During the English Civil War, which began in 1642 and ended in 1649, the British had too many troubles of their own to pay much attention to regulating trade with the colonies. In this period, Americans had slipped into the habit of shipping their goods directly to continental ports, and the Dutch made great inroads into the carrying trade of the colonies. In 1651, Parliament passed the first of the so-called Navigation Acts, directed primarily at prohibiting the shipping of American products in Dutch vessels. Not until after the Restoration, however, was England in a position to enforce a strict commercial policy, beginning with the Navigation Acts of 1660 and 1663.
These acts were modified from time to time by hundreds of policy changes; at this point, it is sufficient to note the three primary categories of trade restriction:
1. All trade of the colonies was to be carried in vessels that were English built and owned, commanded by an English captain, and manned by a crew of whom three-quarters were English. English was defined as “only his Majesty’s subjects of England, Ireland, and the Plantations.” Of great importance to colonists was the fact that colonists and colonial ships were both considered “English” under the law.
2. All foreign merchants were excluded from dealing directly in the commerce of the English colonies. They could engage in colonial trade only through England and merchants resident there.
3. Certain commodities produced in the colonies could be exported only to England (or Wales, Berwick-on-Tweed, or other English colonies—essentially any destination within the Empire). These “enumerated” goods included sugar, tobacco, cotton, indigo, ginger, and various dyewoods (fustic, logwood, and braziletto). The list was later amended and lengthened, and Scotland was added as a legal destination after 1707.
It is important to keep these three categories of restrictions firmly in mind. Although they were the cause of occasional protests on the part of the colonists, they caused practically no disruption of established trade patterns during the remaining decades of the seventeenth century. Indeed, the acts were only loosely enforced throughout most of the seventeenth century. When in 1696 a system of admiralty courts was established to enforce the Navigation Acts, their impact became somewhat more pronounced. Indeed, from the beginning of the eighteenth century, most spheres of colonial commercial activity were regulated. One relaxation of the regulations in the 1730s is noteworthy. At that time, some enumerated goods were allowed to be shipped directly to ports south of Cape Finisterre, in Northern Spain.
World History
