 Lesson Plan
Rhode Island Colonists led by John Brown burn the British revenue cutter Gaspee The British had an empire to run. The way that they kept their economy healthy was through a system called mercantilism. Mercantilism was a popular economic philosophy in the 17th and 18th centuries. In this system, the British colonies were moneymakers for the mother country. The British put restrictions on how their colonies spent their money so that they could control their economies. They put limits on what goods the colonies could produce, whose ships they could use, and most importantly, with whom they could trade. The British even put taxes called duties on imported goods to discourage this practice. This pushed the colonists to buy only British goods, instead of goods from other European countries. The distance from Britain and the size of the British Empire was an advantage for the colonies. It was expensive to send British troops to the colonies. For many years, the British government’s philosophy was one of “salutary neglect.” This meant that they would pass laws to regulate trade in the colonies, but they did not do much to enforce them. The British knew that the colonies were benefiting from goods from the Dutch, French, and Spanish, however. Eventually, in 1763, they began to enforce many of the trade restrictions and even passed new ones. The Navigation Acts and the Sugar Act were two of the laws enacted to restrict colonial trade. Acts like these led to rebellion and corruption in the colonies. Colonists, particularly in New England, rebelled against these acts by illegally smuggling goods in and out of the colonies. Ships from the colonies often loaded their holds with illegal goods from the French, Dutch, and Spanish West Indies. The smugglers would pay bribes to British customs officials who were hired to regulate trade in the colonies. These officials also made a modest salary from the British, so they were benefitting from all sides. The American juries that tried smugglers, in times when they were actually caught, rarely found them guilty. Because they were gaining so much power, smugglers increased their secret trade to almost every port in the colonies. It is estimated that over 700,000 British pounds were brought into the American colonies each year at this time. Trade and TaxationBoston Harbor, circa 1746, was home to a successful colonial merchant fleet. England continued to tax the colonies. But since trade and taxation were difficult to control from far away, England made an agreement with the colonies. They would continue to regulate trade but allow colonists the right to levy their own taxes.
You are marching in protest against having to buy goods imported only from Britain, regardless of where they originated. What does your poster say? The French and Indian War put this delicate agreement to the test. Because the war was expensive, the British believed that colonists should help pay for it. They argued that they had protected the colonists from French and Indian threats. As a result, new taxes were levied by the British, which horrified the colonists. Between the taxes they imposed and the measures the British Navy took to arrest smugglers, colonists were becoming increasingly angry. American shippers became more and more rebellious against trade restrictions with other countries. All of these actions served as stepping stones to the Revolution.
If you're seeing this message, it means we're having trouble loading external resources on our website. If you're behind a web filter, please make sure that the domains *.kastatic.org and *.kasandbox.org are unblocked. All Subject Expand Expand
Language Teaching and Learning
Language Teaching Theory and Methods
Criminology and Criminal Justice
Interdisciplinary Studies Museums, Libraries, and Information Sciences Regional and Area Studies
In order to continue enjoying our site, we ask that you confirm your identity as a human. Thank you very much for your cooperation.
Mercantilism is an economic policy designed to increase a nation's wealth through exports, which thrived in Great Britain between the 16th and 18th centuries. The country enjoyed the greatest benefits of mercantilism between 1640 and 1660 when the prevailing economic wisdom suggested that the empire's colonies could supply raw materials and resources to the mother country and subsequently be used as export markets for the finished products. The resulting favorable balance of trade was thought to increase national wealth and Great Britain was not alone in this line of thinking. The French, Spanish, and Portuguese competed with the British for colonies under the belief that no great nation could exist and be self-sufficient without colonial resources. Because of this heavy reliance on its colonies, Great Britain imposed restrictions on how its colonies could spend their money or distribute assets.
Mercantilism led to the adoption of enormous trade restrictions, which stunted the growth and freedom of colonial business. Much of the trade that took place before the mid-17th century was controlled by the Spanish and Dutch, including to and from England. That was until the British decided to take the reins of their own shipping rights and eliminate these other nations completely from the equation. In the 1660s, England passed the Acts of Trade and Navigation. Also known as the Navigation Acts, they were a series of laws designed to make American colonies more dependent on manufactured products from Great Britain. In this vein, British authorities further enumerated a set of protected goods that could only be sold to British merchants, including sugar, tobacco, cotton, indigo, furs, and iron.
