Lost in the American mythology of the Mayflower is a central question: How did a group of disenfranchised religious separatists finance a large ship, pay an experienced crew, and provision for a year's worth of supplies on the way to the New World? Even for sovereign authorities of the early seventeenth century, outfitting a trans-Atlantic voyage was no small financial undertaking. Certainly, impoverished political refugees of today, when crossing oceans, do not do so in chartered transportation or arrive with any capacity for financial sustenance. The financial story behind this journey points to a parallel narrative, one in which the exalted sentiments of religious liberty found themselves subordinated to economic considerations and motivations.
-Bhu Srinivasan, Americana: A 400-Year History of American Capitalism
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