Capital
Fingers in the dirt growing herbs and flowers
-Stick to turn the dirt
-Hoe to replace the stick
-Plow on a wheel
-Tractor to replace animals pulling plows
..Robot in a factory to make engines for tractors to pull plows
So many herbs and flowers that McCormick can preserve spices and Revlon can make perfume.
People work to obtain the necessities of food, clothing, and shelter. Capital makes the work more productive. Capital accumulation and improvements create the foundations upon which the pursuit of happiness can result in attainment of happiness.
Many of the Scots Irish patriots came to America to escape oppression in northern Ireland. The fruits of their labors had been enjoyed most by the king’s barons who raised the rent on farms which the farmers had worked to improve and make more productive. In America, they called upon the founding fathers to protect their properties, both real estate and personal and intellectual property.
In the US Constitution, we find patent and copyright protection, search and seizure protection, and eminent domain protection. Enforcement of these protections were national across boundaries, but left to local authorities within their borders.
Beginning in 1776, Washington County Virginia began giving license to millers to operate on creeks. They recorded the deeds, surveys, and transfers of capital improvements around the Saltville salt wells. Colonel Arthur Campbell reported the discovery of prehistoric fossils to Thomas Jefferson.
In 1790, the US Territory South of the Ohio continued Andrew Evans’ rights to operate a ferry on the “Warriors’ Path” across the French Broad River at Boyds Creek. Evans, a veteran of the Battle of Kings Mountain, had first entered the area in late 1780. He had Christmas dinner with friendly chiefs at Chota in 1780 where agreements were reached for white settlement though the Little River watershed.
In 1802, the Commonwealth of Kentucky granted up to 1000 acres of land each to two of its citizens for the purpose of extracting ore with the stipulation that it could not obstruct salt licks. Samuel Newell used his grant to claim land for a lead mine. Kentucky also licensed ferry operators on rivers which affected multiple counties. Samuel Newell began operating a ferry across the Cumberland River at Waitsboro.
While neighbors in the Shenandoah Valley around Raphine Virginia were enjoying the muffins, buns, and loaves they had worked to produce, Robert McCormick was tinkering for 28 years to perfect a machine to make them more effective. He had some success with various inventions by the 1830’s. One was the “hemp-break” which helped extract fibers from hemp and flax. Linen, rope, and burlap production became easier. By the 1840’s, Robert’s son Cyrus had made the reaper improvements for which he filed with the US Patent Office for protection. His Chicago manufacturing company later became part of International Harvester.