American Capital

How do bonds, coverture, and high commodity prices—along with Abigail Adams & Adam Smith—tie into the development of an early republic? Two visions for the foundation of the American Economy emerge: manufacturing/finance or agriculture. A unique take on the classic debate between Alexander Hamilton vs. Thomas Jefferson.

—

EPISODE MENTIONS

Who: Abigail Adams, Adam Smith, Alexander Hamilton, Boulton and Watt, Charles Beard, Physiocrats, Robert Morris, Thomas Jefferson

What: British Industrial Revolution, Coverture, Financial Costs of American Revolution, Newcomen Atmospheric Engine, Shay's Rebellion, Spinning Jenny, The Invisible Hand, Water Frame, Watt Steam Engine

Documents: "Abigail Adams, Bond Speculator", "An Economic Interpretation of The Constitution of The United States", "The First Report on Public Credit (1789)", "The Report on Manufactures"

Revolution and freedom hold different meanings to different people, and the history of the colonial world is no exception. This episode of American Capital explores the impact of the Transatlantic Slave Trade through data: how large it truly was, and what it looked like to those involved first-hand.

Along the way, we tie together the Haitian Revolution—arguably the only successful revolt of enslaved people in the New World—and the American Revolution. Ultimately asking: was there an "Age of Revolutions" occurring around the world, and were all of these fought under a common definition of "freedom?"

—

EPISODE MENTIONS

Who: Aaron Lopez, Charles Leclerc, Jean-Jacques Dessalines, John Hancock, Joseph Miller, Napolean Bonaparte, Robert Paul Thomas, Thomas Jefferson, Toussaint Louverture

What: American Declaration of Independence, American Revolution, Dunmore's Proclamation, Haitian Declaration of Independence, Haitian Revolution, Louisiana Purchase, Navigation Acts, Stamp Act (1765), Slave Ship Brookes, Slave Ship Creole, Slave Ship Sally, Slave Ship Zong, Transatlantic Slave Trade

Where: British West Indies, Colonial Brazil, Haiti (Saint-Domingue), Indian Ocean, Middle Passage, The Thirteen Colonies, West Africa

Documents: "A Quantitative Approach to the Study of the Effects of British Imperial Policy Upon Colonial Welfare", SlaveVoyages.org, Voyage of the Slave Ship Sally

Early sugar plantations as industrial factories. The origin—and the first hints at challenges—to the conventional story of race-based slavery in the Americas. New England emerges both as a conduit for British trade in the Atlantic & as the potential nexus of a new theology: Capitalism.

—

EPISODE MENTIONS

Who: Benjamin Franklin, Captain John Smith, John Cotton, John Rolfe, John Winthrop, Max Weber, Puritans, Richard Lother, Robert Keayne, Thomas Hancock

What: Barbados Slave Rebellion (1692), Calvinism, Indentured Servants, Massachusetts Bay Colony, Muscovado Sugar, Protestantism, Slavery (general), Sugarcane, Sugarcane Mill/Processing, Virginia Company

Where: Barbados, Chesapeake Bay, Colonial Virginia, Jamaica, New England Colonies

Documents: "On the Just Price," "Advice to a Young Tradesmen"

Mercantilism as a frame of mind and tool for the expansion of empire. A more accurate representation of Native Americans, this time as savvy trading partners, and a revision of who had the upper hand in the early British Atlantic.

—

EPISODE MENTIONS 

Who: Algonquin Peoples, Christopher Columbus, John McCusker, Richard Dunn, The Hudson's Bay Company, The Royal African Company, The Dutch East India Company, The Virginia Company

Where: The Azores, Madeira, The Canary Islands, Hudson Bay, Colonial New England

What: Mercantilism, The Triangular Trade, Joint Stock Companies, Fur Trade, Beaver, Three Sister's Agriculture, Earmarks, Usufruct Property Rights

Documents: "July 14th, 1703. Prices of Goods," "Hudson's Bay Factor Orders Merchandise... (1739) [read with free account]" 

Our first podcast episode! We discuss what we'll be covering in American Capital: the people we'll talk about, the timeline, and where it all takes place. (Hint: America—and the "British Atlantic.")

—

EPISODE MENTIONS

Where: British Atlantic, British West Indies, Lowell Mills, Pawtucket Mills, Monticello

What: 12 Years a Slave, National Negro Business League, Ford Motor Company, General Motors, United Fruit Company, Tupperware, Glencore, The Intermodal Shipping Container, Enron, Facebook