Carolyn Beyer
Early American Literature
Professor Knutson
November 23, 2011
Pownall’s Foreshadowing
Thomas Pownall’s excerpt from The Administration of the Colonies of America is flooded with natural images that reflect the state of the British Empire and imagines where this state can go if directed wisely. It is an aggressive suggestion that Great Britain can become “a great English Commonwealth” (Jehlen and Warner 836) with the right guidance of its colonies and control of commerce.
In true Enlightenment style, Pownall starts his text by talking about past failures in the progress of Great Britain and the reasons why they failed. He uses almost mystical terminology, declaring the “power of the sword” as the downfall of the Roman empire and the “power of religion” as failing Europe’s history (836). Pownall essentially gives life to things (sword and religion) that have no actual power outside of human control, which can be interpreted as human beings having a tendency to be weak when they become passionate about something (i.e war and faith). …show more content…
He takes great care to explain in detail the way each country is connected to the others as they trade their own different products and skills. In this long paragraph he lists items, countries, trade routes and how each affects the other. What results is a complicated map of commerce that is quite honestly difficult to comprehend. Perhaps this is Pownall’s intent: to show how with the lack of the correct rule, commerce could easily get out of hand and once again cause progress to falter. Then again, Pownall seems to contradict himself as he writes how policy creates a state of “artificial or political state” in the colonies that interrupts the natural state of how things should be (Jehlen and Warner
Early American Literature
Professor Knutson
November 23, 2011
Pownall’s Foreshadowing
Thomas Pownall’s excerpt from The Administration of the Colonies of America is flooded with natural images that reflect the state of the British Empire and imagines where this state can go if directed wisely. It is an aggressive suggestion that Great Britain can become “a great English Commonwealth” (Jehlen and Warner 836) with the right guidance of its colonies and control of commerce.
In true Enlightenment style, Pownall starts his text by talking about past failures in the progress of Great Britain and the reasons why they failed. He uses almost mystical terminology, declaring the “power of the sword” as the downfall of the Roman empire and the “power of religion” as failing Europe’s history (836). Pownall essentially gives life to things (sword and religion) that have no actual power outside of human control, which can be interpreted as human beings having a tendency to be weak when they become passionate about something (i.e war and faith). …show more content…
He takes great care to explain in detail the way each country is connected to the others as they trade their own different products and skills. In this long paragraph he lists items, countries, trade routes and how each affects the other. What results is a complicated map of commerce that is quite honestly difficult to comprehend. Perhaps this is Pownall’s intent: to show how with the lack of the correct rule, commerce could easily get out of hand and once again cause progress to falter. Then again, Pownall seems to contradict himself as he writes how policy creates a state of “artificial or political state” in the colonies that interrupts the natural state of how things should be (Jehlen and Warner