1623 Privatization of the Plymouth Colony- The Roots of American Capitalism
The Plymouth Plantation while short-lived has a special place in the history American business history. The Plymouth colony of the Pilgrims started in the November of 1620. The Pilgrims were a group of Christian Separatists from the Anglican Church of England that have first moved to Holland, but found little freedom for their religious practices. The Pilgrims had left Holland to obtain freedom of religion, but they were financed by a group of wealthy venture capitalists, which hoped to use them to achieve a profit in the New World. These capitalists were a joint stock known as the Virginia Company of London having a royal charter issued in 1606. The Virginia Company had been behind the failed Jamestown colony, which by 1620 was paying some small dividends with a cash tobacco crop. The Virginia Company hoped for a similar trade profit in New England with furs, fish, and crops. The Pilgrims were considered by the company as indentured servants, although, the Pilgrims did negotiate a profit sharing deal after seven years. They initially argued against communal ownership but were left with no choice. The Pilgrims for their part never viewed themselves as indentured servants but as paying taxes to the company. It was an unclear and disputed vision, but all property was under communal ownership. Even the houses they built were considered communal property and could be reassigned. This initial model of ownership has been called both exploitative capitalism and communism. Contrary to some, the communal pact was not based on their religious beliefs but forced on the Pilgrims by the company. Privatization of property would prove to evolutionary in the colonies.
The Pilgrims came to New England on the Mayflower and Speedwell. In total there were 120 Pilgrims with a smaller group known as the “strangers.” The “strangers” were hired managers of the company, which included Myles Standish as the colony’s military leader and Christopher Martin as Royal Governor. The first year proved the most difficult, arriving in late fall with no growing season left. Nearly half the colonists died the first winter. It was only by the aid of the local Indians that allowed for a solid planting of corn in the spring. They managed to construct a common house for living quarters. William Bradford kept a dairy of the plantation (Of Plymouth Plantation), detailing social breakdown under the communal ownership system. Initially, the Pilgrims were forced to beg and steal from the Indians, but even the first planting and building of houses proved disastrous. Bradford described a culture of “free-riding.” Older, sick, young, and women soon excluded themselves from communal labor. Others tended not to pull their weight under the communal economic model. Even the most able men were soon angered by having to support free riding and reduced their effect. William Bradford decried the communal system as the root of the problem. Bradford noted in hiss dairy: “For the young men, that were the most able and fit for labor and service, did repine that they should spend their time and strength to work for other’s men’s wives and children without any recompense. The strong, or man of parts, had no more division of victuals and clothes than that of the weak and not able to do a quarter the other could; this was thought an injustice.”
The Pilgrims were surely aware of the limited success at Jamestown when the colonists were given a small plot of land to work as their own. By 1621, the Jamestown colony had limited private property but the communal system still required a tax on private earnings and a requirement for communal work of several months a year. Bradford and Plymouth faced a crisis point in the spring of 1623. The colony was down to four adult women and dependent on the Indians for daily survival. Bradford made the decision to fully convert to private property. Bradford reported the amazing success: “For it made all hands industrious. . . . The women now went willingly into the field, and took their little ones with them to set corn; which before would allege weakness and inability.” The new system made the colony profitable and would be the new model for future settlements. The system also proved compatible with their religious beliefs as the colonists give freely of their surplus to help the less fortunate. The model would augur the American system of capitalism and philanthropy. The taxation model of the colony would also be a model for government role in communal needs. Home ownership strengthened and motivated house building in the colony. It would also augur the failure of collectivized agriculture by 20th century communist nations.
