In “Narrative of Commercial Life,” T. H. Breen explores economic and cultural changes in eighteenth century British North America that came about after the French and Indian War. Breen argues that those changes informed colonial protest movements, most notably nonimportation agreements, and that those “specific styles of resistance” caused colonists to unite and “...to reimagine themselves within an independent commercial empire” (Breen 472). Staughton Lynd and David Waldstreicher’s article “Free Trade, Sovereignty, and Slavery” begins with a discussion of how both modern historians and early Americans have viewed the causes and ideology of the American Revolution. Lynd and Waldstreicher claim that the main contentions are whether the Americans
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Merritt focuses on morality and virtue’s role in colonial markets and politics prior to the Revolution. She argues that communal republican ideals and modern beliefs that valued individual interests came to a head in the new, product-driven prerevolutionary economy. According to Merritt, Americans did not reject self-interest or “the debilitating vices and luxuries of the Old World” in the wake of their republican Revolution; rather, “[The colonists’] ability to embrace the contradictions of the marketplace, as much as republican ideology, fueled the revolutionary movement” (Merritt …show more content…
Breen’s article deals less with personal moral conflicts and more with communal ideologies and experiments with “…the rejection of exclusiveness” (492). Breen argues that the economic protests and conditions of the mid- to late-eighteenth century ultimately helped to unite the American colonies. Therefore, he used non-local sources, publications that were read by people throughout the colonies. Breen also uses more statistical and quantitative evidence than the other two articles. Those numbers, mainly trade figures and probate records, support Breen’s argument that economic realities in America changed dramatically after the French and Indian War and that colonists had access to more European goods than ever before (Breen
Merritt focuses on morality and virtue’s role in colonial markets and politics prior to the Revolution. She argues that communal republican ideals and modern beliefs that valued individual interests came to a head in the new, product-driven prerevolutionary economy. According to Merritt, Americans did not reject self-interest or “the debilitating vices and luxuries of the Old World” in the wake of their republican Revolution; rather, “[The colonists’] ability to embrace the contradictions of the marketplace, as much as republican ideology, fueled the revolutionary movement” (Merritt …show more content…
Breen’s article deals less with personal moral conflicts and more with communal ideologies and experiments with “…the rejection of exclusiveness” (492). Breen argues that the economic protests and conditions of the mid- to late-eighteenth century ultimately helped to unite the American colonies. Therefore, he used non-local sources, publications that were read by people throughout the colonies. Breen also uses more statistical and quantitative evidence than the other two articles. Those numbers, mainly trade figures and probate records, support Breen’s argument that economic realities in America changed dramatically after the French and Indian War and that colonists had access to more European goods than ever before (Breen