David Yusupov
HIS 3410
Spring 2022
Professor Griffin
Response #1
Trade is an important function of a country’s economy. People have been trading in every system imaginable from simple bartering, to mercantilism, to socialism, all the way to modern day capitalism. Unfortunately though, throughout history, countries have engaged in rather barbarous or unethical methods to gain resources to trade with. Walter Friedman’s American Business History paints a picture of the suffering that native populations went through because of colonization. What was interesting was the figures, for example in the 15th century there were 50 to 100 million natives living in America, by 1800 though there were only 600,000 Native Americans lived throughout the U.S.A. and Canada. This was very informative because I know that the population has decreased however I did not know to what extent.
Another thing that I was not aware of was trading companies like the Muscovy Company. I found this interesting because I was not aware that Russia was involved with New World trading except for the fact that I knew that they had colonized Alaska. What also was interesting to me was that an American company was involved in fur trading, I was always under the assumption that that was exclusively a French dominated trade.
One question I had while reading this was with regards to the printing press and its role in the American War for Independence. I understand that the press frequently published pro-patriot material, however I wish that the author had mentioned what the British may or may not have done to squash these pieces from circulating, after all wouldn’t that be a natural reaction given that the British would not want the colonists to secede?
An event that stuck out to me was the immigration from England to the colonies beginning with the 7 years war. This stuck out to me because I connected it with what I know about men like Thomas Jefferson and his non-interventionist foreign policy. Many immigrated to the colonies to escape the constant wars of Europe and the framers had that in mind when they had constructed the constitution and their approaches to foreign policy. I also found the demographics that arrived, specifically the Germans. The reason why the Germans are interesting is that as far as I know, life in Germany was rather good for the most part. I cannot imagine that a German/Austrian would wish to trade that for the agrarian lifestyle of America.
You make some astute observations and raise interesting questions here, but–perhaps because of the nature of the Friedman reading–your post jumps from point to point and lacks focus. I would like to see you engage with one of the denser readings next time, since I get the sense that you are capable of more!