John Blankenbaker's Germanna History Notes

Note 36

In the last note, adventure was mentioned as possible reason for immigration, especially among single males.  In the families, a more conservative outlook prevailed.  They would more likely have been motivated by a desire for land.  In Germany, little land remained for purchase.  Sons had to depend upon an inheritance.  The Germans tended to divide their estates among all of the sons, or even all of the children.  There was no primogeniture as in England, so the land had been divided to below an economically profitable unit size.  In the Siegen area, where a more industrial outlook prevailed, the furnaces and forges could not be physically divided, so a time division was used instead.  A son might inherit a right to a furnace for one day a month.  Many of the industrial jobs were only part time while the family also farmed.  So in all regions, the families wanted to acquire land for their own use and they wanted to be able to give farms to their children.

It was difficult to accumulate capital in Germany.  Taxes were high.  Remember that Germany was not a single entity; rather it was a collection of Principalities of all sizes (it was not even called "Germany").  Many of these units or governments were too small to be economically viable, especially when the ruler wanted to emulate one of the Princes or perhaps even the "Sun Monarch".  Still, this was probably the only condition that many citizens of the principalities had known.  They had difficulty in imaging there could be a government with low taxes.  Later, relatives and friends wrote home from the colonies and told how small the taxes were they paid, then the citizens of Germany realized it could be better.  But the role of taxes did not become important until later.

Advertising was wide spread and sponsored by many agents.  One of the most active and best conducted campaigns was by William Penn for his new colony.  He personally visited Germany and extolled his province of Pennsylvania.  He also had pamphlets printed and distributed.  Some of these would have put today's real estate promoter to shame.  The pamphlets were printed with covers of "gold" which made them very impressive, and the booklets became known and referred to by these covers.  Penn used two major selling points, free exercise of religion, and plenty of cheap land.  Except for some sectarians who were anxious to have more freedom to practice their religion, cheap land was the stronger appeal.

Later, advertising was conducted by the shipping companies, i.e., the owners who were trying to fill their ships with people to take to the new world.  But at the times of the first Germanna colonies, this was not an active process.  When they did refine the process, they made use of "newlanders" who were living in America, but who had gone back to Germany on a temporary basis.  These newlanders were paid on a commission basis and they were thought to be effective because they had a first hand knowledge of the colonies which they could convey to the prospective emigrant in his own language.

Of course, for the First Germanna Colony, Albrecht would have fallen into the role of promoter and salesman of the venture.  I know of no evidence that he had ever been to the Colonies, but he was self-assured and confident.  Still, he found it necessary to adopt a special measure to obtain help in promoting the silver mining venture.  He signed an agreement with the church leaders of Siegen, promising to provide them with income from the projected mines in America.  Presumably this would make the venture look more attractive.