Changes

==Economy==

==Economy==

[[File:Ec$1800.jpg|thumb|400px|Estimated income in constant 1840 dollars. Source: Alice Jones, ''Wealth of a Nation to Be'' (1980); Susan B. Carter et al. ''The Historical Statistics of the United States'' (2006) vol 3.]]

[[File:Ec$1800.jpg|thumb|400px|Estimated income in constant 1840 dollars. Source: Alice Jones, ''Wealth of a Nation to Be'' (1980); Susan B. Carter et al. ''The Historical Statistics of the United States'' (2006) vol 3.]]

The great majority of people throughout the colonial era were farmers and their income was not cash but the value of the crops and animals produced on farms, and mostly consumed by the family. The estimates are based on inventories of estates when people died. Most people lived in poverty--with very few possessions such as a small stock of clothes, a shack to live in, a few household goods--and land and animals. In terms of wealth the per capita wealth of Americans in 1774 was £37.4 ($6700 in 2009 dollars); per adult male £172 ($30,700); and per white adult male £218 ($39,000).<ref>Alice Hanson Jones, ''Wealth of a Nation to Be'' (1980)</ref>

The great majority of people throughout the colonial era were farmers and their income was not cash but the value of the crops and animals produced on farms, and mostly consumed by the family. The estimates are based on inventories of estates when people died. Most people lived in poverty--with very few possessions such as a small stock of clothes, a shack to live in, a few household goods--and land and animals. In terms of wealth the per capita wealth of Americans in 1774 was £37.4 ($6700 in 2009 dollars); per adult male £172 ($30,700); and per white adult male £218 ($39,000).<ref>Alice Hanson Jones, ''Wealth of a Nation to Be'' (1980)</ref>