New Jersey Economy

In the 1760s the colonyof New Jersey had sixty towns. The largest city was Elizabeth. Most of the people who lived in New Jersey were farmers. They grew wheat, hay and barley. The Scots-Irish people farmed corn, both for people and for hogs. The rural farmers lived by the people in the city who bought their food.

Ethnicity played a role in New Jersey's agriculture. For example German farmers preffered using oxen rather than horses to pull their plows. By the 1750's the people had stopped using the tools that they had used in their own countries. Instead, the used a cradle scythe, that made it easier to harvest the grains. Farmers also increased their commercial production by fertilizing their fields with dung and lime and by rotating their crops to maintain the fertility of the soil.

But there was more to the colony than farming. In northern New Jersey miners dug for copper and iron. Because it had a coast line, New Jersey also had an active port. Workers loaded, sailed, and unloaded ships on the Atlantic ocean and the Delaware river. There was a booming export market because of corn and flour being shipped to the West Indies. The merchants who ran these export companies became wealthy and the port cities grew larger.

In the cities, skilled workers produced craftwork for the colonial people, which included glass, leather, and pottery. New Jersey began to show its wide range of different jobs and industries early which would later mark its future as a state.