southern colonies

Let's start with English . . . Why were the southern colonies very important to Great Britain in 1600-1700?

Now, let's try some history. In 1600, there were no colonies. The first English colony in North America was at Roanoke Island, but the colonists there disappeared. The next colony was Jamestown, 1607. Virginia would eventually become important through the exploitation of the mercantile system, and just plain theft by the London business agents of Virginia tobacco growers. The mercantile system meant that colonial goods could only be shipped in British ships, and sold in British markets. The colonists of North America outside Virginia and Maryland largely evaded mercantilism through the simple expedient of smuggling. Mercantilism meant that Britain could enforce its customs duties, which were often ruinous for small businessmen. In New England, that meant that it was only profitable to buy molasses in the West Indies and turn into rum if they first smuggled in the molasses (to evade the duties) and then smuggled the rum they made from it into England or illegally sold it in Holland or France.

But there was no significant effort to smuggle tobacco. By and large, British ships came to pick up the tobacco. Unlike the coast line north of Maryland, the southern coast offered a series of rivers and streams which allowed small ships to sail right up to the large plantations, almost all of which had their own docks on the property. It was so easy for the large planters to accept the low price, and the shoddy goods they were sold, because then all they had to do was grow the tobacco and have it ready for the ships when they came. Small planters got along by taking a discount and selling their crop to the large planters--which was different from the rum smugglers of New England who were all small time operators. Smuggling allowed them to make a good profit. So their economy depended on smuggling rum into England and the rest of Europe, buying cheap trade goods with which they purchased slaves in West Africa. They would then transport the slaves to the West Indies, where they would buy molasses which they then smuggled into New England to turn into rum.

Tobacco, though, was a very, very rich product, so all the British had to do was cheat the growers in Virginia and Maryland (which they routinely did) to make a great deal of money. They cheated them at both ends. They paid them a ridiculously low price for their tobacco, compared to what it was worth in Europe, and they sold them cheap, poor quality manufactured goods from England at larcenously high prices. (C.f. George Washington's determination to stop growing tobacco as reported in D. S. Freeman's famous biography.) The southern coast line facilitated this, as i've already pointed out because the buyers did the shipping, unlike New England, where the smugglers ran the entire operation themselves.

It would help to have more context about your assignment, because the time line is rather odd. In 1600, there were no colonies. All of the North American coast was called the Virginia colony in honor of Elizabeth, the "Virgin Queen." She died in 1603, when there still were no successful colonies, and so the first successful colony in North America was at Jamestown, named for the King who succeeded Elizabeth on the throne. Some individuals had established rough settlements on the northern coast in what became Massachusetts, and Puritan "refugees" later landed in 1620. A commercial company was formed in 1623 to ship fish to England, and in 1628, it was taken over by a chartered company called the New England company. This became the Massachusetts Bay Company.

In 1625, James died and was succeeded by his son Charles. There arguably was never such a pig-headed, mulish, stubborn King in England. He was in conflict almost from the beginning of his reign. In 1628, he prorogued Parliament, which means he sent them home and ruled with a Parliament. Things went from bad to worse, with royal decrees first forbidding anyone to take money out of England unless they had a royal permit, and then forbidding anyone to leave England at all without permission. Some people evaded these rules, others joined the growing opposition to Charles. In 1630, the Massachusetts Bay Company sent John Winthrop to Massachusetts with the company charter in his possession, and the determination to establish a Puritan colony there. The Virginia Company had gone bankrupt, so a royal governor had been sent out, but there was no royal governor in Massachusetts, on the idiotic assumption that it was still all Virginia. In 1639, Charles was forced by his poverty to convene Parliament, which immediately ignored his agenda, and began to argue about religion. He sent them home, called for new elections and got the Long Parliament in 1640. By 1642, a civil war had started between King and Parliament. The North American colonies had gotten scant attention before that, and they were forgotten altogether in the civil wars. At that time, there were just four colonies and some independent ventures. Maryland and Virginia in the south, and Massachusetts in the north, along with the Hampshire Grants, which became New Hampshire. Roger Williams had established a colony which became Rhode Island, but it had not been established as a royal colony. Some settlers from Massachusetts had set up in what is now Connecticutt, but there was not yet a royal colony. What became New York and New Jersey was in the hands of the Dutch, the New Holland colony. The Swedes had set up a colony in what became Delaware, but Sweden and Holland got into a commercial war, and the Dutch took the Swedish colony in North America. The Dutch lost those colonies to the English at the end of the third Anglo-Dutch war in the 1670s.

So the only southern colonies for most of the 17th century were Maryland and Virginia. They relied on tobacco, which made a lot of money for the rather unscrupulous merchants of London. After the end of civil wars in England (1651), Oliver Cromwell became the Lord Protector (king in all but name). He died in 1658, and was succeeded by his weak and indecisive son, Richard, who soon ran away (the English called him "Tumbledown Dick.") In 1660, the son of King Charles I, who had had his cut off in January, 1649, came back to England and became King Charles II. He and his brother James owed a lot of money and favors. First, they owed 15,000 pounds to Admiral William Penn, an enormous sum of money in those days. The Brother of the king, James, had taken the Dutch colonies in the third Anglo-Dutch War. He was known as the Duke of York, which is why New Holland became New York. He had basically claimed everything between Massachusetts and Maryland, and in 1628, he handed over the last of his land claims to his brother Charles, who gave most of it to William Penn, the son of the admiral, who established the colony known as Pennsylvania.

Although a charter had been issued in 1629 for a colony south of Virginia, to be known as Carolina in honor of King Charles I (who was chronically broke and would sell just about anything which didn't cost him anything), that colony was never established. When his son became King Charles II, he wanted to repay all the people who had supported his father in the civil wars. So a new charter was issued to a Mr. Ashley-Cooper, the Earl of Shaftesbury, with the understanding that he would hand out parcels of land to the loyal followers of King Charles I. This became North and South Carolina. South Carolina became economically important because of two crops--rice and indigo. The rice was sold in the West Indies for the planters to use to feed their slaves. The indigo was a very important crop for making dyes used in England's textile industry. North Carolina was nto economicall important at all before 1700. Georgia did not exist in 1700.

So, the reference to the period 1600-1700 doesn't make a lot of sense to me. None of the southern colonies were very important in the English economy--except Virginia, and then only briefly before the civil wars started in 1642--before the 1670s. Georgia did not exist at all, and there were no successful colonies in North America before 1607--even then, the colonists only hung on by the skin of their teeth, with about 90% dead each year for the first five years. It wasn't until John Rolfe brought in some smuggled tobacco seed from Trinidad in 1612 that the tobacco monoculture was started and that took a while to get off the ground. By the time it did, King James was dead, and King Charles was squabbling with Parliament.

The North American colonies only became economically important to England at the end of the 1600s.

That was a good read, Set.

Thank you. This member is now asking more questions about the economic system in the American South (one assumes in colonial times). I won't be answering--there is a certain point at which this joker has to do his own homework.

Right on.