Profits in the Wilderness : Entrepreneurship and the Founding of New England Towns in the Seventeenth Century.

Cover -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- List of Abbreviations -- Introduction -- PART I: ENTREPRENEURSHIP -- Chapter 1 Entrepreneurship and Town-Founding -- I. Varieties of Town Promoters -- II. Profits -- III. Land Policies of the General Courts -- Chapter 2 The Leading Entrepreneurs -- I. The Connecticut Valley and Connecticut Colony -- II. Rhode Island -- III. Plymouth Colony -- IV. The Nipmuck and the Merrimack -- V. Maine and New Hampshire -- Chapter 3 Commerce and Culture -- I. Frontier Expansion and Puritanism -- II. Land as a Commodity -- PART II: TOWNS -- Chapter 4 The Creation of Land Corporations in Towns -- I. English Corporations -- II. Town Covenants -- III. The Separation of Church and Corporation -- Chapter 5 The Use of Shares -- I. Dividing Land -- II. Financing Town Affairs -- III. Voting -- Chapter 6 The Exclusiveness of Land Corporations -- I. Limiting the Membership of Corporations -- II. The Nonproprietors of New England Towns -- III. Towns Launched by Other Towns -- Chapter 7 The Communal Ideal -- I. The Landholding Community -- II. The Social Community -- Chapter 8 The Ambiguous Character of Town Institutions -- I. Towns as Private Enterprises -- II. The Clash of Public and Private Interpretations of Towns -- PART III: TOWNS TRANSFORMED -- Chapter 9 The Separation of Proprietorships from Towns -- I. The Land Policy of Sir Edmund Andros -- II. The Reaction of the Towns -- Chapter 10 The Emergence of Public Institutions -- Conclusion: The New England Town Reconsidered -- APPENDIXES -- PART I -- 1. Real Estate of Town Promoters -- 2. Timing of Church Formations -- PART II -- A Note on Sources and the Sample -- 3. The Town Sample -- 4. Covenants Creating Land, Corporations -- 5. Reduction of Admissions to Land Corporations -- 6. Town Residents without Land Shares -- 7. Nonresident Owners of Land Shares -- 8. Land Division.

9. Tax Assessment of Shares -- 10. Franchise Restrictions -- 11. Town Voting by Shares -- 12. Town Land Fights -- 13. Expansion of Land Corporations -- Bibliography of Works Cited -- Index -- A -- B -- C -- D -- E -- F -- G -- H -- I -- J -- K -- L -- M -- N -- O -- P -- Q -- R -- S -- T -- U -- V -- W -- Y -- MAP: New England Towns in the Seventeenth Century.

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