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102 PERIOD 2 Colonial America amid Global Change: 1607–1754

A View of Charleston, South
Carolina (c. 1760s) This
These sample pages are distributed by Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishers.
eighteenth-century oil
painting by English artist
Thomas Mellish offers a
view of Charleston harbor,
c. 1760s. A ship flying an
Copyright (c) 2024 Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishers.
English flag sails in the
foreground. The other ships
and small boats along with
Strictly for use with its products. NOT FOR REDISTRIBUTION.
the substantial buildings
surrounding the harbor
reflect Charleston’s status as
one of the main commercial
centers of the North
American colonies. © Ferens Art Gallery/Bridgeman Images
Based on this painting,
how did the English view
colonial cities?

REVIEW

■ In what ways was mercantilism both a continuation of and a change in
British policies toward its North American colonies?

Mercantilism Changes
Colonial Societies

Despite the increasing regulation, American colonists could own British ships and transport
goods produced in the colonies. Indeed, by the mid-eighteenth century, North American
merchants oversaw 75 percent of the trade in manufactures sent from Bristol and London
to the colonies and 95 percent of the trade with the West Indies. Ironically, then, a system
established to benefit Great Britain ended up creating a mercantile elite in its North Amer-
ican colonies. Most of those merchants traded in goods, but some traded in human cargo.
The Atlantic slave trade generated enormous wealth for colonial elites like merchants,
investors, and plantation owners. These funds helped turn North American seaport cities
into thriving urban centers. North American seaports such as Charleston, with their ele-
gant homes, fine shops, and lively social seasons, captured the most dynamic aspects of
colonial life. Just as important, communities that were once largely rural — like Salem, Mas-
sachusetts, and Wilmington, Delaware — grew into thriving commercial centers in the late
seventeenth century. Although cities like New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and
Charleston contained less than 10 percent of the colonial population, they served as focal
points of economic, political, social, and cultural activity during the eighteenth century.
consumer revolution Affluent urban families created a consumer revolution in North America. Changing
A process during the patterns of consumption challenged traditional definitions of status. Less tied to birth and
seventeenth and eighteenth family pedigree, status in the colonies became more closely linked to financial success and a
centuries through which refined lifestyle. Successful British men of humble origins and even those of Dutch, Scottish,
status in the colonies French, and Jewish heritage might join the British-dominated colonial gentry.
became more closely linked
to financial success and a While some certainly worried about the concentration of wealth in too few hands,
refined lifestyle rather than most colonial elites in the early eighteenth century happily displayed their profits. Leading
birth and family pedigree. merchants in Boston, Salem, New York, and Philadelphia copied British styles and built fine
dwellings that had separate rooms for sleeping, eating, and entertaining guests. Mercantile

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