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Chapter 7

Economic theory and policy
which presumed that wealth
and trade were limited
o There’s only so much to go
around


Nations gained wealth and
power only by having more
gold and silver than other
nations
Depended on maintaining a
“Favorable Balance of Trade”
o Exporting more than importing

Encouraged nations who
accepted the theory to
become self-sufficient
o Colonies helped secure that
 Colonies
provided:
o Powerful merchant fleet
• Goods, materials, and people
needed to be transported
from the colonies to the
mother country
o Source of raw materials for
the manufacturers in the
mother country
o Market for the
manufactured goods to be
sold


Britain responded to illegal
colonial trade by passing “Acts
of Trade and Navigation”
Beginning in 1651, these acts
restricted colonial trade in
various ways, including:
o All goods traded to and from the
colonies had to be shipped in
either colonial or British ships
o All crews of these ships had to be
at least 75% British or colonial
o Certain products (tobacco, sugar,
rice, molasses, and furs) could
only be sold from the colonies to
Britain
o Goods traded from colonies and
Europe had to be unloaded at a
British port

Colonial merchants,
particularly in Massachusetts,
frequently tried to bypass the
Navigation Acts
o Claimed that since the colony
was chartered by a joint-stock
company, they were not required
to obey Parliamentary Acts

King Charles II, tired of
constant insubordination
against his authority in
Massachusetts, removed the
corporate charter of the colony
and it was made a royal
colony, under his strict control
Colonists, as required, sent
large amounts of raw
materials to Britain and
purchased a substantial
amount of manufactured
British goods
 Discovered that other
countries were willing to pay
more for the same products.

o Many colonial merchants
frequently sold goods to Spain,
France, and Holland, even
though it was illegal
What it was
How it worked
The reality
The period after the Smuggling trials were
British control actually
Glorious Revolution in held in stricter Royal decreased. As long as raw
which Parliament
Courts and a Board
materials went to England
strengthened the
of Trade was
and colonists bought British
Navigation Acts and
established to
goods, the British did not
toughened regulation
monitor trade.
enforce the Navigation Acts.
of colonial trade.
In fact the policy benefited
both parties which is why it
was given the name
“salutary neglect”.
 Loyalty
to the British
Crown
 People considered
themselves “British
Subjects”
 Lack of communication
especially over great
distances
 Societal and cultural
differences
Revenue raising from
colonists
 Required transshipping
through UK ports
 Nit-picking
paperwork/requirements
 Guilty until proven innocent

• venue to Nova Scotia
• no Jury
• Judges compensated by
monies seized
Vigorous enforcement
ordered by Grenville
 Real effects (revenues, etc)



Rejected virtual representation
Protests
o legislature pass anti Stamp Act
resolutions
o Loyal Nine
o Boston leads

Hit hard by Sugar act
o Distillers
o wine importers
o generally depressed economy
• forced resignation of Boston stamp
distributor
• threats of death
• property damage by mobs
o Sons of Liberty
• similar to Loyal nine
• formed in several colonies


Virtual Representation - concept
employed by Prime Minister George
Grenville to explain why Parliament
could legally tax colonists even
though colonists could not elect any
members of Parliament. The theory
held that the members of Parliament
did not only represent their specific
geographical constituencies, but
rather that they took into
consideration the well being of all
British subjects when considering
legislation
Loyal Nine - A group of Boston
merchants and artisans that formed
during the Stamp Act crisis to lead
the public in attempts to drive the
stamp distributors from the city. This
was one of the first steps toward
political organization in the colonies.

Sons of Liberty: A secret
organizations formed in the
American colonies in protest against
the Stamp Act (1765). They were
organized by merchants,
businessmen, lawyers, journalists,
and others who would be most
affected by the Stamp Act. The
leaders included John Lamb and
Alexander McDougall in New York,
and Samuel Adams and James Otis
in New England. The societies kept
in touch with each other through
committees of correspondence,
supported the nonimportation
agreement, forced the resignation of
stamp distributors, and incited
destruction of stamped paper and
violence against British officials
 Stamp
Act Congress
o NYC 1765 - statement of
united opposition to Stamp
Act
o Boycott of English products
• 40% of English revenue from
sales in NA
• Merchants push for repeal
• Grenville dismissed
 Stamp
Act repealed,
March 1766
Declaratory
Act of 1766
o passes same time as Stamp Act repealed
(almost unnoticed by most colonials, who saw
repeal as a victory)
o stated absolute British power to legislate for
Colonies in “All cases whatsoever”
o fundamental disagreement between England
and Colonies


General change in political
thought in England and
colonies
Locke - natural rights,
obligations of government to
governed
o British oppositionists - claimed
parliament served self first,
people second
o General shift by many in view of
Crown/Parliament motives



American Protestant clergy
influence
Quartering Act - 1766
Indirect tax, resented,
especially in New York (many
troops there)


