Mercantilism is a national policy that was created in order to maximize trading between nations and to maximize the revenue from silver to gold. In this case, mercantilism was meant to maximize wealth in Britain by doing international trade. These laws created a trade system where Americans would provide raw goods to Britain. After receiving the raw goods from America, Britain would sell them in markets all over Europe. Since everyone was supplying the raw goods to Britain, it was very difficult to compete with their manufacturing powers. English ships were always favored which excluded any other country from sharing in Britain’s wealth. I believe that mercantilism did harm the development of North America because it forced North America to abide by British laws leaving little to no benefits for anyone except Britain. The English Parliament was then created and passed four ‘Navigation Acts” to ensure the mercantilist trade was fairly balanced. Under the first act, “only English or English colonial ships could carry cargo between imperial ports.” The second act, “certain goods, including tobacco, rice, and furs, could not be shipped to foreign nations except through England or Scotland.” The third act, “the English Parliament would pay “bounties” to Americans who produced certain raw goods, while raising …show more content…
Many colonists in New England avoided the Navigation Acts by smuggling goods. Although relations between England and the colonies were not great, the two sides never came to any real conflict. England made a policy where the trade laws that most hurt the colonial economy were not enforced. British officials knew that at some point they would have to battle with the French over the ruling of the continent, and they needed the colonists to be on their side when the time of battle would arrive. The British did not want to take any chances with their allies through all of these trade