The Roots of Industrialization, 1607–1860

Abstract

From the time the first settlers arrived on America’s east coast, government has shaped and often led the nation’s economic development. Although the economy remained largely agrarian throughout the two and a half centuries from Jamestown’s settlement to the Civil War’s eve, the colonial and later federal governments imposed an array of measures that usually promoted and sometimes impeded entrepreneurship.¹ Then as today, the government developed the economy by, among other strategies, issuing corporate charters, imposing laws, collecting taxes, procuring goods and services, and protecting industries from foreign trade.