3. AMERICA FORMED AS ENGLISH BUSINESSES
To understand the economic situation today, we must look at the formation of the economic system at the beginning of the colonization of our country, especially why the colonies were started. What became the United States of America in 1776 was initially formed as English Colonies in the early 1600's. The colonies were formed as business ventures for English investors to make profit and increase their wealth.
Colonization of America began under commercial charters (or contracts). The first permanent colony was the Jamestown settlement in 1607. It was formed under the Virginia Charter by a joint-stock investment company called the Virginia Company of London. The Virginia Company of London also financed the Plymouth Colony in 1621. These colonies were followed by the Massachusetts Charter in 1628 which was created the Massachusetts Bay Company. Other colonies followed suit. The charters are legal documents issued by the English government (King) allowing investment and trading companies to operate in foreign lands and to set up a government there. The colonial governments must be governed in accordance with the charter and English law.
It should be noted that the English Colonies in America were primarily NOT formed for religious freedom. We were all taught that there was a group of Puritans that sailed on a ship called the “Mayflower” to flee religious persecution and created a settlement at Plymouth Rock. This is true, to practice their religion as they saw fit. However, this was a group of only 102 people and the total amount of Puritans that came to the colonies is estimated to be about 20,000. For scale, the population of the United States in 1776 was about 2,500,000, so the total amount of Puritans were less than 0.1% of the population in 1776. Additionally, this group of Puritans was financed by an investment company in England (like all the others settlers) and they were required to pay back their investors, which they eventually did.
8. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS
What became the United States of America in 1776 began as a group of English Colonies starting in 1607. This English expansion into America was just one part of the English colonization of the entire world. This occurred during a time period from the 1400's through the 1800's. By the end of the 1800's, England's dominion included 25 percent of the world's population and 25 percent of the world's land according to britannica.com. This world-wide invasion established over 100 colonies on behalf of over 35 investment companies. The purpose of these colonies was to create profit and wealth for English businessmen.
The first permanent American colonies were established by the Virginia Company and the Plymouth Company in 1607. As with nearly all the English colonies, the purpose of the American colonies was to create profit for the investors in England by developing natural resources and trade. The methods used in these first colonies were the establishment of plantations to produce tobacco, cotton, wheat, corn, indigo, and other crops. These products or the profits from them were shipped back to England to the investors to increase their wealth. As the investors were paid off, the business owners in the colonies began to keep the profit for themselves.
The primary business model in the colonies was the plantation system. This system was very labor intensive. Combustion engines and machines had not been invented yet, so almost every aspect of farming was done by hand. Clearing the land, plowing, planting, crop growth maintenance, harvesting, and post-harvest processing (such as threshing of wheat) all required much hand labor for a single plantation.
This was the origin of the American economic system. The system consisted of three groups: investors, business owners, and labor. The system was created by groups of investors for the purpose of increasing their monetary wealth. This wealth was created by cultivating undeveloped natural land and extracting natural resources. The investors gave money to business owners to create new business (plantations). The owners used the cheapest labor they could to maximize profits. These were indentured servants and slaves. They received no money for their labor. Both of these groups were owned by their plantation masters with indentured servants being owned by contract and slaves being owned as property. These groups worked only for survival except that the indentured servants were freed after 4 to 7 years of service and given a modest stipend when they were freed. A large amount of the indentured servants and slaves died in the brutal working conditions.
This system of investor-business owner–laborer came to be called capitalism. The three main tenets of capitalism are private ownership, only perform actions for profit, and wealth accumulation. [See the upcoming article “What is Capitalism?] This economic system is still present to this day. Much complexity has been added to the system and many new industries have been added. However, once you understand that our economic system is run by a group or groups of people that want to own everything and they will only do things that profit them, and accumulate wealth for them, then you understand the basics of how economic life works.
By paying the workers as little as possible, the private business owners are able to increase their profits. The private owners thus accumulate more wealth and the workers stay poor. This is why America is so rich and so poor at the same time. Being poor (or poverty) means not having enough (money or influence) to get your survival needs of food, shelter, and health care met. This is why you don't want to be poor.
