Benjamin Franklin Analyze The Population Summary

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Benjamin Franklin Analyzes the Population (1751) Land being thus plenty in America, and so cheap as that a laboring man that understands husbandry can, in a short time, save money enough to purchase a piece of new land sufficient for a plantation, whereon he may subsist a family, such are not afraid to marry. For, if they even look far enough forward to consider how their children, when grown up, are to be provided for, they see that more land is to be had at rates equally easy, all circumstances considered. Hence marriages in America are more general, and more generally early, than in Europe. And if it is reckoned there that there is but one marriage per annum among one hundred persons, perhaps we may here reckon two; and if in Europe they…show more content…
2. 3. 4. Why are people more likely to marry early in American compared to Europe? What two reasons does Franklin give for the larger families in America? Explain why labor is expensive in the colonies. Extrapolating Franklin’s assessment of the relationship between the colonies and Great Britain, what are the long-term consequences of such population growth on…show more content…
The availability of land allows them to support a family at an earlier age, whereas in Europe land is scarce, and people must labor longer for others in order to support a family. What two reasons does Franklin give for the larger families in America? First, people can envision the safe economic future of their children in the availability of cheap land and are therefore confident in their children’s success by the same means. Second, people marry later in Europe, thus giving them fewer opportunities . . . Explain why labor is expensive in the colonies. Who wants to work for someone else when you can do it yourself. Thus to entice labor wages must be high. Extrapolating Franklin’s assessment of the relationship between the colonies and Great Britain, what are the long-term consequences of such population growth on business? As the population increases colonial production might eclipse that of Great
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