Removed all import tariffs on tea
imported by the Govt. Chartered
British East India Company
Britain in dire financial straits
Needed to be able to control colonial
market
o Tea can be directly shipped from India
to N. America (no longer has to go
through England)
o

Reduced cost of tea below all
competitors, but.....
colonists saw it as means to raise
money to pay colonial governors
o would make colonists accept principle
of Parliamentary right to tax to accept
cheap tea (In other words accept the
spirit of the Declaratory Act of 1766)
o

Committees warned that tea
cargoes should not be landed
 Hutchinson
(Mass Governor) ordered tea landed in
Boston
 50 or so men disguised as Indians dump tea into harbor
November 1773 (45 tons, 1 million pounds)

Outraged, Parliament responds with the Coercive (Intolerable) Acts.
o Boston Port Bill - closed port of Boston until tea paid for (still waiting)
o Mass . Government Act - revoked Mass charter, removed elected upper
o
o
o
o
o
o
house, governor to name all sheriffs, judges, only one town meeting per year
Administration of Justice Act - persons enforcing British justice in colony
could be tried only in England
Quartering Act - any empty building could be taken to house British troops
Replaced Mass governor with British military commander for North America,
General Thomas Gage
Quebec Act - also passed at same time as Coercive Acts, perceived by
colonists as part of them.
Established Catholicism as official religion of Quebec
Extended Quebec’s territory South to the Ohio and West to the Mississippi
(several colonies claimed lands in this region which had now become part of
Canada
Although
aimed at Mass as punishment,
the acts inflamed all colonies
Many of the provisions of the Acts are
listed as grievances by Jefferson in the
Declaration of Independence
Virginian upper class and lower class join
in opposition to crown and in support of
Mass
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1700 troops into Boston 1768,
resented by Bostonians
“Occupied city”
1770 - troops fire into angry,
threatening crowd surrounding
customs office
Crispus Attucks
o A leader of crowd, free man of
color (African/native American
descent)
o usually conceded to be first
casualty of the Revolution

Soldiers tried (defended by
John Adams)
o All but two acquitted

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Intended to raise revenue, tighten
customs enforcement, and assert
imperial authority in America
Sponsored by Chancellor of the
Exchequer Charles Townshend
and enacted on June 29, 1767
Key statute levied import duties
on glass, lead, paint, paper, and
tea
Purpose was to provide salaries
for some colonial officials (such
as Judges and Governors) so
provincial assemblies could not
coerce them by withholding
wages


Philadelphia, 1774
All but Georgia attend (remember that
Georgia had only been a colony 35
years, many still felt English, compared
to Carolinas, New Englanders)
o
Endorsed Suffolk Resolves (Mass
statement that no colony owed
obedience to any of the Coercive
Acts)
o
Voted to boycott all British imports
after Dec. 1, 1774 and even
harsher, stop all exports to British
Caribbean islands after Sept 1775
unless reconciled
o
Appealed direct to George III to
dismiss ministers responsible for
the Coercive acts
o
Many colonies began forming
volunteer militias

Agreement not unanimous
o Some upper class still sided with
British, feared irreparable damage
o Feared mob rule
o Called Tories (after the majority
party in Parliament, whom they
supported) or Loyalists , because
the did not favor confrontation
o Frequently harassed by patriots
o During the entire course of the
Revolutionary war, the new nation
was split about evenly three ways.
About a third favored
independence, a third opposed
and a third cared little as long as
they did well financially
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April 1775 - Mass militia rumored to be stockpiling military
supplies at Concord Ma.
Gage sends 700 British regulars to seize supplies, arrest
Hancock and Adams if able
Dawes and Revere ride, warn “minutemen” the redcoats are
coming
At Lexington 70 militia skirmish with 700 Brits (first firefight of
Revolutionary War
o Brits win, 8 militia dead, one Brit wounded, press on to Concord
o Battle begins continues all the way back to Boston, 273 redcoats
killed, British understand that the game has changed

By April, 20,000 New Englanders surround Boston
o Green Mountain Boys under Ethan Allen seize Fort Ticonderoga on
Lake Champlain, take cannon for siege of Boston
Tract by Thomas Paine,
immigrated in 1770s
 Radical revolutionary,
wrote “Common Sense”,
promoting cause and
reasons for American
Independence
 Spoke of new kind of
nation, government, model
for the world
 Sold 100,000 copies in
three months, convinced
many who had hoped for
reconciliation with England


July 2, Continental congress announces the United States
of America

July 4th approved draft of Declaration of Independence
(written by Jefferson)
o Like Paine, aimed at King George III never mentions
o
o
o
o
Parliament
Jefferson acknowledged debt to John Locke for ideas,
spirit of a man created Govt and natural rights of citizens
Stressed that England had violated the “social contract”
with its citizens in the colonies
Typical enlightenment philosophy
Aim - to convince the Americans to be willing to die for
liberty, masterful political propaganda