Under the original economic system, the masters or owners increased their wealth by providing food and shelter, but no wages, in exchange for labor. Once slavery was outlawed in 1865 and indentured servitude was outlawed in 1917, the owners provided the workers wages instead of food and shelter. Under this change to the system, the only way the workers can get food and shelter is to obtain wages from the wealthy. This is called wage slavery since the workers are still dependent on the private business owners for their food, shelter, and health care. When these wages are so low that the workers can only afford limited food, shelter, and health care, we call that poverty. If the wages are enough for survival, then there is a middle class. Not inconsequential, those who receive wages can only buy food, shelter, and health care from the private owners of these goods and services.
The lower class are the workers that are always in survival mode producing for the society. The middle class are also workers that produce for the society, but they make enough wages from the upper class to have their survival needs met and have additional money and time for interests, fun, and leisure. The upper class has almost all the money and get to experience the fruits of society (VIP status). They have all the power and control. Their will be done.
2. WHAT IS ECONOMICS?
All these issues have to do with businesses and how they are run. Businesses grouped together are our “Economic System “or our “Economy”. Businesses and economics are how individuals interact with others in our society to get (or don't get) the things they need and want. It is how we spend our personal time and energy in the work we do for others in exchange for getting what we need and want. It is giving to others our energy and talents. It is the jobs we do and the jobs others do. It is what types of businesses we have in our society, and what types of industry. It is how we interact with our environment for these purposes. It is who owns the businesses and who are the workers or employees. It is how individuals treat one another in this pursuit of getting what they want and need . In a society, individuals are interdependent on each other. What each individual does has an effect on other individuals.
How do we feed ourselves? Get shelter and health care? How do we protect ourselves? What do we do for fun and entertainment? What are our interests? Economics is how we manage our resources to get what we need and want. What systems are set up and who controls them? How do the controllers treat those they control?
7. AMERICAN COLONIES HAVE THE SAME FUNCTION AS OTHER GLOBAL COLONIES
The United States of America was founded by English investors to create profit by establishing farms to produce tobacco, cotton, indigo, wheat, and corn, among other things. The profit or the crops were used to pay off the investors in England. Once the investors in England were paid off, the Colonial plantation or business owners were granted the right to own the land they settled and thus the practice of private property ownership was originated. These business owners were then able to keep the profits from their plantations or businesses to create wealth for themselves. This is the origin of the development of the economic system in America. This system would later be called Capitalism. The three main tenants of Capitalism are: property is owned by private individuals, all effort is done for profit, and accumulation of wealth.
The society developed with two primary groups: business owners (property or land owners) and workers who consisted of black slaves and poor white indentured servants. Almost all work done on the farms was done by hand. There were no power machines at all at this time as gasoline engines were not invented until the mid 1800’s. There was some limited use of oxen and horses, but most plowing, planting, weeding, harvesting, and refining were done with human labor. Thus, early American society consisted of an upper class of wealthy white English males who where the business owners (masters) and the lower class of black slaves and white indentured servants.
Indentured Servants were white people who were poor and/or unemployed that England wanted to get rid of. Approximately 25 percent were criminals. They signed a contract where they worked for free for a period of 4 to 7 years. Children often served much longer than that. They were considered personal property of their masters during the period of servitude. They typically worked 6 days a week from sunrise to sunset. Around 40 percent of them died due to the harsh conditions. After the term of indenture was over, they were freed and given corn, clothes, and occasionally a small plot of land.
Slaves were black people who were kidnapped from Africa and sent to America on slave ships were they were kept in chains and confined to a space that was 2 feet wide and 3 feet high. The trip to America lasted 2 to 3 months. Once in America, the slaves were sold as property to the business/plantation owners. The life of a slave was to work from sunrise to sunset, six days a week until they died. When they had children, the children became the property of the owners. The children were put to work starting at the age of 3 or 4 years old and worked under the same conditions until death. Since the slave children were the property of the masters, they were often bought and sold to other businessmen and separated from parents. Slaves lived in the cheapest of shelters and ate minimal amounts of scrap food from the masters. Many who were disobedient were shackled and whipped. Some slaves who tried to escape were lynched or burned alive to discourage other slaves from trying to escape. The white masters didn't like to do this more than necessary since they would loose their investment.
