Mancall. We gratefully acknowledge his extensive contributions both to that larger work and to this paper. We have received helpful comments from seminar participants at

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Section: Sensitivity Analysismentioning

confidence: 96%

Economic growth in the Mid-Atlantic region: Conjectural estimates for 1720 to 1800

Rosenbloom

Weiß

2014

Explorations in Economic History

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“…James Henretta has pointed out that immediate profit was less important than yearly subsistence and long-term security for farm families, so what attributes did horses, cattle, sheep and pigs have which made them a priority? 63 …”

Section: New Settlers and Livestockmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cows, Sheep & Scots

Ritchie¹

2017

onhistory

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In the ongoing discussion of how Canada’s economy developed and how the land was colonised, little attention has been paid to the role of farm animals. The strategies of Scottish immigrants to rural Upper Canada show the centrality of livestock in subsistence, in the informal economy of barter, exchange and credit, and in off-farm sales. Raising stock—particularly cattle, sheep and pigs—was not an addition to settlers’ sources of income and subsistence, but underpinned most of them. Letters back to Scotland, supplemented by surveys and census data, show that animals’ contribution to clearing forest, raising crops, maintaining soil, providing food and clothing, raising cash or credit, maintaining reciprocal relationships and passing on property was integral to the success of backwoods farmers as they strove first for survival, and then for comfort.

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“…Despite institutional differences in landholding, both sides of the river had similar physical, agricultural, and geographical constraints, particularly in terms of climate and crops that could be grown (Bruegel 1996b). Again, the small freehold agriculture on which Vickers (1996) bases his interpretation likely holds better west of the Hudson (see Fabend 1991;Wermuth 2001) than on the east bank, where small farmers were more likely to be tenants (Kim 1970;1978). 2 East of the Hudson, Earle's (1992a;1992b) staple interpretation may be more apropos.…”

Section: Staples Vs Social Structurementioning

confidence: 99%

“…This is for the simple reason that tenants in British North America were not formally tied to the land as east European serfs were, and were free to remove to nearby areas with available land-hence the landlords' relative lenience regarding rent, in an attempt to jwsr.org | http://dx.doi.org/10.5195/jwsr.2016.615 better attract and keep tenants (Kim 1970;1978). Per Solow's comments on Domar, "[t]here certainly were positive rents and tenant farmers in colonial America, but the essential nature of the northern colonies was not that of a landed aristocracy " (1991: 37) (Anderson 1974: 324;Braudel 1981: 193;van Bavel and van Zanden 2004: 512-13;White 1991: 141-47;Wolf 1997: 111).…”

Section: East Of Hudson Downriver: Mixed Crops On Westchester Countymentioning

confidence: 99%

Transitions in the Colonial Hudson Valley: Capitalist, Bulk Goods, and Braudelian

Leitner¹

2016

JWSR

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Families and Farms: Mentalite in Pre-Industrial America

Cited by 134 publications

References 0 publications

Economic growth in the Mid-Atlantic region: Conjectural estimates for 1720 to 1800

Economic growth in the Mid-Atlantic region: Conjectural estimates for 1720 to 1800

Cows, Sheep & Scots

Transitions in the Colonial Hudson Valley: Capitalist, Bulk Goods, and Braudelian

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