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COMMUNICATION ENVOYÉE

D . J. S tru ik

THE INFLUENCE OF MERCANTILISM ON COLONIAL SCIENCE IN AMERICA I ♦ Settlem ent of N orth America w as contem porary w ith th e gradual establishm ent in W estern Europe of a m ercantile society, in which an early capitalism was developing a s th e dom inant form of economy. Encouraged by the w eakening of th e Spanish an d P ortuguese em pires, and growing in power at home, influential sections of th e haute bour­ geoisie became engaged in th e chartering of monopolies for trad e overseas. O ften th e crow n itself was interested, an d so w ere those feudal lords who w ere w illing to stoop from land to money. A nd it occurred to the shareholders in these monopolies th a t their purpose could best be served b y the settling of colonies. Once a colony was established, on th e St. Lawrence, th e New England coast, on th e Hudson riv er o r in Virginia, tirade could flourish through fisheries, trapping, th e growing of cash crops an d the cutting of tim ber, -and perhaps m ining. The w eakened condition of th e once flow ering A frican countries m ade it possible to introduce N egro slaves w here Indians w ere driven out. A nother source of labour w ere indentured w hite servants. There was also free labour, especially in th e N orthern colonies, and in th e cities w ere craftsm en and artisans. Along th e coast ship­ building developed. Those Europeans who- survived th e first agonies of snow, scurvy, starvation and w arfare w ere a stu rd y lot, o ften led by highly intelligent and cu ltu red men. They succeeded in building stable social structures in close im itation of th e ir homeland, w ith those changes which th e conditions of the new country imposed. The grow th of th e settlem ents was unequal. The B ritish colonies, based on agriculture and shipping an d th e destruction of th e Indians, grew as a ru le m uch faster and were m ore stable th a n th e F rench colonies, m ainly based on the fu r trad e (in which th e Indians functioned as despised partners). Towns of considerable im portance developed, ORGANON, 1064

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such as Quebec, Boston, Newport, New York, Philadelphia, Charleston, but even at th e end of ithe X V IIIth cen tu ry en estim ated nine te n th of the population w as engaged in agriculture, accompanied b y fu r tra d e on the frontier. The bu lk of the products, fur, grains, tobacco, o r cattle was for th e local as w ell as the European m arket. W hether you w ere an Indian on the frontier, a corn or hog raiser on the Connecticut, a p lan ter in Virginia or even a Spanish rancher on th e Rio Grande, you w orked for th e sale of your products. The w ealthy m erchant in th e coastal tow n traded in the commodities of the whole world, not excepted hum an beings. A favorite sport w as la n d speculation. At first, foreign trad e and colonization in England, France and Hol­ land was ^carried out b y p rivate monopolies ch artered by the state. W ith the consolidation of the states into pow erful bureaucratic organisms, m aintained by system atic taxation, these states began them selves to assume th e character of monopolies in ten t on squeezing each other from the m ark ets of th e w orld. Trade policies became of param ount im­ portance. In th is system of competing bureaucratic states,, ru n toy mo­ neyed interests, already honeycom bed w ith capitalistic elements, m uch of the directness of personal relationships, typical of th e feudal period, was lost. A n abstract theory of m ercantile enterprise began to crystalize, political economy an d statistics w ere born an d w ith it m ercantilism developed as a theory and as a practice. Not only in th e sphere of trad e policies an d industrial enterprise abstract relationships tended to supersede direct personal contact. W ar­ fare, from the point of view of statesm anship, became more and more an alm ost im personal factor in the' w hole gam e of 'empire building. The science of nature, encouraged by th e m ercantile classes, became also more abstract and im personal. The ancient teleology m ade room for causality, emphasis on quality gave w ay to' emphasis on quantity, an d the p u re description of living things was replaced b y m ore rigorous classification. Instead of th e speculative philosophy of th e ancient m asters came the precision of m athem atics, and w ith it a m echanical description of nature.

II The m ercantilist policy, which became th e guiding light of th e European statesm en of this period, was based, in th e main, on th e acqui­ sition of bullion b y trad e. To reach th is goal m ore had to be sold abroad than im ported, and this could be obtained by th e expansion of foreign trade. This foreign trad e led to the so-called “balance of trad e”, w hich dom inated economic thinking. The best export w as th a t of m anufac­ tu red goods, the best im port th at of raw m aterials since such im port

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had th e effect of stim ulating home m anufactures and w ith this again export. - This emphasis of trad e over m anufacture, th is m ethod of considering industries prim arily as a m eans of obtaining bullion through m ercan tile activity w as indicative of th e ru d im en tary stage of in d u stry even in th e countries 'with the m ost advanced capitalism. As W illiam P e tty w rote in the XVIIth century: “There is m ore to be gained by M anufacture th an Iby H usbandry, and by M erchandise m ore th a n by M anufacture”. Industrial production w as seen as a necessity for th e circulation of goods ra th e r than, as in th e fully developed capitalism of la te r days, circula­ tion as a necessity fo r the production of goods. Colonies, in the eye of th e “m other” country, th u s existed for o n e purpose only, and th a t was as sources of raw m aterial to advance th e balance of trade. If gold and silver could n o t be pressed im m ediately out of the soil or of the native population, th en other metails, or fu rsr or tim ber, o r staples like tobacco, indigo and fish had to ta k e th e ir place. W hatever m ight have been th e personal m otives of the actual colonial founders, w hether pirates, m erchants, or religious leaders, they w ere hardly m aterial to the policy m akers att home, o r a t most of secondary im portance as long as th e revenue came in. A w hole series of m easures attem pted prevention of th e grow th of colonial m anufactures, another series encouraged th e o utput of raw m aterials an d the channeling o f the export and im port into th e ships an d p o rts of th e m other co u n try . It is am azing to discover how m any m anufactures still m anaged to exist under colonial rule, especially in Pennsylvania. _

