THE PIONEERS OF AMERICAN INDUSTRY 15 



yond this, or, if it does, that development is sure to be very 

 slow so long as the cheap land continues. Under such condi- 

 tions there will be much rude comfort among the inhabitants 

 and no lack of the necessities of life. But the community can- 

 not advance rapidly in the production of wealth and the ac- 

 cumulation of capital; division of labor and development of 

 skill do not take place ; town life does not rise ; and social and 

 economic progress is slow. It may even happen that a com- 

 munity suffers a decline in both its economic efficiency and 

 social life, if compelled to remain for several generations under 

 such conditions. The Boers of South Africa and the south- 

 ern mountaineers are good examples of what may happen to 

 a new community which remains for a long period of time in 

 contact with cheap land and dependent upon the develop- 

 ment of manufactures within itself for its economic prosperity. 

 It is evident from this that the condition necessary to 

 enable the settlers of a new country to utilize their rich natural 

 resources, and so to advance rapidly in wealth and social well- 

 being, is a market for the commodities which its natural 

 advantages enable it to produce cheaply. It must have com- 

 merce with the outside world. In the history of modern col- 

 onization it is impossible to find a new settlement which has 

 made great progress in wealth where this condition of a mar- 

 ket for its products has not been supplied. All the leading 

 colonies have been concerned in the production of some two 

 or three commodities for which there was already a demand 

 in the markets of the world. It was so with the colonies of all 

 the European countries in the sixteenth, seventeenth, and 

 eighteenth centuries, which were concerned almost entirely 

 with the production of precious metals, tropical and sub-tropi- 

 cal products, like sugar, tobacco, rice, cocoa, and dyestuffs, 

 and a few products of the temperate zone, like furs, fish, and 

 naval stores. These were the only commodities which Europe 

 wished to buy of new countries at that time ; and the colonies 

 in many cases came into existence and in all cases grew in 

 wealth because they could produce to supply this demand. 

 The New England and middle colonies are no exception to 

 this rule; for, though they had few markets in Europe, the 

 rise of the West India sugar industry, based on slave labor, 



