Evaluate the role of gold, silver and sugar in the economic development of colonial America.

Candidates will make an appraisal of the strengths and limitations of the role played by gold, silver and sugar in the economic development of colonial America. In evaluating the beneficial and detrimental effects on the economy, they may choose to address either specific colonies or colonial regions more broadly, but must apply clear and detailed examples of the roles played by gold, silver and sugar in the colonial mercantile economies. Issues that might be evaluated include, but are not limited to, the expense and risk involved in both private and state investment, the labour-intensive nature of production that required an extensive infrastructure for support, the export of most wealth rather than the development of the colonial economy, the displacement of the indigenous population, the development of the slave trade and slavery to meet labour needs, the impact of monoculture economies and the effects of their eventual decline.