England established colonies so they could further the ideals of mercantilism which was described by Thomas Mun in 1664 as "'sell[ing] more to strangers yearly than we consume of theirs in value" (Reich, 143). The ultimate end game was to have more gold and silver than one's rivals. Therefore, the colonies became the producers of raw goods while England became the manufacturer of goods. In return, the colonies were expected to buy the goods back as part of the cycle. All of this was set forth in the Navigation Acts. However, colonists were not so eager to maintain that cycle and often would import cheaper goods from various other sources.
For a while, England turned a blind eye to the colonial importation of rival goods because enforcement of the Navigation Acts was too expensive and the distance between the mother country was a difficult hurdle to overcome. With these difficulties, the blind eye eventually became salutary neglect. As long as England was the main benefactor, the Crown was tolerant of the smuggling of goods. Eventually, however, England was less of a benefactor and competing countries, such as the Dutch, gained ground in the colonial market, in direct violation of the ideals of mercantilism. "The British colonies--there were twenty-two of them in the Western Hemisphere in 1760--were becoming too important to be treated as casually as the mother country had treated them in the first half of the eighteenth century" (Wood, 6).
Meanwhile, England incurred steep debt from various wars it had fought--including the French and Indian War--and as a result of this perfect storm, the American Colonies were forcefully hit by British desire to take strict control with the Stamp Act of 1765.
For a while, England turned a blind eye to the colonial importation of rival goods because enforcement of the Navigation Acts was too expensive and the distance between the mother country was a difficult hurdle to overcome. With these difficulties, the blind eye eventually became salutary neglect. As long as England was the main benefactor, the Crown was tolerant of the smuggling of goods. Eventually, however, England was less of a benefactor and competing countries, such as the Dutch, gained ground in the colonial market, in direct violation of the ideals of mercantilism. "The British colonies--there were twenty-two of them in the Western Hemisphere in 1760--were becoming too important to be treated as casually as the mother country had treated them in the first half of the eighteenth century" (Wood, 6).
Meanwhile, England incurred steep debt from various wars it had fought--including the French and Indian War--and as a result of this perfect storm, the American Colonies were forcefully hit by British desire to take strict control with the Stamp Act of 1765.
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Review the list of British Acts on Colonial America. Download the following PDF to fill in the chart using the information below:
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List of British Acts on Colonial America
1651 Navigation Acts
The Navigation Acts were trade rules that governed commerce between Britain and its colonies. The first of the Navigation Acts existed for almost two centuries and was repealed in 1849. The laws were designed to protect British economic interests in colonial trade and to protect its industry against the rapidly growing Dutch navigation trade.
1733 Molasses Act
The purpose of the Molasses Act was to protect British West Indies exports to the American colonies from the more fertile French and Spanish islands of Martinique and Santo Domingo. It was not designed to raise revenue but it was used as a trade barrier. The duty was set at 6p per gallon of imported foreign molasses, corruption became endemic and illegal trade was widespread. In its first year it collected £330 sterling and during the period of 1738-1741 it collected £76 a year. Not until 1763 was the collection of the duty enforced when the duty was lowered to 2d a gallon and in 1764 it was replaced by the Sugar Act.
1751 Currency Act
The Currency Act of 1751 prohibited the issue of new bills of credit by New England colonies: Rhode Island, Massachusetts Bay, New Hampshire and Connecticut. Parliament decided to enact the Currency Act of 1751 to control currency depreciation against silver and sterling and to ensure its value for payments of debt to British merchants. A subsequent Currency Act enacted in 1764 extended the policy to all British colonies in the Americas increasing more tension between Britain and America.
1764 Sugar Act
It amended the existing 1733 Molasses Act. The Act increased the duty of molasses from 2d to 3d of gallon of imported molasses. It enforced the Navigation Acts by prohibiting vessels to directly transport cargo to the colonies. Vessels had to unload its cargo in Britain, pay duties and reload its cargo before sailing to the colonies. The Sugar Act imposed a £7 a ton on wine imported from Madeira, the Azores and Canary Islands. It added hides, skins, potash and other products to the list of commodities that could be legally exported. The act was strictly enforced through the Vice-Admiralty Courts.
1765 Stamp Act
The Stamp Act intended to raise revenue by requiring the purchase of stamps to be placed on public documents, there were 55 documents subject to the duty. Violators were to be prosecuted in the vice-admiralty courts. For the first time the British had levied an explicit tax on the colonist for the purpose of raising revenue, previous taxes were seen as trade taxes and tolerated by colonial residents. Opposition to the tax was widespread as it represented an infringement on their rights. Opposition groups such as the Sons of Liberty sprung everywhere. The Act was nullified in March 1766.
