Deck 3: Colonial Economic Activities

Question 1

The soil of the Middle Colonies is generally

A) rocky and poor.
B) fertile and difficult to till.
C) fertile and easy to till.
D) alkeline and poorly drained.

Answer 1

fertile and easy to till.

Question 2

At the end of the 18^th century, approximately _______ percent of the American people earned a major portion of their income by farming.

A) 25
B) 50
C) 70
D) 90

Answer 2

90

Question 3

In colonial America, ____________ was\were especially scarce, while the supply of _______________ was plentiful.

A) land and labor; capital
B) capital and labor; land
C) land and capital; labor
D) unskilled labor; skilled labor

Answer 3

capital and labor; land

Question 4

What was false about the New England colonial economy?

A) It was the leading fishing industry in the colonies.
B) It was a net importer of food.
C) It was the leading colonial shipping industry in the colonies.
D) It was the most productive area in terms of agriculture.

Question 5

Compared to whites, blacks had disproportionately high mortality rates in

A) the far southern colonies.
B) the Caribbean colonies.
C) the northern mainland colonies.
D) the mid-Atlantic colonies.

Question 6

Colonial production of tobacco satisfied England's mercantilist interests because

A) it provided a substitute for imported Spanish tobacco.
B) its poor quality discouraged English youth from smoking.
C) it provided a good that could be taxed by the English.
D) it ensured that the colonists would remain dependent on England for food.

Question 7

Which of the following was not an export of the Southern colonies?

A) deerskins
B) bulk unfinished iron
C) indigo
D) rice
E) All of the above were exports from the Southern colonies.

Question 8

What was not true about the economy of the Middle Colonies?

A) It was a net importer of food.
B) The farms were generally smaller than those in the South.
C) The crops did not have large economies of scale.
D) Its main agricultural products were grains.

Question 9

Which was the least prominent crop grown in the colonial US?

A) Tobacco.
B) Sugar.
C) Wheat.
D) Rice.

Question 10

Residents of the developing American colonies lived _______ lives compared to people living in the advanced countries of that time because ________.

A) better; of favorable protections from England
B) better; of high levels of output per worker.
C) worse; of unfavorable taxation
D) worse; of the inaccessibility of both capital and finished machine goods.

Question 11

The colonial production of ________ had a high fixed cost because it required an initial heavy investment in capital.

A) tobacco
B) rice
C) indigo
D) cotton

Question 12

___________ was an ideal supplement to rice farming in the colonies.

A) Indigo
B) Tobacco
C) Wheat
D) Ship building.

Question 13

Which was a common sociopolitical\economic feature of Colonial America?

A) difficulty in the expansion of agriculture
B) commercial production of finished metal parts, such as sewing needles
C) legislation that gave favorable terms to the import of machinery from England
D) significant improvement of infrastructure, especially roads
E) None of the above is correct.

Question 14

During the colonial period, this region specialized in grain production, primarily using family farms:

A) the Middle colonies
B) the Southern colonies
C) the Caribbean
D) Newfoundland

Question 15

In the 18^th century, the Middle colonies

A) primarily produced crops using slaves on large plantations.
B) primarily produced crops that are associated with large economies of scale.
C) exported large amounts of wheat and bread products to the West Indies.
D) are often referred to as "a mercantilist's dream."

Question 16

Agricultural staples of the colonial South included

A) rice.
B) tobacco.
C) indigo.
D) All of the above.

Question 17

All of the following were important colonial industries except :

A) fishing and fish packing
B) production of ships' stores
C) manufacturing of finished iron goods
D) shipbuilding

Question 18

In the 18th century, Southern tobacco planters found that the use of ____________ was economical once the plantation reached a certain size.

A) horses
B) a plantation manager
C) indentured servants
D) an iron plow

Question 19

During the colonial period, there were no apparent economies of large-scale production in

A) rice.
B) wheat.
C) tobacco.
D) indigo.

Question 20

In the English market, colonial tobacco was ______________ Spanish tobacco.

A) more expensive than
B) less expensive than
C) priced similarly to
D) more heavily taxed than

Question 21

The original reasons for founding the colony of Georgia do not include

A) alleviating London of some of its poorer people.
B) being a partial remedy to the injustice of debtor prisons.
C) providing a buffer between the English and Spanish colonies.
D) being a scheme to take advantage of desperate families.

Question 22

If a product exhibits decreasing returns to scale, then the average cost of making the product will ______ as a company produces more of it?

