March 2010
14 posts
Page 31, Chapter 5: Colonial Commerce, Economic...
In the seventeenth century communication was entirely a private matter; news traveled by mouth or through letters. The first American newspaper was the Boston News Letter, founded in 1704. Delivery of mail was slow and uncertain, and before 1681 there was no organised agency for carrying the mail. At first the postal service was run as a private enterprise, but in 1710 an imperial postal system...
Page 28, Chapter 4: Production In Colonial...
British colonial policy was a form of economic nationalism quite common in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The colonies were expected to be a source of needed supplies, and to be an outlet for British manufactured goods. The policy included measures for (1) the encouragement and protection of home manufacturing, (2) the encouragement of colonial production of raw materials and primary...
Page 26, Chapter 4: Production In Colonial...
Because of the difficulties of travel and transport, colonists settled on the coast and along navigable rivers. By 1775 the population had not moved far beyond the fall line of the eastern rivers; only a few frontier men had ventured beyond the Appalachian Mountains. The population of the leading cities in 1775 is estimated as follows: Philadelphia, 40,000; New York, 28,000; Boston, 20,000;...
Pages 24-25, Chapter 4: Production In Colonial...
Agriculture was the leading occupation of colonial America, but there was some primitive industry. Industrial progress was slow, however, because of capital and labor shortages and British restrictions. The British encouraged the production of raw materials and primary manufactures, but they discouraged the manufacture of finished products.
Pages 8-9, Chapter 2: The European Background of...
Modern capitalism was born largely as a result of accumulation of wealth from increased trade. Surplus capital was used to open new trade routes, to subsidize nation-states, and to exploit the New World. In order to combine resources and to obtain greater protection against pirates, robbers, and unfriendly princes, merchants organized joint-stock companies (partnerships in which each partner was...
Page 7, Chapter 2: The European Background of...
On the eve of the discovery of America, western Europe was going through a great transition period wherein medieval institutions were being transformed into early modern institutions. There were profound changes in every sphere of life - political, social, intellectual, religious, and economic.
Politically, the nation-state system replaced feudal localism. Socially, free society developed, and a...
Page 164, Chapter Seven - The Demands of Love,...
After completing my education and returning to India I myself felt strongly the poverty of our language. I began to tell my colleagues that till such time as our children read science in the same language in which their mothers sing them lullabies, the outlook of our people can never become scientific. They will simply have that knowledge of science that one needs for worldly advantage. However,...
Pages 111 and 112, Chapter Four - The West...
There is a history behind this strange tradition. In England in the Middle Ages, surgery was not considered an honourable profession. On the same pattern as the Arabs the practice of bleeding the patient was common. However, barbers carried out this and the task of dressing the wounds with ointments. The Arabs were the first to classify surgery as a science. Abul Qasim Zahrawi’s was the first book...
Pages 83 and 84, Chapter Three - Calcutta...
The division between Hindus and Muslims was more severe in Bengal than in any other part of India. The reason was that within a few years of the destruction of the power of Siraj-ud-Doula of Bengal by the English, Lord Cornwalli’s Permanent Settlement policy also deprived the Muslim landlords of their land. It was handed over to Hindu financiers and the Muslims fell into poverty. Also, because in...
Pages 73 and 74, Chapter Three - Calcutta...
During the war, the Indian capitalists had accumulated such wealth that now they wanted to take complete political power. Their political party, the Indian National Congress, was so strong and so well organised that no other party in the country could challenge its power except the Muslim League. One major reason for its agreeing to accept partition was the calculation that once Muslim League was...
Page 18, Chapter One - The Beginning, Nasim...
There was absolutely nothing settled about what would be the shape of things in India once independence was achieved. Also the Muslims had developed such fervour in the name of Islam that their fellow countrymen began to feel that perhaps they wanted to re-establish something like the Pathan or Mughal rule in India, although the Muslims themselves did not know what their aim was. The urge for...
“Later English colonization was dominated by the proprietary form of government....”
– Pages 17-18, Chapter 3: The Colonization of North America, Economic History of the United States, by Francis G. Walett, (Barnes & Noble, Inc.), 1954, New York.
“Interested promoters sometimes organized joint-stock companies for the purpose...”
– Pages 15, Chapter 3: The Colonization of North America, Economic History of the United States, by Francis G. Walett, (Barnes & Noble, Inc.), 1954, New York.
“Early American economic life can be understood only when considered as a...”
– Pages 11, Chapter 3: The Colonization of North America, Economic History of the United States, by Francis G. Walett, (Barnes & Noble, Inc.), 1954, New York. 