LECTURES ON THE GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE UNITED STATES Edited by EDWIN WILEY, M.A., Ph.D. ILLUSTRATED AMERICAN EDUCATIONAL ALLIANCE WASHINGTON, D. C. 3 X 236 SERIES SEVEN LECTURES TWENTY-TWO TO TWENTY-FIVE Social and Economic Conditions During the Revolutionary Era, 1764-1789 22. Land Systems, Wealth, Real and Personal Property Values 23. Industries, Agriculture, Labor 24. Commerce, Transportation, Banking and Currency 25. Education, Religion, Literature, Art THE UNITED STATES CHAPTER I. 1764-1789. LAND SYSTEMS: WEALTH: REAL AND PERSONAL PROPERTY VALUES. Systems of land ownerships in various colonies Grants in the West-Importance of the public domain The crown lands-The question of the disposition of western lands - Territory embraced in cessions by States The ordinance of 1784 - The ordinance of 1787 Public lands a source of revenue - Pecuniary condition of emigrants - Sources of wealth-Wealth in the various colonies - Total value of real and personal property in 1770 Material development slow during war- Confiscation of Loyalist estates Estates of the rich - Amounts of specie in colonies-Value and distribution of real estate after Revolution Assessed value of property by States in 1788. A Land Systems. S fixed in the several colonies un in the first years of the colonial period, so the principles of land tenure remained practically changed until after the Revolution. New England developed more and more strongly along the line of township divisions, village communities and individual ownership in fee simple. In New York the manorial system still prevailed, although it had been gradually shorn of some of its pronounced feudal characteristics, the lord proprietors having become little more than the owners of large estates divided into lease-hold farms. The granting of extensive tracts. of wilderness in the western part of the State to royal favorites or in recognition of military service had attained to considerable proportions and was developing a condition desBe the dev tined, in the next century, to be the cause of grave disturbance in the commonwealth. In the South the colonists held to their big plantations and their successes in the cultivation of tobacco, rice and indigo had operated to convince them more than ever of the economic value of that system in their section of the country. Maryland held to the manor system and to grants under quit-rent until the Revolution. In 1767 there was a record in that colony of the sale of 227 manors, embracing 100,000 acres. In Pennsylvania a mixed system of land ownership prevailed throughout the colonial period. Those who purchased land held it immediately of the proprietor and not from the king. Land was divided into commonage, proprietory manors and private estates. Various conditions and concessions attached to the sale and |