Now, Voyageur

[LARSSON at VAX1.Mankato.MSUS.EDU]

j minnich responds:
">Hardly!  First, the country was by no means founded upon business
>enterprise as we normally understand the term.  It was founded on small
>farming.  The vast majority of the people were small farmers and the
>overwhelming bulk of the economy was farming.  The small farmer and his
>family were the original model of individualism.  Then there was the
>woodsman, who explored the country, bartered with the Indians, trapped,
>etc.  The mythologization of these people and their activities into a
>Rugged Individual icon which was then applied to corporate entrepreneurs
>is the hijacking I referred to.
>
 
The colony at Jamestown VA, circa 1609, was a for-profit project of the
Virginia Company, an investment-capitalist concern, out to make a buck (or a
pound, rather) for its shareholders.  Maybe not all of the colonies were
established strictly for profit, and maybe the motives for founding the
colonies were not the same as the motives for founding the country, but
clearly the aroma of "business enterprise" was present here from the very
beginning."


A-and the rugged woodsman was trapping those furs for the Hudson Bay Company,
and later John Jacob Astor (who had one of those Berkshire mansions) and the
like.  It's an interesting perspective here in MN, where there is a woodsman
subculture that holds regular campouts and rallies in various places, the
foax there living in teepees and peddling crafts to the tourists.  The
French Voyageur is an iconic figure in MN lore, recently referencing a plan
by some of our elected officials to open Voyageurs National Park and
the Boundary Waters Canoe Area to more "accessibility" meaning snowmobiles
and motor boats.

Don Larsson, Mankato State U (MN)