Essay Questions

What does the author identify as the development which revolutionized the economies of the native tribes which interacted with European settlers?

Many Europeans who arrived after the initial colonizing settlements were drawn by stories that focused on life in New England during “strawberry season” when the weather was moderate and the opportunities for owning land were plentiful. As a result, many set sail from home without being fully prepared for the true harshness of the winters. This necessity for warm clothing helped to stimulate the fur trade which, in turn, indoctrinated the natives into the capitalist foundation of supply and demand. Demand could not keep up with supply as long as the tribespeople split time between trapping and farming with the result that trapping became a full-time industry to detriment of the land used for agriculture. The lesson had been learned, but only partially: animals could be killed for gain other than food, but failing to diversify inevitably mean losing everything.

What exactly was wampum and its significance?

Today wampum likely as not sounds like one of those terms used to denigrate Native Americans, but in fact wampum was very real and very serious. Used as currency in trading for furs, wampum was essentially the first example of money in the New World. Wampum itself was simply a bead made from shells native to New England given value by drilling hollow cylinders into them so they could be strung together as ornamental decoration. Among the native tribes wampum gained its value as a symbol of prestige and status. The free trading of wampum for furs had the effect, as noted above, of transforming the economic model of the native tribes into something approximating European mercantilism and, ultimately, capitalist free enterprise.

What is paradoxical nature of “scarcity value” as it relates to the commodification of natural resources in New England?

Settles looked around at them and truly saw the New World as a land of plenty. Every raw resource which had contributed to building European cities but could no longer actually be found in great supply in any of them existed in a seemingly inexhaustible supply all around settlements here. The abundance was basically ringing out among those items in short supply back home that could profitably be shipped there such as fur pelts and food items not requiring extensive preservation. Though in great demand in England and in abundant supply in New England timber, on the other hand, would be too expensive to ship. Despite this, timber is still perceived to be a commodity in which the value is based on just the abundance here, but the scarcity in England. Scarcity value thus refers to the perception of a commodity’s value to buyers even under paradoxical conditions in which supply cannot be reasonably sold to exploit that value by meet the demand.