A) Increase.
B) Decrease.
C) Remain the same.
D) There is insufficient information provided to ANSWER the question.

Question 23

If a product exhibits increasing returns to scale, then the average cost of making the product will ______ as a company produces more of it?

A) Increase.
B) Decrease.
C) Remain the same.
D) There is insufficient information provided to answer the question.

Question 24

Eighteenth century colonists lived in an age of_____.

A) steel
B) steam
C) coal
D) wood

Question 25

During the colonial period the cost of building a ship in New England was typically _________ the cost of building the same ship in England.

A) greater than
B) less than
C) about equal to
D) not comparable to

Question 26

Suppose the only input in agriculture is time and the following chart depicts the time it took for the Middle Colonies and New England to produce barley and milk. Using the principle of comparative advantage, what would be the most efficient solution?

To determine comparative advantage compare the productivities of producing the two goods - one in terms of the other. To produce 1 ton of milk, New England would have to not produce 3\4 tons of barley. The Middle Colonies must give up 6\5 of a ton of barley to produce 1 ton of milk. Therefore, New England has a lower opportunity cost of producing milk and the Middle Colonies have a lower opportunity cost of producing barley. New England should produce milk and trade for barley, while the MC should produce barley and trade for milk.

A) New England produces both barley and milk.
B) New England produces barley and the Middle Colonies produce milk.
C) New England produces milk and the Middle Colonies produce barley.
D) There is insufficient information given to determine comparative advantage.

Question 27

"Extractive industries" include the production of all of the following products except

A) furs.
B) lumber.
C) naval stores.
D) bread.

Question 28

Although large-scale manufacturing was not characteristic of colonial economic activity, ___________ was an important exception.

A) steel production
B) shipbuilding
C) cotton textile production
D) fish canning

Question 29

Goods commonly produced by colonial households included

A) clothing.
B) bread and hardtack.
C) beer and whiskey.
D) jellies and jams.
E) All of the above.

Question 30

In colonial Georgia,

A) communal agriculture was successful.
B) cotton plantations were flourishing by the early 1700s.
C) the slave population assisted free colonists in defending the Florida border.
D) slavery was initially prohibited.

Question 31

Property rights and territorial hunting rights

A) had little bearing on the depletion of the beaver in 1700s.
B) were lacking and thereby crucial to depletion of the beaver in the 1700s.
C) could have provided incentives against overharvest of the beaver in the 1700s
D) Both b and c are correct.
E) None of the above are correct.

Question 32

The primary reason for the success of the colonial shipbuilding industry was

A) the plentiful supply of skilled labor.
B) low wages in the American shipbuilding industry.
C) a plentiful supply of iron ore.
D) the close proximity of raw materials, especially lumber.

Question 33

According to the principle of comparative advantage,

A) a country will benefit by specializing in the production of goods in which it has a relatively low opportunity cost.
B) a country will benefit by specializing in the production of goods in which it has a relatively high opportunity cost.
C) a country will benefit by importing goods in which it has a relatively low opportunity cost.
D) a country will benefit by becoming economically self-sufficient.

Question 34

The only mineral that was available in any significant quantity in colonial America was:

A) Gold.
B) Silver.
C) Iron.
D) Coal.

Question 35

The colony of Georgia was established in 1732. During the colony's early years,

A) each arriving settler received a 50-acre farm.
B) cotton plantations were the primary source of income.
C) the slave population assisted free colonists in defending the Georgia-Florida border.
D) the slave population exceeded the free population.
E) All of the above.

Question 36

The fishing and whaling occupations in the early colonies

A) never amounted to a significant economic force.
B) were a major influence in the early colonial economy.
C) developed into a significant economic force only in the eighteenth century.
D) were mixed in their economic impact, with fishing being the least important.

Question 37

The wealthiest occupational groups in North America included

A) merchants in New England.
B) merchants in the Middle colonies.
C) large land-holding planters in the South.
D) All of the above.

Question 38

All of the following statements present accurate information about the 18^th century New England economy except :

A) New England exported more fish than England.
B) New England was a net importer of food.
C) New England's chief crop was Indian corn.
D) New England farms tended to be large and highly productive.

Question 39

Which colony was the last of the original 13 to be founded, and was designed to assist those who owed debts in the Old World?

A) Georgia .
B) Rhode Island .
C) Florida .
D) Pennsylvania .

Question 40

What was the most fundamental relationship among most Native American tribes, including the Iroquois?

A) Mother-daughter.
B) Husband-wife.
C) Father-son.
D) Chief-warrior.