GMAT Reading Comprehension (RC) | Re: Land proprietors profoundly shaped the New England town from

Land “proprietors” profoundly shaped the New England town from the very beginning of settlement, and this fact calls into question long-held assumptions about life in colonial New England. Seventeenth-century municipalities functioned as land corporations; they were modeled after joint-stock companies and had an exclusive membership based on ownership of shares--notions that directly challenge our past understanding that the New England town operated as a “community” with broader aims and objectives. Local powers were vested in the town’s proprietors. Towns may have attracted other settlers or church congregations, but neither of those groups had the power to divide land, finance town affairs, vote on local matters, or become proprietors in their own right. The New England town was not a single community but several. Some individuals were mere “residents,” others were resident or absentee “inhabitants” (a term which applied only to proprietors), and many of each may have been church members. Although such exclusive control of affairs by “inhabitants” often led to con tention, their monopoly over power and land was repeatedly sustained by higher levels of colonial authority.

Exhaustive studies of town records show that the proprietors played an essential and pervasive role in town building and founding. These men (and occasionally a few women) effectively controlled and ran the affairs of towns, regardless of size, location, or stage of development.

1. It can be inferred from the passage that "inhabitants"
A. were resident in colonial settlements year-round
B. included both voting and non-voting members of the community
C. consisted solely of those residents of a town who were members of a church congregation
D. exercised control of political power in an arbitrary and capricious manner
E. were those members of a community who owned land and controlled political power




2. With which of the following statements about New England towns would the author of the passage most likely agree?
A.The fact that power was distributed based on land ownership was a fundamentally democratic method of organizing early local governments.
B. Individual interests in the towns were often subverted by communal goals and decisions.
C. Political control was equated with land ownership no matter what the population or geographic locations of those towns.
D. The control of colonial affairs by land proprietors was an issue of debate and contention within the church hierarchy.
E. The concentration of political power in the hands of town proprietors was necessary to ensure the smooth functioning of early settlements.