Creating the commonwealth: the economic culture of Puritan New England

Abstract

This work provides a sweeping reinterpretation of America's cultural roots in the colonial past. The author focuses on enterprise in early New England and its relation to the prevailing culture of Puritanism. He finds in Massachusetts Bay a fierce devotion to God that fed a social commitment to engage the world and prosper. The result was a thriving capitalism and a dimishing devotion which alarmed Puritan leaders in the late 17th century. While telling the story of Massachusetts Bay's transformation from a resource-poor perch on the continent to an active international economy, Innes supplies detail on early New England's ironworks, fisheries, shipyards and the scums and dreggs who provided the labour for Puritan enterprise.