Later, as other industries emerged in America, plantation owners gradually were replaced with business tycoons and the modern-day corporations. About 230 to 260 years after the first permanent settlement at Jamestown, indentured servitude and slavery were outlawed in America. Slaves and indentured servants were replaced with workers or laborers. This change actually benefited the ruling business class since the workers were now responsible for their own housing, food, and health care. The workers were still totally dependent on the business owners to provide wages to care for themselves. If the workers could not find a job from the business owners, they would live in poverty, hunger, and sickness. Sometimes they would even die, but now it was the fault of the workers.
Thus the system change from indentured servitude and chattel slavery, where the slaves were considered the property of the owners, to wage slavery where the workers were responsible for their own survival, but were still completely dependent on the wages of the business owners. This system came to be know as the capitalist economic system. [See the upcoming articles titled “What is Capitalism?” and “The American Class System and the American Dream”] The definition of the American Dream, as I see it, is that it is possible to move from the poor lower class of workers to the upper class of wealthy owners by hard work, creativity, and invention.
The capitalist economic system requires continuous growth and expansion to increase the accumulation of wealth. America started with the two original English joint-stock investment companies and their colonies. The number of colonies expanded to 13 at the time of the American revolution when the United States of America was formed. Business expansion continued to the west on the continent with farms, plantations, railroads, mining, and many other businesses including all the businesses needed to support the main businesses. Once the expansion reached the west coast and the 48 states filled up the available land, expansion continued through and across the Pacific Ocean. This expansion included Guam, Wake Island, Marshall Islands, American Samoa, and also included the military overthrow of the sovereign nations of Hawaii and the Philippines. And now buisness corporations work in many different nations at once. These multinational businesses are bigger than countries and operate like a huge weather system over many different countries. More on this in a future article or see the writings of John Perkins.
Sources:
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/28/opinion/sunday/james-madison-racism.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Territorial_evolution_of_the_British_Empire
https://www.vox.com/2019/3/12/18261520/tucker-carlson-media-matters-fox-news-explained
https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/former-british-colonies.html
https://www.britannica.com/place/British-Empire/Dominance-and-dominions
https://course-notes.org/us_history/unit_notes/unit_one_1600_1763/virginia_settlement
https://www.britannica.com/place/British-Empire
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonial_charters_in_the_Thirteen_Colonies
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chartered_company#English_crown_charters
http://www.ushistory.org/gov/2a.asp
https://www.encyclopediavirginia.org/indentured_servants_in_colonial_virginia#start_entry
https://www.pbs.org/opb/historydetectives/feature/indentured-servants-in-the-us/
https://www.stratfordhall.org/educational-resources/teacher-resources/indentured-servants/
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/misguided-focus-1619-beginning-slavery-us-damages-our-understanding-american-history-180964873/
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/pilgrims-progress-135067108/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pilgrims_(Plymouth_Colony)#The_Mayflower_Compact
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayflower_Compact
https://neweradebtsolutions.com/new-world-economics-pilgrims-financed-journey/
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/economy/what-you-didnt-know-about-the-pilgrims-they-had-massive-debt
https://www.thenewamerican.com/culture/history/item/4797-who-funded-the-mayflower
https://www.sj-r.com/article/20131128/NEWS/311289978
https://www.apstudynotes.org/us-history/topics/the-first-english-settlements/
https://course-notes.org/us_history/unit_notes/unit_one_1600_1763/virginia_settlement
https://www.ushistory.org/us/2b.asp
http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/slaveship.htm
https://wwushistory.org/us/2b.asp
https://www.legendsofamerica.com/we-fortlist/
https://www.encyclopediavirginia.org/indentured_servants_in_colonial_virginia#start_entry
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indentured_servitude
https://www.encyclopediavirginia.org/indentured_servants_in_colonial_virginia#start_entry
THE ORIGIN OF AMERICAN ECONOMICS
4. AMERICAN COLONIES AS PART OF ENGLISH GLOBALIZATION
As it turns out, the United States was just one piece of a larger system of global colonization by the English. Additionally, the global expansion of England was just part of an even larger global expansion of the many western European countries from the 1400's through the 1800's. These European countries primarily included England, Spain, France, Portugal, and the Netherlands (Dutch). It should be noted that England and Scotland merged in 1707 to form the country of Great Britain. Great Britain was dominated by the English and thus the words English and British are used interchangeably in terms of colonization.
