tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3538502828554372917.post8767006800252828832..comments2024-03-29T09:09:24.834+00:00Comments on Poul Anderson Appreciation: Mountains And BoatKetlanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08588156788583883454noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3538502828554372917.post-15107333039020450202017-01-29T06:11:36.800+00:002017-01-29T06:11:36.800+00:00Dear Mr. Stirling,
Many thanks for your interesti...Dear Mr. Stirling,<br /><br />Many thanks for your interesting comments. It basically fills out what I had already thought, at least as regards colonization by the English. War/religious persecution (of non conformist Protestants by the Anglican Church) or an urgent desire by ambitious young men to make their fortunes.<br /><br />I think it was only in the 18th century, by a combination of both increased trade and the beginnings of industrialization, that prosperity in England really began to grow.<br /><br />SeanSean M. Brookshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13973738112230622557noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3538502828554372917.post-33221790025103836232017-01-29T04:55:37.376+00:002017-01-29T04:55:37.376+00:00Emigration to colonial North America was often abo...Emigration to colonial North America was often about as much "push" and "pull"; often it was religious persecution or war that set people moving, or economic dislocations threatening downward pressure on incomes and/or social status.<br /><br />New England got a representative slice of middle-class rural/small town England, often traveling as families. Their motivation was religious. <br /><br />Virginia, by contrast, was mostly settled by young men (they outnumbered women by several times) who were willing to take desperate chances for a hope of gaining property, mainly land. In England this was virtually impossible for someone who didn't stand to inherit.<br /><br />There wasn't much social mobility at home in England, and it was mostly downward in an era when population was bumping up against Malthusian limits and standards of living had been falling.<br /><br />Moving to the Colonies was a risky gamble; but then, so was moving to London (where deaths outnumbered baptisms 4 to 1) and about 10% of every generation in England left their villages for the capital -- it only grew by in-migration.S.M. Stirlinghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18091131550027851275noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3538502828554372917.post-90578811754465296592017-01-28T16:57:17.144+00:002017-01-28T16:57:17.144+00:00Kaor, Paul!
While I certainly agree that the Amer...Kaor, Paul!<br /><br />While I certainly agree that the Americas in real history and the asteroids in Anderson's "gyrogravitic" stories were settled in part by failures, that was not always the case. Both had their share of able people who were simply dissatisfied, for various reasons, with continuing to live in the home countries/planet. Robert Flowers, for example in "Say It With Flowers" was by no means a crook or incompetent third rater. He simply felt unhappy and dissatisfied in North America.<br /><br />SeanSean M. Brookshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13973738112230622557noreply@blogger.com