What effect did George Washington's abolition of primogeniture inheritance have on American wealth and agriculture?

by Vladith
mindbodyproblem

I don't know what George Washington has to do with the history of primogeniture in the US, but at the time of the ratification of the Constitution, only Rhode Island and South Carolina were using primogeniture in cases of intestacy. About half of the colonies had never used primogeniture and, except for the two states named above, the other half eliminated it during the decade or so prior to the ratification of the Constitution.

Source [pdf]: Inheritance Laws Across Colonies: Causes and Consequences Author(s): Lee J. Alston and Morton Owen Schapiro Source: The Journal of Economic History, Vol. 44, No. 2, The Tasks of Economic History (Jun., 1984), pp. 277-287.