ABSTRACT
The American people have been concerned about structural issues from the beginnings of our country. Not surprisingly, that interest continues today. Most of the new settlers when they arrived on the eastern shores of the North American continent had a primary concern for their food supply and their ability to produce it with the resources at their disposal. Decisions had to be made about the rights to use land and its ownership; a government had to be established to protect these rights and to provide for the common defense; an exchange system and markets were needed for this new agrarian economy to grow. In a very real sense, there were already structural issues of importance that had to be decided. The organization of production and control of agricultural resources differed substantially up and down the Atlantic coast.
