Conceived in Liberty Volume 2 - Ludwig von Mises Institute

subsidies and prizes for silk exported to England; on the other, they required
each hapless settler, as a necessary condition of his claim, to plant at least fifty
mulberry trees on every fifty acres. The silk scheme proved to be a fiasco in
economic planning, despite large-scale propaganda campaigns in behalf of
Georgia's silk. Silkworms could not flourish there and it was uneconomic for
labor to be applied to this commodity.
The humanitarian trustees had absolute confidence in the merits of their dictatorial
power. "The Board (itself) will always do what is right," it had the
gall to resolve unanimously in 1735, "and the people should have confidence
in us." But somehow the settlers proved to be ingrates and continually complained
of their food, land, and equipment. Since they were placed in a position
of forced dependence upon the trustees, they could only better themselves
by begging or demanding from the trustees, rather than each running
his life independently as he saw fit. Furthermore, the prohibition against
liquor was proving unenforceable. One contemporary writer explained that
"as it is the nature of mankind in general, and of the common sort in particular,
more eagerly to desire and more immoderately to use those things which
are most restrained from them, such was the case with respect to rum in
Georgia."
As early as 1738, the trustees were beginning to realize that the whole
experiment was proving to be an abject failure. Their plans were going awry.
The colony was stagnant rather than expanding, and only rising complaints
and protests were greeting their unselfish benevolence. Their humanitarianism
strained to the breaking point, the trustees soon concluded that the poor
"who had been useless in England, were inclined to be useless in Georgia
likewise."
Slowly, grudgingly, the trustees began to relax their power and their fixed
dictatorial plans for the colonists. In 1738, they commenced lessening their
absurd land regulations: females were now permitted to inherit land. In the
succeeding years, childless farmers were permitted to bequeath their lands,
leases were allowed, and the maximum size of holdings was increased to two
thousand acres. Furthermore, quitrents were reduced and soon abolished, and
free exchange of land began to be allowed. But complete private property in
land, including complete freedom to exchange or bequeath, was not permitted
until 1750, when the trustees were preparing to abandon the colony. To the
last, Oglethorpe insisted on the wisdom of the land regulations.
Similarly, in 1742, the trustees, recognizing reality, managed to repeal the
prohibition of liquor, but only over Oglethorpe's violent objections. In 1750,
the trustees submitted to popular pressure, in turn stimulated by South Carolina
slave traders, and permitted Negro slavery in the colony.
But the trustees persisted in their silk folly virtually to the end. In 1751,
the trustees at last allowed a representative assembly—but only to make
suggestions to the trustees—and promptly required that no one could serve on
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