Test Item File for
American Economic History Eighth Edition
Tawni Ferrarini Northern Michigan University
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PART 1 THE COLONIAL PERIOD, 1607–1783
Chapter 1 Overseas Empire
True/False
Read each statement carefully. Identify whether it is true or false using the economic historian’s way of thinking. 1. European agricultural practices perfectly served the colonists farming in the New World. Answer:
False
2. Although most slaves came to the colonies before 1776, the majority of other types of labor came to North America voluntarily. Answer:
True
3. The children of indentured females were not the property of the master or owner of the indentured servant. This was an important difference between indentured servants and slaves. Answer:
True
4. Indentured servants were white colonists who sold themselves into slavery when their farms in America failed. Answer:
False
5. The British Crown was the only political, social, cultural and economic influence on the colonization of North America. Answer:
False
6. Taxes impose a cost on letting land remain idle. Answer:
True
7. Mercantilism followed feudalism. Unlike feudalism, mercantilism did not support any form of a strong central government or system of nation states. Answer:
False
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4
Hughes/Cain • American Economic History, Eighth Edition
8. Adam Smith (1776) claimed that less governmental regulation, not more, would provide incentives for individuals to allocate resources efficiently, specialize and trade. Specialization and trade would generate wealth and result in economic growth and development. Answer:
True
9. Secured and enforced individual property rights provide individuals with incentive to allocate resources efficiently and effectively, advance technologically, take on strategic risks and trade domestically and internationally. Answer:
True
10. According to the quantity theory of money, an increase in the stock of precious metals or bills of exchange usually results in increased trade and rising prices. Both economic events helped merchant capitalists and the king. Answer:
True
11. According to Douglass North (1981, 1993), to knowledgeably understand our present economy or to strategically speculate about its future, it is important to “explain the structure and performance of economies through time.” Answer:
True
12. Secure rights to land provided colonists with incentive to use the land productively, conserve it and invest in it. Answer:
True
13. After 1616, Virginia shifted more and more scarce resources out of food production and into tobacco production. Hence, the economic cost of tobacco production included the sacrifice of food production. Answer:
True
14. The American colonies have a rich and deep history in international trade and immigration. Answer:
True
15. The growth of cities and population usually accompanies growth in commercial activity and vice versa. Answer:
True
16. A bill of exchange necessitated the use of coin and bullion and thus restricted the growth of commercial trade. Answer:
False
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Chapter 1
Overseas Empire
5
17. Today’s corporate structures have very little in common with the joint-stock companies of colonial America. Answer:
False
18. Public funding is not a part of colonial history. Answer:
False
19. Alan Kulikoff (2000) maintains that the opportunity to own land privately provided many individuals with incentive to relocate to colonial America and accept the associated risks. Answer:
True
20. Both indentured servants and slaves had rights in courts of law. Answer:
False
Multiple Choice
Using the economic way of thinking and holding all else constant, choose the best answer among those provided. 1. Prior to and during the period of American colonization, the following occurred in Europe: (a) Feudal rulers found it easy to force peasants and urban producers to work for them as longdistance trade expanded, the costs of warfare increased, and the land/labor ratio increased as consequence of the bubonic plague. (b) Feudal lords shared profits from output with the peasantry and pumped them into investment expenditures, which accelerated agricultural growth. (c) Conflict among lords and peasants led to many peasant and urban revolts, diverting resources away from production and investment. (d) Financial stability enabled the nobility of Europe to foster growth among feudal lands and increase the riches of both rulers and peasants, producing a period of high economic growth. Answer:
(c)
2. With regard to indentured servitude, (a) indentured servants were typically slaves. (b) this institutional arrangement benefited all parties entering the contract. (c) this institutional arrangement restricted the supply of labor for the colonies. (d) all of the above answers are correct. Answer:
(b)
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