 Despite this continual economic growth and the increasing numbers of colonists arriving in the port, the consequence of a slave economy and globalism began to become apparent.Starting in the first quarter of the 18th century, the population of the colonial hundreds peaked.Slowly, a combination of capitalist centralizing movements created by Britain's global empire and the use of slavery, caused an actual reduction in the numbers of British colonists in the Hundreds, as the middling level of planters, farmers, merchants, and arts and craftsmen were driven out or turned westward for better opportunities.