From the early day of the colonization, trade and commerce has played an important role in the forming and shaping of civilization in America. The first English settlement at Jamestown was established for the sole purpose of creating a source of revenue and profit for individual investors and the mother country. The vast majority of people who migrated to these new lands during colonial times did so not to escape religious and political persecution (although many did) but mainly for economic purposes. America offered the common people of th ....