Maddie Piotrowski
March 20, 2014
Professor Miller Business in Colonial America The Colonial American system of business practices did not start at the birth of the nation. Many practices developed by the budding country were adopted from other, well established countries. As many Colonial Americans immigrated from Great Britain, many business practices came from a British descent. However, the business world in the early formation of the United States did not begin with the practices of fifthteenth century Europe.
Thousands of years before the colonies were formed, business was being modeled in shaped by earlier economic systems.
Beginning in the fifth century, feudalism was the main economic model used by society. Feudalism is defined as a system in which nobility gave the ability to work the nobel land and military protection to those of a lesser status, known as serfs. Within a feudal system, central government power was weakened by the landowning nobility that dominated over the land they controlled. Typically, formal contracts were not used to bind the serfs to their landlords. Bonds that lead to hereditary allegiances kept the feudal system together.
Bartering was the main source of economic activity. The exchange of goods was typically confined to small geographical areas, however some larger surplus trade took place outside of immediate areas. Feudalism frequented most of Northern Europe, yet did not take hold in
Italy. The need for the feudal system did not grow out of economic need; rather than the need for wide protection and loyalty to past tradition.
Following the wide spread of the feudal system, mercantilism arose. Mercantilism allowed the feudal system to die out while increasing the power a nation had over its people.
Compared to feudalism, governmental policies became stricter and established foreign trade

policies that did not exist during the foreign system. Mainly, this new doctrine allowed the government to benefit from the commerce conducted, whereas in the feudal system, trade was much more individually based. Mercantilism allowed for the formation of the American colonies, as expansion would lead to untouched resources that could benefit the colonizing country, Great Britain. The policies of this system focused on the need to export more than importing and focused military power to protecting trade. Many laws during the height of mercantilism, from 1500 to 1800, were created in order to protect those would utilised the
system.