American Colonies Mercantilist System

Foreign ships were prohibited from trading in the English colonies, thereby preventing Virginians from continuing their profitable trade with the Dutch. Virginia’s principal crop stood in danger of additional taxation because of the Crown’s urgent need for revenue, and because the English at home were incorrigibly reluctant to pay the true cost of maintaining their government.6

They were the ones providing Great Britain with the raw materials they needed to make finished goods to trade. The king passed many acts such as the revenue act, in order to levy taxes on all goods being imported into the colonies. This was one way of controlling their economy. He did this because Great Britain was in quite a lot of war debt due to the French and Indian war. Although he was not directly making the decisions, he made direct suggestions to Parliament as to how to handle the war debt.

Also, the British could search any ship they wanted, so they didn’t let us receive sugar from other countries. The Stamp Act also was very unfair. This was when England made the colonists only buy paper with the English stamp on it. Every paper product had to be made out of it, and this special paper had a heavy tax on it.

Thus, the American colonies were open for people who wanted an easy way to become wealthy. There were more job opportunities in the colonies, while in England the market was flooded with others trying to sell the same product. In the colonies, there was little competition in the making and selling of goods. The headright system was introduced, which allowed settlers to migrate to the colonies and receive fifty acres of land for every passage that he paid. This let many people become landowners, where they would have never had the chance to in England.

Like other imperial countries, he wanted to encourage mercantilism, which would strengthen England. Limitations such as Navigation Act of 1660 meant only certain products could be sold and shipped to England and other colonies; The Staple Act stated that all foreign goods had to be loaded and reloaded at English ports with English ships; and Revenues Act of 1663 required that ship captains transporting certain colonial goods pay a "plantation duty" on any items not delivered to England” (Jelatis). This only allowed for England to make a profit off of trade, which in the long run negatively affected the colonists. This occurred because King Charles II believed that it was the duty of the colonies to create money for England, but it began to impede on the colonists’ ability to establish commerce in the late 18th

There were many reasons that the Second Continental congress declared independence from Great Britain. Life in the colonies was great, at first, soon after Great Britain started creating crazy amounts of taxes to support the mother country. In the year 1776 the Second Continental Congress officially declared independence from Great Britain. The first thing that Great Britain did to the colonies is they created the Navigational Acts.

The British men gathered full control of the trading center present in the Americas, and created the Navigation Acts to help aid them in their tactics to take control over all trade within the Americas. The Navigation Acts were passed under a mercantilist system, and was used to regulate trade in a way that only benefitted the British economy. These acts restricted trade between England and its colonies to English or colonial ships, required certain colonial goods to pass through England before export, provided subsidies for the production of certain raw goods in the colonies, and banned colonial competition in large-scale manufacturing. This lowered the competition in the trading world for the British and caused the British to have a major surge in power, that greatly attributed to the growth of their rising empire. The British’s ambitious motives in the trading world help portray a way that the British took control of an important piece in the economy of all of the other nations present in the colonies in the time period, and shows another leading factor in the growth of the British empire.

1700’s British colonies made up most of America. These colonists generated a lot of money by growing and exporting lumber, fishing, doing work as blacksmiths, and many other jobs. But when the French and Indian War had ended in 1763, Britain was heavily in debt. To pay off all this debt Britain started passing many acts, to make money off of the colonists. There were many different acts which included The Stamp Act of 1765, which required colonists to purchase postage and include the stamps with documents and paper goods.

Some people would argue that religious concerns were important in the setting of British North America. However, economic concerns were more crucial in establishing the Thirteen Colonies. Some reasons include the pursuit of land, the opportunity for fruitful work and nationalism. In the period 1607-1754, colonists were motivated by the possibility of owning land without sovereignty from the King.

Some parts of the law were that the colonies can only ship on English boats (later became just English captain and crew), all the colonies imports must be sent to England (so they could be taxed), merchants must pay taxes on certain things, and the last part of the law stated that most of the colonies products must be sold to

The Navigation Acts restricted foreign trade to competition with other countries, while reducing the chances of the colonies becoming an independent nation; in addition, all British products that were to be sent to the colonies were heavily taxed in order to create more profit. The Sugar Act placed tax on sugar, wine, and coffee, and denied any colonist accused of smuggling trial by jury, eventually leading to a drastic plummet in the rum industry. Finally, the Stamp Act, an act that was passed without the consent of the colonists, that taxed any paper or document in order to gain money from the colonists for Britain, ultimately leading to the colonists revolting against Britain, and writing newspapers that promoted the idea of independence from the imperialist nation that had repeatedly denied them their liberty, democracy, and

1.Great Britain controlled the economy in the colonies through trade. 2.Every culture or country traded so that they could receive all of the essential goods that they needed to survive. 3.Great Britain forced the colonies to trade only with them so they could make a profit, and also so they could obtain the things they needed from. 4.As a result of the New World not having all that the colonists needed , Great Britain would have those goods that the colonists could use to survive; so they traded their goods back and forth.

‘New money’ would allow upward social mobility. Also, there was lots of land that could be acquired, and that allowed for economic growth. Mercantilism was a way that the British kept economic control of the colonies. This way, the colonies would make money for Britain. The navigation acts and the sugar act were both laws enacted to restrict trade in the colonies.

During the colonial era of America, Great Britain was able to reek the benefits of this royal colony’s success. This was in large part due to the fact that Britain was able to integrate this society into its imperial system. English leaders understood that the American colonies represented a marketplace for goods, a safety valve, and a place in which competition flourished with other leading empires. One of the most important reasons why Great Britain established colonies in America was to create another form of revenue.