Economic Perspectives in Colonial America
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This lesson addresses one aspect of the tremendous growth of the American colonial economy. By almost any indicator, the colonial American economy was thriving from an early stage. For example, the amount of land settled was increasing by 5% per year from 1640-1700 and by 4% per year from 1750-1775. Productivity was increasing twelvefold, and imports were rising by a factor of nine. The colonial American living standards were higher than two-thirds of the world's population's living standards today. This lesson seeks to find part of the reason why.

Contrasting this tremendous growth is a picture of an economy in stasis. From an economic perspective, Americans pursued the same livelihoods in 1640 as in 1775. American society was fundamentally agrarian, and less than 5% of colonial North Americans lived in towns (2500 people or more) in 1775. Philadelphia was the largest city on the eve of the Revolution with 40,000 people, comparable only to England's 7th largest city. The North American economy experienced no significant improvements in technology in this period.

How could the American economy thrive and enjoy high standards of living yet not change in the colonial period? That is the dilemma students face in this lesson as they grapple with the data.