Creating Capitalism and Democracy in the United States, 1630–1830

Capitalism and democracy developed simultaneously—and under exceptional circumstances—in the North American colonies of the New World between 1630 and 1830. In this chapter, I argue that the relatively egalitarian structure of wealth and power north of the Chesapeake hastened the emergence of a capitalist democracy, where new forms of political and economic governance were created almost simultaneously in power structures that were extraordinarily egalitarian and decentralized.