In this chapter we will introduce and start our discussion on migrations, the distinction among American political cultures, and the diffusion of these cultures in Colonial America–to be inherited by the Early Republic.
The deceptively simple assertion that political cultures are essential to understanding American Economic Development and that our initial political cultures formed in response to the various distinctive immigrations into North America during the colonial period. These immigrants then subsequently migrated in a gigantic Big Sort, our First Big Sort, and wound up settling in distinctive configurations in several of our colonies/states. Each of these cultures became developed their particular system of economics and economic activity, the aggregation of which we call economic base. So each colony evolved its own distinctive policy systems and economic bases. Shaped by these policy cultures/economic bases our states (then colonies of course) became dissatisfied for different reasons with their mother country, Britain, fought a War of Independence, for which it formed our first revolutionary and came together under our radical democratic National Government, the Articles of Confederation.
The Colonies in the course of the Revolutionary War had to transform themselves into democratic states (still under the influence of their then-current political cultures), and the net result was thirteen distinctive state policy systems. In the meantime, the Federal Government, starting from scratch, had to install itself, institutionalize, and establish some relationship with the thirteen states. This initial venture was led by the Federalist Party, a composite political grouping of elites, who demanded its creation, wrote the constitution, and then was elected in 1789 to transition from the Articles and jump-start the Early Republic. That didn’t go as planned, however.
Probably the key reason why events departed from plan was the political cultures, expressed through the states and the political representation they elected had fundamental disagreements, which we often label as chasms or fault-lines. These fault-lines hugely affected, shaped and even defined the various versions of American ED that subsequently evolved. Sadly, these fault lines are still evident today. So our first task in this history is to explain and describe these political cultures, how they came to be, and how they shaped the colonial policy systems, and then how they attempted to adapt to the revolutionary democratic principles of the American Revolution, the formation of a National Government, and the Establishment of their First STATE policy system.
Since the catalyst and driver behind much of the formation and diffusion of these political cultures and economic bases was immigration/migration, necessarily our first chapter is focused on three states, Pennsylvania and Philadelphia (birthplace of the American Revolution), Virginia (the political powerhouse that led the Revolution), and Massachusetts (the troublemaker that started it). We will outline the colonial and revolutionary war policy systems/economic bases, their underlying political cultures, and the migrations that created these policy systems and bases.
The reader is alerted to several “realities (as we see them) that are not only important to this chapter–but to the entire history of American ED. Migration has been a constant theme in American development, political, economic and social. They still occur in today, a fact no reader is likely to deny. As we discuss the three large-scale colony migrations that created three distinctive state policy systems and economic bases, the reader might observe that (1) each large scale migration when compared to other state migrations was a Little Sort, and collectively produced our First Big Sort. These three colonies/states were different from the start–and they remain so today. These demographic and culture big and little sorts like hurricanes pack a wallop. They are powerful, dynamic, creative, innovative–and incredibly DISRUPTING. Whatever good they produce, they are a two-edged sword that are hard for policy systems, and individuals to come to grips with. That takes time, and like sausage-making, it ain’t pretty.
As new states formed in Part II, the reader will find that secondary migrations, chain migrations, will occur from each of the principal political cultures. These political cultures will diffuse across the Appalachians, form new states, with their own distinction around the cultural/economic, geographic and temporal dynamics they experience. Each of these new state policy systems (and their component sub-state policy systems) will in their own way be different. Then the process will repeat itself over the next several hundred years. We have fifty states now, working our way to the 51st state of Greenland. Fear not, we will describe each. Just the impactful few. Just be assured as the reader journeys through time, geography and cultural/economic/demographic change that each policy system and culture constructs its own version of ED, that geographic regions for logical reasons then to share these versions to some extent, and economic development approaches, strategies, programs, and tools (like tax abatement, for example) will vary. Economic development “stuff” may share the same name, but trust me (or not), urban renewal in Philadelphia was not urban renewal in Phoenix, and for that matter, whatever program you can think of, they all will vary by state and regions. This stuff we are discussing does matter.
We start with Pennsylvania and Philadelphia
Ron W. Coan 