20.10.2014 Views

building the american landscape - Univerza v Novi Gorici

building the american landscape - Univerza v Novi Gorici

building the american landscape - Univerza v Novi Gorici

SHOW MORE
SHOW LESS

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.

Agricultural America<br />

The English colonial period had seen <strong>the</strong> affirmation of a mercantilist system, based<br />

on <strong>the</strong> commercial exchanges by sea between <strong>the</strong> homeland and <strong>the</strong> new lands.<br />

Thanks to <strong>the</strong> shipping companies, this merchant system had had a success over <strong>the</strong><br />

years, based on a structure of subordination of <strong>the</strong> colonization policies 27 to this<br />

particular scheme.<br />

The machine of economic development in <strong>the</strong> territory also assisted to a certain<br />

extent <strong>the</strong> exploitation and <strong>the</strong> exports of primary, natural resources on <strong>the</strong> model<br />

of <strong>the</strong> <strong>the</strong>ories of economists such as Thomas Mun 28 . With Independence (1776),<br />

following <strong>the</strong> end of <strong>the</strong> revolutionary years (1775‐1783), <strong>the</strong> mercantilist system<br />

was quickly put to one side in favour of economic models intended to avoid <strong>the</strong><br />

exploitation and impoverishment of internal resources.<br />

The demands for change and <strong>the</strong> studies aiming to search for a possibility of<br />

economic reform were outlined by Alexander Hamilton, a conservative politician<br />

nominated first U.S. Secretary of <strong>the</strong> Treasury (in office from 1789 to 1795) by<br />

Washington. Hamilton was at first committed to drafting two Reports on <strong>the</strong> Public<br />

Credit (1790) and to reorganizing <strong>the</strong> tax and public debt systems. Then he fought<br />

to establish a national central bank called <strong>the</strong> First Bank of <strong>the</strong> United State, which<br />

was approved by Congress in 1791 after lengthy controversies by Thomas Jefferson<br />

and James Madison, who saw in <strong>the</strong> central bank <strong>the</strong> consolidation of a restricted<br />

group of investors at <strong>the</strong> expense of <strong>the</strong> majority of <strong>the</strong> population.<br />

Besides, Jefferson’s idea of an America committed to agriculture, fired by <strong>the</strong><br />

revolutionary ideals of <strong>the</strong> newly‐born Republic and described in <strong>the</strong><br />

aforementioned Notes on <strong>the</strong> State of Virginia (1785), was soon undermined by <strong>the</strong><br />

technological revolution, which highlighted how backward <strong>the</strong> agricultural system<br />

of <strong>the</strong> South of <strong>the</strong> United States had been since <strong>the</strong> years following <strong>the</strong> Civil War<br />

(1861‐1865).<br />

27 Think of <strong>the</strong> Virginia Act of 1622, The Town Act of 1662 and subsequent measures during <strong>the</strong><br />

colonial years<br />

28 Thomas Mun (1571‐1641) His works: A discourse of Trade from England unto East Indies (1621)<br />

and England’s Treasure by Foreign Trade (published in 1664 by his son)<br />

21

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!