“Growing up, I had little sense of class differences . . . I had no sense that we were poor or struggling.” Linda Chavez, We Were Poor, But I Didn’t Know It If you’ve read any memoirs or autobiographies by people who came up from hard times and went on to make it in the world (Chavez goes onto brag about now having four bathrooms), then you’ll readily recognize that cliche. of population had limited means, while a small elite of merchants and plantation owners held the lion’s share. However, the nation as a whole actually had very little wealth, and most of it was not in the form of money, but was tied up in land and slaves. Why? Because Great Britain had founded and used its colonies to serve the mother country. So while England had already started to industrialize, the new United States had an economy that was based on resource extraction. America exported natural resources and produced very few finished goods. For example, the U.S. had no textile factories; rather, farmers grew cotton and sold it to European industrialists who made clothing. Americans chopped down the trees, dug up the minerals, and grew the food that fed Europe’s industrial revolution. The early American economy was based on bartering and very little money actually circulated in this cash-starved nation. In short, the United States was poor.