Native Americans:

• had only human muscle power
• did build cities and large structures
• lots of trade but often not a true market economy--they made their production decisions first for sustenance, not for trade
  
• generally had a system of temporary rights to use land (usufruct), but no concept of permanent ownership of land
• they had modified the land and sometimes abused it
• but generally they cut down trees no faster than they grew back
• lived sustainably in most cases

European settlers:

• believed in expansion
• saw the new world as wilderness to conquer

• how much did the Europeans bring with them capitalism?
  
• brought a market economy that nearby native Americans became involved in
• but maybe 60% was made at home 40% bought and sold


• sailing ships were a major harnessing of energy that made possible not just settlement but profitable trade
• because that was the only reasonable way to move cargo cities were all near the coast
• Europeans reshaped the landscape using animal power to turn forests into farms
• they saw the land as something to use, not something they were in relationship with

• cut down all those trees
• how to get rid of the wood you don't need--burn the dead wood
• sold the ashes for potash and lye for making candles and glass
  
• work around the stumps
• land was full of rocks you remove

The settlers depended on technology, though much of it was medieval

• iron smelting was established early, using charcoal made from large amounts of wood
• water power was used to grind grain and saw tree trunks into planks
  
• visit Hagood Mill just north of Pickens on the 3rd Saturday of the month
• this use of water power disrupted fish runs that were very important to both native Americans and settlers
• flooded meadows that were a primary source of hay to keep animals over the winter
• but agriculture for the market steadily moved inland

Industrious revolution:

• gross domestic product per capita expanded before there were new power sources or machines
• people must have worked harder because they wanted consumer goods
• household production of cloth for the market was substantial until replaced by factories (a few in New England by 1800, on a large scale by 1830)
• new crop rotation system: wheat or rye, barley or oats, corn or potatoes, clover
• American axe http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L23ZUpmoRsE felled trees three times faster
• use of horsepower, such as the horse whim

• people still expected customary prices
• people still made a lot themselves and many machines were powered by human muscles
• skilled workers owned their own tools and learned by apprenticeship
• workers other than slaves gained increasing freedom to move between jobs
  

More on the early European settlers from Wilderness and the American Mind, by Roderick Nash:

• When the pilgrims arrived in Plymouth they described what they saw as a "hideous and desolate wilderness" (William Bradford).  Conquering wilderness was a war of good against evil
• there was a fear that Europeans who went into the wilderness would become uncivilized, like the Indians
  
• settlers in North America were worried the people back home would look down on them
• took pride in civilizing the wilderness
• they saw land as something to own and organize
• their goal is to get from chaos to order (not to be swallowed up by the disorder of the wilderness)
  
• Even in 1830 a congressman said "There can be no doubt that the Creator intended the earth should be reclaimed from a state of nature and cultivated." (p. 31)
• wilderness was seen as evil to be conquered
• it might be questionable to take pride in getting rich, but settlers could take pride in civilizing the wilderness