1765 Quartering Act
The act required colonial assemblies to provide housing, food and drink to British troops stationed in their towns with the purpose of improving living conditions and decreasing the cost to the crown. Soldiers were to be housed in barracks or empty public buildings and not in private residences. It was the duty of local legislatures to fund the expenses. In 1766 the New York assembly refused to raise the money and in 1767 Parliament passed the New York Suspending Act on July 1767 which suspended the assembly until they complied with the new law.
1766 Declaratory Act
The Declaratory Act was passed on March 18, 1766, at the same time as the repeal of the 1765 Stamp Act. The act was used as a justification for the repeal of the Stamp Act and as a face saving action. The 1766 Declaratory Act stated that the colonies are subordinate and dependent on the Imperial Crown and Parliament of Britain and that Parliament had the authority to pass laws.
1767 Townshend Acts
The Act imposed import duties on 72 items including paint, tea, glass and paper. The revenue raised from it was to provide for the salaries of colonial officers and its administration. It also authorized the Supreme Court to issue writs of assistance for violators, established the American Customs Board and expanded Admiralty Courts. Protests against the Townshend Acts led to the Boston Massacre.
1773 Tea Act
The Tea Act of 1773 granted the East India Company exclusive license to import and distribute tea to the American colonies. Tea was sold in America at 10s per pound, half its previous price and less than the cost of smuggled tea. Despite the economic benefit to end consumers of tea, the law damaged the position of independent shippers, smugglers and local shopkeepers. On December 1773 Bostonians dumped 342 chests of tea into the Boston Harbor in an event known as the Boston Tea Party.
1774 Coercive or Intolerable Acts
As retaliation for the Boston Tea Party, Britain imposed the Coercive Acts in 1774. The Coercive Acts were a package of five laws: Boston Port Act, Massachusetts Government act, Administration of Justice Act, Quartering Act and Quebec Act [leading to increased fervor for a need to separate]" (Stamp Act History, 2018 emphasis added)
Review the three acts listed below. Why would these three acts, in particular, affect the colonial women?
Acts Passed that Led to the Boycotts and Most Affected Colonial Women:
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Stamp Act of 1765 - The First Consumer Tax
In 1765, the Stamp Act was passed by the British Parliament. It was a radical departure from having colonial government regulate their own taxes. This was the first time a direct consumer tax was imposed on the colonists. Stamps bought by merchants added a cost that they then passed on to the consumers. There was a loud and immediate reaction and the colonists rallied behind the idea of no taxation without representation.
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The Stamp Act of 1765 required that government-issued stamps be placed on all legal documents and newspapers as well as playing cards and dice. In one ill-advised stroke, the mother country managed to anger not only local political leaders, but also the most vocal members of colonial society--its lawyers and editors--and those mostly likely to take their protest to the streets--sailors, dockworkers, and other of the growing colonial urban poor. This threat to local government's control over taxation also managed to produce what the threat of Indian attack could not: united political action by the colonies" (Berkin, 13). 
Meeting Place for Stamp Act Congress
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In the New York Gazette 1765 article below, how does the writer describe the spirit of liberty throughout the colony? What was their plan of action to get the Stamp Act repealed?
Newspaper Courtesy of Massachusetts Historical Society
Nine of the thirteen colonies met together to protest the act issued by the British Parliament. Three of the colonies did not attend because their royal governors would not allow it. This meeting came to be known as the Stamp Act Congress and was the first organized colonial action formed to protest a British measure.
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Townshend Acts of 1767
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In 1767, when Charles Townshend became Prime Minister of England, he tried to expand import duties to include items such as paper, paint, and tea with the American Revenue Act. The colonists found this unacceptable and there was an immediate and well-organized reaction. It was at this point that the colonists began the non-importation and non-consumption movements. Tensions eventually lead to the Boston Massacre.
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Charles Townshend
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His plan focused on ostensibly acceptable import duties on British china, glass, paper, pasteboard, lead, paint, and tea with a design not to pay for the army there but to free colonial governments from reliance on provincial assemblies for support. It also created a Board of Customs Commissioners, based in Boston, to enforce them" (Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, 2018). |
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Tea Act of 1773
By 1770, the Townshend Acts were repealed but the British Parliament maintained a small tax on tea on the colonies. For the next three years, there was sporadic violence and tension. By 1773, a new Tea Act was passed. It lowered the price of tea from the struggling East India Company, but there was an immediate negative reaction in the colonies once more. Since trust had already eroded between the colonies and England, the colonists believed it was a trap. They thought that once the Dutch were out of the tea trading business, the East India Company would raise the price once more. Boycotting began in the colonies once again.
The Tea Act of 1773 allowed the company to eliminate the English merchant middlemen and sell directly to the colonists . . . The British government anticipated few complaints . . . [but] Parliament had once again underestimated colonial mistrust and colonial readiness to resist any further erosion of their rights . . . Many colonists believed the Tea Act was an excuse to collect the tax on tea and thus establish a precedent for new taxes on British goods" (Berkin, 20). |
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