The first business of America’s colonists was survival. Therefore, farming was their biggest job.
But when survival was no longer an issue, the colonists got serious about business. At first they made money from the natural resources of the land and the sea. They fished and caught whales. They cut down trees for lumber and shipbuilding. They also collected such forest by-products as pitch, tar, resin, and turpentine. Later, they discovered large amounts of iron ore. They made this into pots, pans, and cannonballs.
By the eighteenth century, many of America’s colonial merchants were very successful. They built fine houses in growing cities. They liked to display their wealth. One popular way was to convert silver coins into useful or fancy silverware. Silversmiths were respected craftspeople in all the large cities. One of the most notable was Boston’s Paul Revere.
