In his book, "The New England Merchants in the Seventeenth Century" Bernard Bailyn writes the following statements. Write a brief essay explaining what Bailyn meant by this statement.
"in the decade after 1765 the merchants...demanded the rights of englishmen. ...The conviction that these were being denied them led to a crisis. And, ...the New England merchants reacted not as a unit but as individuals whose social differences were at least as strong as their common interests."