My excitement levels have been increasing as we move towards the St Martin's famous May Breakfast this coming Sunday. Of course everyone knows that since 1867 May Breakfasts have been the way Rhode Islander's commemorate the State's Independence declared on May 4th 1776. Rhode Islanders are very proud of the fact that this was two full months before any of the other original colonies broke political ties with the British Crown. Another interesting fact is that while RI was the first of the 13 colonies to secede from the United Kingdom, it was the last of the original 13 to join the newly formed United States, which it did on May 29th, 1790.

Maritime mercantile trade characterized the RI economy in the period leading up to the Revolutionary War. It was RI's fear of the adverse economic effects of the threatened Royal Navy blockade of the colonies that provoked it to come out fighting. During the Revolution, RI merchantmen morphed into privateers or pirates depending on which side of history you stand on and continually plundered British Shipping in the Atlantic.

Similarly, following the end of the war it was a threat of a Union naval blockade of RI, along with threatened imposition of heavy tariffs by Congress on RI trade with the other States that forced the General Assembly to ratify the US Constitution. The stage was then set for a new entrepreneurial direction, as RI became the first center for the Industrial Revolution in America.

The early economic history of RI was one of skillful opportunism, optimism, and risk taking. This complex combination resulted in the State being an epicenter for both the scandal of the Slave Trade and industrial manufacture. So there is good and bad in our entrepreneurial past, yet, the question I hear many ask today is: where has that early entrepreneurial spirit gone?

My brief historical reflection leads me to note the growing controversy over what to do with the land on the I-95 corridor. What would the early Rhode Island entrepreneurs, adventurers, and industrialists make of the options before us? Would they be in favor of new high tech industries capable of attracting skills and supporting high paying jobs, or would they opt to build another venue for public entertainment, adding to the plethora of low paying service jobs that increasingly characterize the present day RI economy? I guess the deciding factor for many of them would pivot on how much money stands to be made and for whom? Not an unimportant question today.

Happy Rhode Island Independence Day and I hope many of you will get to enjoy the amazing St Martin's version of the May Breakfast. See you Sunday!

Mark+