Chapter 3 – The United States and Canada
- Seminar Q: What explains America's comparatively strong growth performance over the long
run?
Price Fishback:
- US and Canada are endowed with copious amounts of fertile soil and natural resources.
- These areas were lightly populated before they became European colonies
- Due to large migration flows, the US and Canada were able to give people extensive political and
economic freedom, strong protection of property rights and largely unbiased rule of law.
- Educational systems were established first in the 1800s (elementary school) and later secondary
school in the 1900s
o Enabling economic growth and the formation of an organized economy that was
productive and inventive.
Pre-colonial development:
- People lived in relatively small groupings of hunters and gatherers with lifestyles influenced by
their natural environments.
- Useless stuff on literally stone age America
European colonialization:
- First half of the 1600s -> Virginia expands with the production of tobacco using indentured
servants and by increasing the number of slaves aft. 1660.
- South Carolina produced rice using slave labor
- Canada offered fur, timber and fish.
- Over the 1700s -> price fluctuation data indicates an increase in market integration that was
slowed and interrupted whenever wars broke out.
- The structure of the political economy of the colonies and regional differences in the early 1800s
were influenced by the nature of staple production among other factors.
Creating an independent nation with a broad range of economic freedoms:
- English crown regulates colonial activity and trade relatively loosely aft the 7y war.
- Dissatisfaction from the Americans leads to their independence in the late 18 th century
- Bill of rights -> gives the government the right to collect some taxes, engage in foreign policy
and to have dominion over interstate trade
- Under Chief Justice John Marshal, the Supreme Court established the principle of judicial review
of laws created by the legislative and executive branches of the government
o Stroke down attempts of governments to interfere with private contracts and to limit
trade of goods and services across state lines.
- Property requirements for voting were eventually removed.
o Progressive era of the early 1900s -> voting rights given to women; slavery was
eliminated in the 1860s.
- Seminar Q: What explains America's comparatively strong growth performance over the long
run?
Price Fishback:
- US and Canada are endowed with copious amounts of fertile soil and natural resources.
- These areas were lightly populated before they became European colonies
- Due to large migration flows, the US and Canada were able to give people extensive political and
economic freedom, strong protection of property rights and largely unbiased rule of law.
- Educational systems were established first in the 1800s (elementary school) and later secondary
school in the 1900s
o Enabling economic growth and the formation of an organized economy that was
productive and inventive.
Pre-colonial development:
- People lived in relatively small groupings of hunters and gatherers with lifestyles influenced by
their natural environments.
- Useless stuff on literally stone age America
European colonialization:
- First half of the 1600s -> Virginia expands with the production of tobacco using indentured
servants and by increasing the number of slaves aft. 1660.
- South Carolina produced rice using slave labor
- Canada offered fur, timber and fish.
- Over the 1700s -> price fluctuation data indicates an increase in market integration that was
slowed and interrupted whenever wars broke out.
- The structure of the political economy of the colonies and regional differences in the early 1800s
were influenced by the nature of staple production among other factors.
Creating an independent nation with a broad range of economic freedoms:
- English crown regulates colonial activity and trade relatively loosely aft the 7y war.
- Dissatisfaction from the Americans leads to their independence in the late 18 th century
- Bill of rights -> gives the government the right to collect some taxes, engage in foreign policy
and to have dominion over interstate trade
- Under Chief Justice John Marshal, the Supreme Court established the principle of judicial review
of laws created by the legislative and executive branches of the government
o Stroke down attempts of governments to interfere with private contracts and to limit
trade of goods and services across state lines.
- Property requirements for voting were eventually removed.
o Progressive era of the early 1900s -> voting rights given to women; slavery was
eliminated in the 1860s.