But Britain's rise in the shipping wars didn't come without a cost. In fact, there were many transgressions and human rights violations that were committed by imperial the country (not to mention other European empires) on its colonies in Africa, Asia, and the Americas during this time. One of the key things to remember, though, is that not many of these transgressions were directly rationalized by mercantilism.
In Wealth of Nations, the father of modern economics Adam Smith argued that free trade promotes a flourishing economy—not mercantilism. Slavery was a common practice throughout the history of human civilization. The earliest records date back thousands of years to Mesopotamia. The Spanish, French, and Dutch used it to take advantage of the resources in parts of the New World. When local Indigenous populations started to decline, Blacks were transported from parts of Europe and Africa to the West Indies and South America, The British also used slavery to boost their position and advance their own interests. Trade became triangulated during the mid-1600s between the British Empire, its colonies, and foreign markets. This fostered the development of the slave trade by England in many colonies, including America. The colonies provided rum, cotton, and other products that were heavily demanded by imperialists in Africa. In turn, slaves were returned to America or the West Indies and traded for sugar and molasses.
Not only did these new resources provide England with a large source of revenue, but so too did the slave trade. English company Royal Adventurers Trading to Africa and its successor, the Royal African Company were given a monopoly in the trade of slaves as early as the 1660s. By 1698, trading slaves was a right given to every Englishman, and the construction of large ships allowed as many as 40,000 slaves to be transported to and from English ports.
The colonists were, to some degree, seen as tenants who lived on British soil under mercantilist rule. As such, the taxes imposed by the British and the raw materials sent back to England were effectively a form of rent. The British government demanded the trade of gold and silver bullion and was always seeking a positive balance of trade. As such, the colonies often had insufficient bullion left over to circulate in their own markets so they took to issuing paper currency instead. The mismanagement of printed currency resulted in periods of inflation. Great Britain was also in a near-constant state of war. Taxation was needed to prop up the army and navy. The combination of inflation and taxation caused great colonial discontent. Some of the most notable taxes in early American history include
And of course, there were the Townshend Acts that were passed between 1767 and 1768. These laws imposed taxes on 72 different items imported by England to America, including the tax imposed on tea. The colonists revolted against the tea tax, leading to the Boston Tea Party. Angry over the tax they said provided them with no taxation and the fact that they weren't able to control their resources and finished goods on their own, colonists dumped crates of imported British tea into Boston's Griffin's Wharf in 1773.
England enacted new laws during the 16th and 18th centuries, putting tariffs on imports of foreign goods and restricting shipping through English channels. As such, mercantilism became the key economic model of the time. It encouraged the colonists to purchase goods from England rather than rival nations. The colonies sent raw materials to England where they were manufactured into finished products and sold to the colonists. This allowed Britain to monopolize the slave trade, transporting slaves from English ports to America. High inflation and heavy taxation on the colonies caused a rift between the colonists and the British.
Britain used mercantilism as a way to secure its interests in the New World. Raw materials were shipped back to England where they were converted to finished goods. These products were then shipped back to the colonies as exports, which the colonists purchased. In order to continue its stronghold in America, Britain had to ensure its military was paid for and did this by imposing a series of taxes on the colonists. This included taxes on goods like molasses, sugar, and tea. Angry at being taxed without representation and not being able to control their own resources, the colonists revolted. This eventually led to the American Revolution and independence.
Britain used mercantilism to boost its own interests during the mid-1600s. But it was almost always at war with its rivals to keep its trade and colonial interests in place. This required a regular stream of revenue, which England received through a series of taxes imposed on the colonists. These laws required that taxes be paid by every colonist on items like sugar, molasses, tax, and printed materials. The colonists, on the other hand, were enraged that they were forced to pay taxes without having a voice in the British government. They were also angry that the British government was the one in charge of how their resources and goods were used and distributed. This discord is what led to the American Revolution. British mercantilism flourished during the middle of the 17th century at a time when England was flexing its muscle in the New World. The idea behind this economic policy was that the colonies existed for the benefit of the Empire, providing a stream of revenue and much-needed resources. But all this came at a cost. England's need to enforce its trade regulations and place in the world led to the slave trade and human rights violations in America. England would ultimately pay the price, though, after frustrated colonists who were unhappy about the lack of control on their own soil revolted against heavy taxation. |
Which economic policy was based on the idea that American colonies existed primarily to provide economic benefits for Great Britain?
zusammenhängende Posts
Urheberrechte © © 2024 wiewird Inc.
