The Economic History of the United States

This course was presented by Mises Institute senior fellow Mark Thornton in 2006.

Download the complete audio of this event (ZIP) here.

Mark Thornton
The Spanish and Portuguese were not very effective about colonizing the New World, despite finding gold and silver and claiming land. The London Company arrived about 1611 with indentured servants. Life expectancy was as young as twenty-one, although food supplies were better in the New World. Land...
Mark Thornton
The private property method of settlement was more successful than the public method. But, moving people to the new world was difficult while life in Europe was better. Thus, indentured servants were a large group second only to religious refugees.