III

The science of th e m ercantilist epoch reflects in form and co n ten t the dom inant traits of its economy an d the attitu d e of th e haute bour­ geoisie, th e m erchant patriciate an d ithose feudal, absolutist an d clerical elem ents which w ere w illing to support m ercantilism . This new class, full of confidence, looked to science for su p p o rt in its quest for th e domination of n atu re an d th e prom otion of invention useful for its ends. This new science w as based on the new m echanical philosophy, an d this again w as based on m athem atics. The m ain participating countries were England, France an d Holland, w here the new com m ercial-capitalist classes w ere able to struggle for a dom inant position. Since th ey w ere also the m ain colonizing countries in Eastern N orth America, th e influence of the new philosophy can also be traced here, if only w ith a lag in intensity. In th e leading countries wihole new (sciences sprang into being, and others like astronom y w ere fundam entally changed. In th e wake of thds transform ation, b u t m ore slow ly and w eaker in its revolutionary effect, came a new flow ering

D. J. S truik

of th e sciences connected w ith m inerals, anim als an d plants, as w ell as anatom y an d medicine. Much of this scientific development was stim ulated by th e necessities of foreign trade. Since shipping constituted the very backbone of this trade, we see exceptional atten tio n paid to th e sciences an d techniques which bear on transoceanic navigation, o r which are influenced b y it in th e ir turn. Thus w e find a deep in terest paid to astronom y, mechanics, calculus, certain branches of physics such as optics and magnetism, to cartography an d in stru m en t making. This is, of course, not to say th a t th e requirem ents of navigation w ere th e only, o r even th e principal, factors stim ulating th e exact sciences during this era, We have already observed how quantitative thinking perm eated th e whole of “n atu ral philosophy”. B ut w henever w e look into th e m otives of th e scientists and those of th e princes and other m agistrates w ho patronized -their work, we find great atten tio n paid to the needs of navigation in peace and w ar. We need only th in k of the foundation of Greenwich observatory in 1676 and the observatory at P aris (1666—71), of th e experim ents of H uy­ gens on pendulum clocks, or of sections of N ew ton’s Principia, to see the influence of the needs of navigation on scientific endeavour. It w as also quite n atu ral in a system w hich dem anded the production of raw m aterials in foreign countries th a t n atural history began to flourish. A lthough th e accounts of th e trav ellers o ften expressed the am azem ent of th e authors a t seeing bison®, hum m ing birds (calibris), rattlesnakes or cactus, th e y alw ays stressed th e u tilitarian aspect of th eir discoveries. Even a p urely scientific characterization of a p lan t or anim al seldom om its th e use o r potential use of its object. The settlers them selves did not only look for useful n ativ e plants or animals, but also im ported those of Europe an d Asia which m ight th riv e in th eir p a rt of the New World. The n atu ralists of those days w ere never very far from th e farm , th e h u nt, or th e garden. / U tilitarian science, however, cannot stand on its own legs w ithout deteriorating. It has to branch o u t into domains w here usefulness b e­ comes secondary an d finally im m aterial. The scientific m ind begins to desire understanding for its own sake, an d its instinct is healthy, since only in this w ay can deeper levels of tru th be reached. N autics and geography need theoretical m athem atics, optics an d astronom y. A gricul­ tu re and stock-breeding also need disinterested research, to which gardening adds its own share. This tre n d can lead to great achievem ents w hen th ere exists a ruling class m aster of sufficient su rp lu s and leisure to cultivate th e sciences for their ow n sake and to' establish academ ies and gardens staffed w ith expert m en of science. Such conditions w ere em inently realized in the Europe of th e colonizing period, and also began to prevail in sąch cities as Philadelphia an d Boston. W ealthy am ateurs, virtuosi and academic­

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ians vied w ith philosophers and instrum ent m akers in attacking n a tu re ’s secrets. Yet, despite all this search for knowledge, m ercantilist science never for long lost sight of its practical aspects, especially in the colonies. In some w ay o r another we are alw ays aw are of th e balance of trad e behind th e science of the period. IV W hen w e study colonial science we are stru ck by its dependence on th e home country, be it France, G reat B ritain or Spain, as w ell as by the accuracy in w hich it fits into th e ra th e r n arro w fram e in to which we have trie d to place m ercantilist science. Science in Europe, grow ing o u t of medieval and ancient theories and practices under a host of different 'national, philosophical an d religious traditions, had m any facets w hich for th e ir understanding need m ore th a n an economic form ula alone. The form ula, however, appears sufficient to grasp th e ch aracter o f m ost colonial science. A considerable am ount of it can be classified a;s “N ew tonian” and “Lm naean”, notably in th e X V IIIth century, although th e w ork of th e geographers and th e plan t 'collectors of th e previous century leads up to it. X V IIIth cen tu ry astronom ers in America lived and died w ith th e ir Newton, and Ithose