Competency and Competition: Economic Culture in Early America

Abstract

O express a degree of well-being that was both desirable and morally legitimate, early modern Englishmen often chose the term competency. Thus, when William Wood pointed out in i634 that, however rude the circumstances of the first New Englanders might seem, they were "well-contented, and looke not so much at abundance, as a competencie," he was trying to strike just such a decently attractive note. To early modern readers, the idea connoted the possession of sufficient property to absorb the labors of a given family while providing it with something more than a mere subsistence. It meant, in brief, a degree of comfortable independence.1 Such an ideal was necessarily imprecise. One man's comforts could be his neighbor's barest needs, and even in the course of a single lifetime people had to shift their standards upward and downward to fit their changing circumstances. A farm that might be judged prosperous enough to keep a young family in relative independence might not serve equally well as children matured. True, most English households survived at levels of competency that were modest at best. Such qualifications being granted, the ideal of competency nevertheless had a broad constituency within the producing ranks of society, and a vast range of behavior spoke Mr. Vickers is a member of the Department of History at Memorial University of Newfoundland. Acknowledgments: I would like to thank, among a great many others

Colonizing the Black Atlantic: The African Colonization Movements in Postwar Rhode Island and Nova Scotia

“…Like families throughout British America, these men and women wanted property to defend their children from falling into economic dependency. 33 The story of one man whom Clarkson met further illustrates the connection of land and freedom for the Loyal Blacks. This man could not leave the colony because of labour obligations, but he wanted to send his family to Sierra Leone nonetheless because of the economic security the Company offered.…”

Thomas Jefferson's Liberal Anticapitalism

“…The extensive distribution of landownership in the United States, in contrast to England, ensured that markets strengthened the economic position of ordinary producers: small farmers pursuing a diversified husbandry promoted economic development. Growing domestic and foreign demand for an increasing range of agricultural commodities enhanced the value of the goods they raised, inducing them "to increase surpluses without giving up the basic structure of the family farm" (Appleby 1992, 264; see also Vickers 1990). Provident farmers prospered.…”

“…At its core is the stigma attached to wage labor as a condition of abject dependence (Wiebe 1995, 89-96;Lasch 1991, 168-225;Wilentz 1984;Foner 1980, 57-76). Americans adapted Locke's theory of property to establish a link between liberty and the ownership of productive resources (Vickers 1990;Taylor 1989, 4-10;Bogin 1988, 402-25). Householders possessing sufficient property-a modest farm or workshop-ensured that neither they nor their families had to work for anyone else.…”

“…On the significance of securing a comfortable independence for working people in the early Republic, seeVickers 1994, 13-29;Vickers 1990.…”

Scratching the Surface: Seven Seasons at the Spencer-Pierce-Little Farm, Newbury, Massachusetts

“…A number of these issues presented themselves for study: field management systems; notions of agricultural efficiency and innovation; and market orientation (cf. Vickers 1990Vickers , 1994. The social and ideological uses of the house and lands are related to these issues, however, and have also been addressed in the investigation.…”