5. ENGLISH COLONIZATION IS PRIMARILY A BUSINESS VENTURE FOR PROFIT
As mentioned above, colonization of much of the world by the English was done to increase the wealth and influence of the rich business/investor class and to increase the influence of the monarchy. Wealth was increased by monetizing the natural resources of the colonies and by trade with other cultures. Settlers sent back products such as lumber, fur, tobacco, grains, gold, and other produced goods or natural resources to pay off the loans and provide profit for their investors. Once the loans were paid off, the colonial business owners were able to keep some of the profits to increase their own wealth and power.
The Catbird Seat
1. INTRODUCTION
I hear so many things that conflict with what I see and experience. I am told that America is the richest country in the world, yet there is so much poverty. If we are so rich, why are there even any homeless people? Why are there hungry people? I've personally seen two people physically grabbed by security walking out of the grocery store with a bag of food they stole. They were disheveled and hungry when performing this criminal act. I worked with a young man whose daughter got leukemia. He spent so much time with her at the hospital that his paycheck was $180 for two weeks. He did not get any paid leave or health insurance. I can still see the look on his face when he looked at his nearly useless paycheck in a time of need. When I am out on the street, I see so many rough, rough people. When I was young, I was told to get a career so that I wouldn't be poor. I didn't understand why I was told this back then or even for most of my life until lately after much experience and learning. Also, I always thought that if I worked hard at my job and did a very good or even great job, I would be rewarded with advancement in responsibility and more money. Ha! (See the series of articles titled “In the Club”) Maybe sometimes in limited amounts. But mostly just rode hard and put away wet. Why? Why are most employees not paid enough by their employers to be able to meet their basic survival needs? The answer is in the origin of the economic system of the United States. Once we understand the history and the goals of the men who colonized America, we can get a perspective on the present-day situation.
6. LIST OF ENGLISH INVESTMENT COMPANIES AND COLONIES AROUND THE WORLD
A partial list of English investment companies followed by the corresponding English Colonies on each continent or geographical area are presented below.
Mediterranean: Turkey Company, Morocco Company; Gibraltar, Cyprus, Malta, Turkey
Middle East: Euphrates and Tigris Navigation Company; Iraq, Palestine, Arabia, Yemen
Africa: Royal African Company, British East Africa Company, British South Africa Company, Niger Company; Egypt, Sudan, Somalia, Niger, Ghana, Cape Horn (South Africa), Zimbabwe, Zambia
Asia: East India Company; India, Hong Kong, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Burma
Pacific: South Australian Company, New Zealand Company, South Sea Company, Fiji Company; Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Tonga, Papua
Americans and Caribbean: Plymouth Company, Virginia Company, Massachusetts Bay Company, London Company, Hudson's Bay Company; United States of America, Canada, Jamaica, Bahamas, Falkland Islands, British Guiana
These business ventures were supported and protected by the English military. The primary goals of the military were to protect colonists by fighting indigenous groups who resisted invasion; fight competing countries who wanted to colonize the same areas; and to establish and protect trade routes by conquering logistical lands and fighting countries who would block the trade route or steal the trade goods. In this era, this military system was called “Mercantilism”. As stated by Investopedia at https://www.investopedia.com/terms/m/mercantilism.asp , “Under mercantilism, nations frequently engaged their military might to ensure local markets and supply sources were protected, to support the idea that a nation's economic health heavily relied on its supply of capital.“ This is the precursor of much of the modern use of the American military in what today is called “National Interest”. National Interest is the expansion and maintenance of business (trade) to increase the wealth of the club of investors and businessmen.
Clean and Simple.