Which of the thirteen colonies were founded for profit and trade?

Answer 1

Who established what colony will give you a better understanding of the causes and motivation for colonies in the new world. The American mainland colonies were established for different reasons. For example there is a fundamental difference between Massachusetts Bay and Plimoth Plantation. Virginia differs greatly from New Amsterdam, (New York), and while Maryland (Mary Land) was a refuge for Catholics, Providence plantation was a refuge for Jews. While commercial was a pursuit and a benefit, adventurers went to the New World in search of glory and riches, giving up 1/5 of all gold and silver to the Crown. Colonization was said to be a priority and important for the second coming of The Christ, and lastly it would seem Americans were being raised to be a nation of customers.

The Charters to the colonies in particular state that for example: the colonial charters of Sir Walter Raleigh, the first and second charters of Virginia, explicitly state that all and any would be "persons native to England," "every their children and posterity;... for all intents and purposes, as if they had been abiding and born within this our realm of England." As to law and liberty the earliest legal right of an English colonist was to remain English. An example of this faith is seen in the Proceedings of the Virginia Assembly, in 1619 and stated in no uncertain terms: "because this great Charter is to bind us and our heirs forever...." In the Charters to: Sir Walter Raleigh, March 25, 1584, #5, 6; the First Charter of Virginia, April 10, 1606, #6, 9. The Second Charter of Virginia (reciting the grant of 1606, ed.). The Charter of Maryland, June 20, 1632, #15, 21. Henry Steele Commager, ed., Documents of American History, to 1898, (New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1973). Hereinafter cited as Documents of American History, Henry Steele Commager, ed.

However, colonization began in 1578, [and] "English colonization in America may be dated from the letters patent to Sir Humphrey Gilbert of 1578...Six months after Gilberts death Raleigh received a patent couched in almost identical language as the patent of 1578." Documents of American History, Henry Steele Commager, ed., 6.

The Crowns motivation was initially Christian duty. In fact, it was generally perceived as part of the Christian duty of the sovereign to colonize America, for the purpose of preaching the Gospel, as it is a Christian's duty to spread the Word. "Robert Eburne, in his A Plain Pathway to Plantations of 1624, argued that the Gospel must be preached throughout the whole world before the second coming (Mark XIII, 10, Matthew XXIV, 14 and therefore it was sinful for the English not to hurry up and colonize America." As quoted in Christopher Hill, The English Bible and the Seventeenth Century Revolution, (London: The Penguin Press,1993), 300.

Then we have religious and spiritual motivation as well as the hope of a better life.

If you see the first Chapter of The Never Realized Republic: Political Economy and Republican Virtue, there is a clear demographic of English and the Western European origins of the Mainland Colonies. Use Search Inside the Book.

However, to answer your question; a nation of customers was coming into question by 1775 when Adam Smith wrote "To found a great empire for the sole purpose of raising up a people of customers may at first sight appear a project fit only for a nation of shopkeepers. It is, however, a project altogether unfit for a nation of shopkeepers: but extremely fit for a nation whose government is influenced by shopkeepers: Such statesmen, and such statesmen only are capable of fancying that they will find some advantage in employing the blood and treasure of their fellow-citizens to found and maintain such an empire. Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and the Causes of the Wealth of Nations, (Chicago: William Benton, 1952), Book IV, Of Systems of Political Economy, Ch. VII, Of Colonies, 266. See "a great empire has been established for the sole purpose of raising up a nation of customers, [American and West Indian Colonies]." Ibid., 288.

So ultimately and you have to read the last chapter of The Never Realized Republic: If the Federalists in the 1790's became predicated on an expansion and domination of trade backed by an elite military, and America's economy is the standard bearer and thermometer of its people's happiness - Who really has raised a nation of customers? Because indeed, the colonies were certainly not established as such.

Answer 2

They were all founded for British profit. Britain needed to pay off war debt. They wanted oversea power too.