American business history

American business history is a history of business, entrepreneurship, and corporations, together with responses by consumers, critics, and government, in the United States from colonial times to the present. In broader context, it is a major part of the Economic history of the United States, but focuses on specific business enterprises.

The New England region's economy grew steadily over the entire colonial era, despite the lack of a staple crop that could be exported. All the provinces and many towns as well, tried to foster economic growth by subsidizing projects that improved the infrastructure, such as roads, bridges, inns and ferries. They gave bounties and subsidies or monopolies to sawmills, grist mills, iron mills, pulling mills (which treated cloth), salt works and glassworks. Most important, colonial legislatures set up a legal system that was conducive to business enterprise by resolving disputes, enforcing contracts, and protecting property rights. Hard work and entrepreneurship characterized the region, as the Puritans and Yankees] endorsed the "Protestant Ethic", which enjoined men to work hard as part of their divine calling.

The federal government under President George Washington and Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton strongly promoted business enterprise in the 1790s. He had a vision of an industrial nation, based on the strength of urban America.

Washington himself was business-oriented, and was involved in numerous projects to develop transportation and access to Western lands.

Organized banking began on a small scale after the American Revolution, with a few private banks in Boston and New York, such as the Bank of North America.

At Hamilton's initiative, and over the opposition of Thomas Jefferson, Congress set up the privately owned First Bank of the United States (BUS) to provide a uniform financial system for the 13 states.

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