ABSTRACT
When the American colonies declared their independence from Great Britain they had no doubts about their ability to continue the economic growth that had characterized their colonial years. This was no group of rebels desperate for freedom, but a group of leaders confident in their broadly-based prosperity The British-American colonies had succeeded in attracting immigrants in far greater numbers than the colonial areas of other European powers. By the middle of the eighteenth century, when French Canada had attained a non-Indian population of only some 70,000, the British colonies were approaching a population of 1,500,000. 1 This number increased with great rapidity in the next 50 years. Agriculture was at the heart of colonial economic success, but this had been accompanied by re markable commercial expansion. American shipping had flourished within the British imperial system; so much so that by the time of independence the American merchant fleet was ready to become the major rival of the old colonial ruler. The new United States had broken away from Europe politically but was entwined with Europe economically.
