Slavery, trade, and economic growth in eighteenth-century New England

Cadeias mercantis e a história ambiental global das Américas coloniais

“…22 Part of the North American ships were also incorporated by the British merchant fleet, which carried much of the gold between Portugal and Britain (EBERT, 2011). The key point here, however, is that the main factor behind the growth of New England, as more than one scholar has noted, were the "invisibles," the provision of services -namely shipping -that the New England merchant community came to dominate in intra-colonial and inter-colonial trade (since they were not restricted to the British Caribbean), a world that depended on slavery and the slave trade to exist (BAILEY, 1990;RICHARDSON, 1991). North American vessels became increasingly important for the shipping of goods (including living commodities) between Africa, the Caribbean, the Iberian Peninsula, and North America.…”

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

“…All these sectors depended on trade with a set of regional economies explicitly reliant on chattel slavery (Burrows and Wallace 1999: 118-90;Matson 1998: 215-64;Richardson 1991). Yet, in the "bread colonies" slavery was uneconomical largely because wheat's seasonal labor demand was short but intense, typically requiring just a few days for fall planting and 10-14 days during midsummer harvest, a point emphasized by both Earle (1992a: 180-81, 228-35) and Vickers (1996: 225-26), and earlier surmised by Domar (1970: 30).…”