TRADE REGULATIONS

THE MERCANTILE THEORY

During the 1500’s and 1600’s, an economic system

prevailing in Europe called the mercantile theory
stated that a country’s wealth (how much gold and
silver they possessed) was what dictated their state
of power. So, in order for England to keep her
position as a power country, she wanted to hoard
these metals as much as possible.
One method the English used to secure gold was to
extract wealth from its’ colonies. And one way to do
that was to control the trade. A French seaport painted by Claude Lorraine around 1639,
at the height of mercantilism - Wikipedia

TRADE ACTS

TRADING RESTRICTIONS MANUFACTURING RESTRICTIONS

The British/English merchants did not The British/English limited the industry
want the American colonies to compete and manufacturing for the American
with them in any way. So, some acts were colonies as well.
passed to prevent them from doing so.
WOOL ACT of 1699: All exports of wool
IRON ACT of 1759: Prohibited the
products from any American colony to any
building of iron mills and steel furnaces,
other colony, or to Europe, were banned.
and encouraged raw iron production by
HAT ACT of 1732: Halted the export of allowing it to enter England duty-free
beaver hats to Europe or to any other (with the intention of enrichening the
colony. mother country). This was to prevent
further growth in the iron industry within
MOLASSES & SUGAR ACT of 1733 &
the colonies.
1764: Imposed a tax on molasses, sugar,
and rum on the foreign West Indies HAT ACT of 1732: With the passing of the
islands. This was passed mainly with the act, the hat industry was affected as well.
intent to protect the British West Indies
planters from competition with the foreign
West Indies planters.

The
NAVIGATION ACTS

During the late 1660’s, the English Parliament decided to pass a series of laws called the
Navigation Acts. These acts controlled all colonial trade.

REQUIRED ALL SHIPS CARRYING CERTAIN ARTICLES THAT

GOODS BETWEEN ENGLAND AND INCLUDED SUGAR, INDIGO
AMERICA BE ENGLISH-BUILT OR AND NAVAL STORES COULD
OWNED. ONLY BE SOLD TO ENGLAND.

These acts were loosely enforced, so friction wasn’t caused within the colonies. Due to the many
harbors, the colonies were able to smuggle, evade the laws and import or export goods illegally.
This came to an end during 1763, when King George III came to the throne and an order was
carried out to enforce the Navigation Acts.

The reason for the lax enforcement was because the government at the time was busy fighting
wars against the French - namely, The French and Indian War. England wanted to keep the
colonies loyal to her, in case the French declared war in the New World. There was also the
Puritan Revolution of 1689, forcing the government to neglect the colonies.
CURRENCY CONTROL

The English held back the American colonies’ economic growth by controlling currency. The
amount of money the colonies had was barely enough to meet the colonies’ needs. Because of
this, the people of the American colonies were led to adopt a system of barter.

BARTER : is a trade-exchange system that does not require the

presence of money.
For example: A raw material, such as wool, could be exchanged for shoes, rice, wheat, etc.

WRITS OF ASSISTANCE

During 1761, before the French and Indian War ended, the British Parliament decided to
enforce the Navigation Acts more strictly and to seize all goods smuggled into the colonies.
The British officials used legal papers called ‘writs of assistance’, which gave them the power
enter warehouses, shops, and homes of the colonies to search and look for smuggled goods.
The writs of assistance caused a great deal of concern within the colonies, for it gave officials
the right to enter at will and confiscate anything the owner couldn’t prove was not smuggled.

JAMES OTIS was a lawyer from Boston who protested

against the writs of assistance. Otis charged that the writs
did not specify any particular place to search but were so
general in nature that no colonial home felt safe and that
the peoples’ privacy were violated. Otis lost the case and the
use of writs were continued.

THE AFTERPLAY

The French and Indian War ended, with England as the victor. But this victory was costly, for
they spent approximately $350,000,000 in this war. Since the colonies benefited from it,
England felt like they should pay part of the cost. And the moves they decided to make to do so
were to tax them heavily, and enforce stricter rules.
They made rules that disturbed the colonists, especially the Stamp Act, which was a tax on
paper materials and anything related to paper such as legal documents, newspapers, calendars
and even playing cards, etc. The colonists found this ridiculous and outraging. They started
riots and burned a bunch of stuff down. (Including the stamps.)
Moves were made by the British that did not go so well with the colonies. There was colonial
resistance towards the British taxation, and opposition to having to keep a British army in
America. There was the Townshend Program, which was even more taxation. And the stricter
British enforcement of the mercantile policy; these created conflicts.
These conflicts were led to the Boston Massacre of 1770, in which after the incident, the growing
hatred against the British increased within the colonies. Then the Boston Tea Party of 1773
occurred, where American colonists disguised themselves as Indians, snuck onto the cargo ship
which was carrying English tea and threw it into the harbor. England punished them, which
resulted with the passing of so many harsh acts, they were called the Intolerable Acts.
All of these events were building up towards a climax of war against the British. The First and
Second Continental Congress were held, and everything that followed suit after would
ultimately lead to the fight for colonial independence; the Revolutionary War.

Source credits:

James Otis Jr. portrait picture © Wikipedia:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c0/JamesOtisJr_by_Blackburn.jpg/220px-
JamesOtisJr_by_Blackburn.jpg

Naval stores © Wikipedia: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/0f/CupGutterSystem.jpg/220px-

CupGutterSystem.jpg

Merchant ship © Wikipedia:

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwjjipyVjrrjAhWryoUKHaLtCFoQjRx6
BAgBEAU&url=%2Furl%3Fsa%3Di%26source%3Dimages%26cd%3D%26ved%3D%26url%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Fen.wik
ipedia.org%252Fwiki%252FMerchant_ship%26psig%3DAOvVaw0wcEtt9Ub3nU9ABkzmCNQ9%26ust%3D1563292506809362
&psig=AOvVaw0wcEtt9Ub3nU9ABkzmCNQ9&ust=1563292506809362

French seaport painted by Claude Lorrain © Wikipedia:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/bf/F0087_Louvre_Gellee_port_au_soleil_couchant-
_INV4715_rwk.jpg/450px-F0087_Louvre_Gellee_port_au_soleil_couchant-_INV4715_rwk.jpg

French and Indian War © History.com: https://www.history.com/.image/t_share/MTU3ODc5MDg3MjQyODgwNzM1/french-

and-indian-war.jpg