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Financing & Building the Colony
The Mayflower passengers went heavily into debt to come to America, borrowing from a group of English "merchant adventurers." Merchants and passengers together formed a stock company, which held all money, livestock and land. Assets were to be divided after seven years. The Pilgrims were unlucky in their moneymaking efforts. Ships were lost at sea or captured by pirates. The Pilgrims had to ask for even more money for supplies. The debt, which quickly became much larger, was renegotiated in 1626. Eight colonists, with four London associates, undertook to repay an agreed portion; these "undertakers" shared the debt with 45 Plymouth householders.
Plymouth Colony was not a success for the investors. The colonists eventually repaid 1800 pounds; the total invested may have been as high as 7000 pounds.
The Pilgrims' primary trading partner was England. They did not, however, do business with England exclusively. In 1627, Dutch colonists from New Amsterdam first visited the Pilgrims to arrange trade relations. The Plymouth colonists also traded with other English colonies. In 1630. a thousand Puritans came from England to the Massachusetts Bay Colony north of Plymouth and founded Boston. People from Plymouth Colony traded with the new arrivals, who needed cattle and finished goods. PILGRIM HOUSES
Building shelters was a top priority for the Pilgrims. By late 1621, there were seven dwellings and four storehouses. By 1623, when additional ships had brought more settlers, the Colony had twenty houses. The earliest houses were probably "earthfast," with wooden corner posts sunk directly into the ground, and not built on stone foundations. The Pilgrims used traditional English building methods. They found plentiful supplies of oak, pine and walnut. Builders constructed massive oak frames connected by mortise and tenon joints and fastened with wooden pins called "treenails." After the pieces were fitted together, the house frame was raised. Men filled the frame with woven wooden "wattle," and women and children covered it with clay "daub," before adding exterior boards for weather protection. PILGRIM POSSESSIONS During the Colony’s first few years, all goods except the simplest were imported from England. England provided cloth, shoes, weapons, ceramics, metal and other finished goods. In payment, the colonists sent furs, obtained through trade with the Natives, along with lumber and other natural resources to England. How do we know what the Pilgrims owned? Probate inventories were taken at the time of a person’s death to calculate the value of their estate. (Visit “Beyond the Pilgrim Story” for links to several inventories.) Most of the possessions listed are typical of what they might have had in England. The influence of their new home, however, can be seen. A few American items appear, such as "Indian corn," "Indian baskets," "Indian trays," and wampum, shell beads which the Natives valued and the colonists used as money to trade with them.
Once trained craftsmen moved to Plymouth, the colonists produced their own furniture. Local styles of furniture making began to develop. By the second generation, Plymouth furniture had a distinct character. Applied decorative turnings, such as those on the Alden cupboard and Standish chest, are typical of furniture made in this area. Chairs, chests and cupboards represent one of the earliest traditions of craftsmanship in British North America. They were objects of status, treasured by later generations.
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