Massachusetts' early colonial economy was based primarily on agriculture. The steady flow of English immigrants allowed Massachusetts' first farmers to make a profit for about a decade growing corn and raising cattle. Massachusetts' current economy is largely based on technological research and development and the service sector (including tourism). This represents an important change from the state's pre-industrial agricultural base and maritime trade in the 17th and 18th centuries and the heavy manufacturing that characterized the 19th and first half of the 20th centuries.
To make a profit, settlers in Massachusetts had to develop a diverse economy. Some developed small necessary industries, working as tanners, loaders, metallurgists and merchants. However, most of them looked out to sea. Plymouth Colony's economy was based on agriculture, fishing, whaling, wood and skin.
In cities along the coast, settlers earned their living fishing, whaling and building boats. Whale oil was a valuable resource, since it could be used in lamps. Greenhouse and nursery products (flowers, ornamental shrubs) are the main source of agricultural income in Massachusetts. These products generate 35% of the state's total agricultural income.
Other important crops include sweet corn and apples. Rebecca is a freelance journalist and history lover who got her start in journalism working for small town newspapers in Massachusetts and New Hampshire after graduating from the University of New Hampshire with a B. The province of Massachusetts was an English colony in North America that existed since 1630. until 1776, when it joined the other 12 of the 13 colonies in rebellion against Great Britain and became the U.
Fishing alone was not very profitable, but fishing required boats and a shipbuilding industry quickly emerged, supported by Massachusetts's abundant supplies of wood, tar and tar. Massachusetts's rocky soil and cold climate, with its long and harsh winters, made large-scale plantation agriculture impossible, as seen in the Virginia Colony. One of the first and largest shoe plants in the United States was the United Shoe Machinery Corporation in Beverly (built 1903-0), while the construction of the Springfield Armory in 1777 boosted the industry in Western Massachusetts while helping the revolutionary cause. The Colony of MassachusThe Massachusetts Colony was one of 13 original colonies located on the Atlantic coast of North America.
The economic prosperity of maritime trade caused both an internal conflict between the settlers of Massachusetts and an external conflict with the motherland, Great Britain. Massachusetts merchants built and purchased ships that transported goods and natural resources across the Atlantic, and employed dozens of settlers on each ship. By producing so many goods and trading with other European countries and their settlers, the settlers of Massachusetts had tipped the scales in their favor. Generally rocky soils only support truck gardening, although purple-sand peatlands of southeastern Massachusetts and Cape Cod produce about two-fifths of the U.
Between 1789 and 1810, the Massachusetts fleet grew tenfold, part of it to help defend against British and French aggressions on the high seas. Maritime trade dominated Massachusetts' economy for 200 years due to state poor agriculture. A steam railway connected Springfield and Worcester in 1839, and 15 systems transported cargo between cities in western Massachusetts by 1855.Community, business and personal services (private healthcare, private schools, law firms, computer programming and network services, engineering companies) are the most important service sector in Massachusetts. .
