During the 17th and 18th centuries, the British government was in control of the North American colonies. The prime reason for the British government to control the English colonies was so Britain could trade with the colonies. The English colonies had crops like sugar and tobacco that couldn’t be grown in England so the British relied on the colonies to ship these products to them. The colonies were able to use the British ships in trade for the colonies’ crops. With the policy of mercantilism developing in the 17th century, Britain said they could help the English colonies become a strong country by trading, even though the trading mostly helped the British.
Nevertheless England wanted implemented economic policy known as mercantilism, which focuses on profit of trade.7 England began to pass legislation to ensure that it reaped more trade benefits from its colonial possessions.7 England passed acts that would benefit from the products being created in the new world. One significant act was the Stamp Act 1765, which imposed on all American colonists and required them to pay a tax on every piece of printed paper they used. This stamp act created animosity between the colonies and England because the colonies believed this was just another way to get money out of the colonies without the approval of the colonial legislatures.8 The colonies soon wanted to be free from the reign of the British rule
The economy in the Colonies was very crucial for the survival and growth. Trading, resources, imports, and exports were all key for the Colonies. Expediential wealth was never seen, trading and the economy was very important for the colonists just to get back and live. The economics in the 13 Colonies consisted of a system called mercantilism. This was believing that there was a limited source of wealth in the world, and the goal of being a mercantilist economy was to collect the most silver and gold at the expense of all the other nations.
This assignment must be answered in your own words. 1. What is mercantilism? How did the British use this to manage the original 13 colonies?
America was importing more than exporting causing no mercantilism. The Articles of Confederation were weak and the United States needed a constitution with tariffs, commerce and valuable
In the mercantilist system, American colonies were expected to help the crown achieve a favorable balance of trade, favorable specie inflow, economic self-sufficiency and an export surplus. Colonies were expected to supply products which would otherwise have to be obtained from non-imperial sources, generate exports by the production and sale of products in high demand outside the empire, and provide a market for the mother country's exports. The mother country would provide the colonies with centralized governmental control of the economy, as well as naval and military protection.
. Maryland Toleration Act: Created in 1649 to ease tensions between Protestants and Catholics; ultimately failed and did not end bickering between the two religions . triangular trade: the trade between eastern colonies, Africa, and Europe; included an exchange of slaves to the colonies, manufactured items such as guns and alcohol from EUrope to colonies and West Africa, and crops to Europe . Mercantilism: foundation of the mercantilist theory is that a nation must export more than it imports; high value for gold, silver, and other precious metals . Navigation Acts: essentially a series of tariffs imposed upon the colonies beginning in 1651 to create an English monopoly over trade; colonists could only trade with England and had to use English
‘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 age of exploration when many European countries were traveling and exploring the world, the theory of Mercantilism became popular. Mercantilism restricted trade and wanted more exports than imports. Mercantilism had many negative effects on the colonies and their economic freedom. It made it difficult to trade and made materials very expensive to get. Mercantilism was overall very negative to the colonies with the imbalanced system of trade.
This actually benefitted the colonies because it caused the English to subsidize American assets. Although some aspects of mercantilism hurt the colonists, they found loopholes in the system so it didn’t have as bad an impact which helped improve the economy in the
So, the government tried to encourage exports by granting subsidies, which were payments made to enterprises that the government found beneficial to the nation. The government also improved transportation systems and put high taxes on foreign goods to keep the balance of trade favorable. Overall, due to mercantilism, European colonies were viewed important because they were the main source for manufactured goods. 7. Write a paragraph describing
This big mush in mercantilist ideas came along with the help of tariffs, or trading taxes on imported goods. Hence, we no longer had to rely on Britain for our much needed produced goods such as clothing, furniture, or tools. This caused Britain to lose money, the money they desperately needed to fund their war effort. So, along with impressing our sailors and enforcing a tax, they also took goods from any ships they boarded. This only helped to infuriate the country further as they saw no real reason why britain had to do this.
In the 18th century, there was the Atlantic Triangular Trade. This trading route involved Africa, Europe and the Americas trading back and forth to each other, which essentially formed a triangle (hence the name). Between Africa and North America, slaves, meat, fish, lumber, rum and grain went to and fro. Africa sold it's people into slavery in return for said goods. To America, this was an admirable trade.
From the time of King Charles II, the British monarchy has accepted the policy of mercantilism, the economic belief that a nation can only gain wealth at the expense of another; it was Britain's motivation of founding colonies. The american colonies were a wealth of resources for their mother country. For about one hundred years, 1650-1750, the British government did not strictly enforce mercantilism in the colonies; however, after the French and Indian War Britain changed its colonial policies. From the declaration of the Proclamation Line, the official end to the French and Indian War, in 1763 to the signing of the Declaration of Independance in 1776, the colonies produced several violent demonstrations showing their support for Enlightenment
Problems had risen in England that created a reason to leave for many people. Expensive wars had become more frequent, overseas merchants were becoming wealthy while the economy suffered, land started becoming scarce, religious strife became more prominent in England and religion sought new breeding grounds elsewhere. War is never cheap, and being the largest empire in the world results in a divided struggle to hold land across the world. A weak economy aided the merchants in England who were gaining great wealth overseas selling English wool goods, creating the idea of mercantilism. This concept was based on selling as much as possible while buying very little to uphold profit.
