Colonial American Wealth Dbq

Stay in your financial lane, take care of your own business and be flexible with your stances and these things will bring you wealth. Poor Richard's understanding of wealth was immensely influential in shaping the economic actions of people who lived in Colonial America. Poor Richards stance on frugality, care, and knowledge show when reading documents on the Colonial American lives.

Poor Richards standpoint on frugality is to save money and not fall into dept. Poor Richard made many points on dept, he talked about how dept restricts and strips liberty from people "think what you do when you run into dept; you give to another power over your liberty" . If a person borrows money, for example from a bank the bank has the right to get its money

back by taking your things such as your house or car. The fear of getting your things taken away also takes your liberty away since now your thoughts revolve around paying back your dept. Richard, in this quote, is explaining why Spain is not profiting from the Indies "The Indies have not made Spain rich, because her outgoes are greater that her incomes" .This applies to people since spending is loss of income and savings is the excess of income one cannot get wealthy if he is losing his income.
In the documents A Model of Christian Charity and Byrd, Secret Diary both show the thoughts and actions of citizens that line up with Poor Richards views on frugality.

In this small exert from A Model of Christian Charity, Winthrop explains what to do with someone who is in dept to you. He states, " Whether thou didst lend by way of commerce or in mercy, if he hath nothing to pay thee, thou must forgive, (except in cause where thou hast a surety or a lawful pledge) ". Even for the protestants there is no evasion of dept if a person promises to pay back money or a legal document is written up, which in most cases of lending money it is. The Byrd's a family of wealth is shown being frugal when the husband and wife get into an argument "My wife and I disagreed about employing a gardener" .Although the text doesn't say if William Byrd was in favor of hiring the Gardner or not, the text shows that ether the wife or the husband was not keen on waste their money on a gardener, proving Poor Richards point that to be rich you should not waste your money on unnecessary

expenses.
"But with our industry we must likewise be steady, settled, and careful, and oversee our own affairs with our own eyes..." this said by Father Abraham about care.

What the Father means by this is that a person must take care of his dealings himself, such as Franklin must have done when looking at the morning news paper to see what goods are coming into the port. Instead of trusting the venders to tell him which batch of tae was the best, reading the morning paper told him everything he needed to know.

William Byrd is also shown to staying on top of his dealing with the constant communication with England. To Find out how business was doing or receiving information about ships being taken" We had a letter from my sister Custis by which we learned that Crapeau is come into our cape and taken a vessel" . The information is useful for Byrd because his industry is heavily based on shipping his product into England so knowing that ships are being taken is important for him.

Father Abraham ends his speech with a few quotes from Poor Richard about knowledge. Understanding that you might be wrong is a key to wealth" If you will not hear Reason, she will surely rap your knuckles" . The text can encourages to not be stubborn and if you are, your stubbornness will hurt your

business.
Byrd takes his knowledge seriously, he reads almost every morning, reading in multiple languages and different philosophy books."I settled my account and read Italian" ,"I settled my account and read Dutch" and "Rose at 6 o'clock and read three books of Homer" . This habit of reading goes on for years and with reading comes knowledge and understanding of thinking multiple ways. Byrd accepts to learn from someone else and being rich he didn't need to this but to expand his business he does it "I endeavored to learn all I could from Major Burwell who is a sensible man skilled in matter relating to tobacco" .
Poor Richard's understanding of wealth is seen through sources. William Byrd is the best example out of any source as he is wealthy and follows most of Poor Richards wisdom on wealth. Poor Richards view are seen in Colonial America but they are not perfect as he says multiple times that people should not spend money on unnecessary things. In the end of the story all the merchants ignore Poor Richards advise on buying luxury items, and indulge themselves in the auction.