News of the settlement’s prosperity attracted other Europeans, and precipitated what came to be known as The Great Puritan Migration. The profits they earned enabled them to pay off their debts to their sponsors. With an abundance of food at hand, the Pilgrims set up trading posts and began to exchange goods with the Indians. The result? “This had very good success,” wrote Bradford, “for it made all hands industrious, so more corn was planted than otherwise would have been.” Under the new arrangement, every family was permitted to sell its excess crops and other products. Young men that were most able and fit for labor and service did repine that they should spend their time and strength to work for other men’s wives and children without compensation.” this community was found to breed much confusion and discontent, and to retard much employment that would otherwise have been to its benefit and comfort. What Bradford wrote about the colony’s near-disastrous experiment in communal living should be taught to every child in America: The Pilgrims scrapped the collectivist system that almost led to their demise. With private property rights and personal incentive in play, food production began to soar. Faced with mass starvation, Bradford decided on bold action, and assigned each family its own plot of land. Soon, it became obvious that the collectivist system was not yielding enough food. Under this communal living arrangement, the colony’s most industrious members lacked incentive to produce as much as they could. No colony member owned anything beyond a proportionate share of the common output. The plan was to distribute everything equally. All land they cleared and all houses they built belonged to the community. The original contract the Pilgrims entered into with their merchant sponsors in London called for everything they produced to go into a common store, with each member of the settlement entitled to one common share. Life improved on the margins, but the colony was still a long way from assured survival. When spring came, Indians taught the settlers how to plant corn, fish for cod and skin beavers for coats. During the first winter, half of the Pilgrims, including Bradford’s wife, perished from starvation, sickness or exposure.
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