ABSTRACT
The original colonial cities were small both in terms of population and in area. They were intimate walking cities, usually less than a mile across. Their government was likewise modest, with the leading families taking control of matters in a natural way. Such services as were needed – for protection against hazards – were provided cooperatively. Life was based on family and community relationships, with little distinction between public and private enterprise. There was, however, a remarkable degree of regulation both by the English government (to keep the colonists under control) and by the new communities themselves (for their very existence). The former, of course, ultimately proved self-defeating when the onerous regulations (and ‘taxation without representation’) led to the Revolution and the birth of the United States. The latter, on the other hand, were self-imposed and had an acceptable rationale. Despite the abundance of land, the colonists quickly found that they had to plan and control the growing of certain crops. Without this, there was a danger that individual colonists, intent on maximizing their profits, would overproduce crops that were valuable for export and grow insufficient of the crops that were essential for local needs. Virginia restricted the growing of tobacco and required ‘each white adult male over 16 to grow two acres of corn, or
suffer the penalty by forfeiting an entire tobacco crop. An Act of 1642 required the growing of at least one pound of flax and hemp, and an Act of 1656 required landowners to cultivate at least ten mulberry bushes per 100 acres in order to stimulate the production of silk’ (Bosselman et al. 1973: 82).
