Types.

The term staples refers to resources or crops produced in mass quantities for sale or export. There are two types of staples: primary and secondary. Primary staples are goods produced predominantly for export, such as rice and tobacco. In the colonial period these crops grew in tropical and semitropical regions on plantations where indentured servants or slaves planted and harvested the crops. The Navigation Acts protected these crops that were essential to the trade between the colony and the homeland. Secondary staples were produced first for personal use and second for sale in both local and distant markets. Crops such as corn and oats grew in temperate zones where farm families with a few servants labored.

Regional Economies.

Regardless of occupations in England and Europe, most settlers in the seventeenth century turned to farming for their livelihood. This condition would persist throughout the...