THE colonists responded to all legislations by accepting the bounties and other encouragements to manufacture and trade while attempting to circumvent those that would limit their search for profits.
Some of the provisions which, on the surface, appeared to benefit England, actually worked to the advantage of colonists.
For example, the requirement that all goods be transported in English ships gave a boost to the northern shipbuilding interests.
In the late 18th Century, prior to the Revolution, shipping services of all kinds generated more revenues for the colonists than the earnings of any other product or service, except tobacco.
In any case, the laws were for the most part ignored.
This was not particularly difficult, since enforcement was sporadic and bribery of colonial officials was quite common.
In theory, the Board of Trade was in charge of such matters, but other bodies had roles as well, including Parliament, the Commissioners of Customs, the Privy Council, the Admiralty, the War Office and the Treasury.
Lord Cardbury, Governor of New York from 1701 to 1708, wrote to the Board of Trade about the situation.
He appeared to have mixed feelings regarding colonial manufacturers and the way the colonies fit into the mercantilist scheme of things: “I am well-informed, that upon Long Island and in Connecticut, they (colonial manufacturers) are setting up a woolen manufacturer, and I, myself, have seen serge made on Long Island that any man may wear. Now if they begin to make serge, they will, in time, make coarse cloth, and then fine.
We have as good fuller’s earth and tobacco pipe clay in this province as any in the world. How far this will be for the service of England, I submit to better judgments; but, however, I hope I may be pardoned, if I declare my opinion to be, that all these colonies, which are but twigs belonging to the main tree (England), ought to be kept entirely dependent and subservient to England.
That can never be if they are suffered to go on in the notions they have. That as they are Englishmen, so they may setup the same manufacturers here, as people may do in England. For the consequences will be that if once they see that they can clothe themselves not only comfortably but handsomely too, without the help of England, they, who are not very fond of submitting to the government, will soon think of putting in execution designs they had long harboured in their breasts.”
In other words, they would think in terms of separation from the mother country.
Reports of northern and middle colonial violations of the Navigation Acts and other actions indicating an unwillingness to play their part in the mercantilist scheme of things appear throughout this period.
Writing to the Board of Trade in 1743, Advocate General William Bolton complained: “There has lately been carried on here a large illicit trade by importing into this province large quantities of European goods of almost all sorts from diverse parts of Europe, some of which are by the laws wholly prohibited to be imported in the plantations, and the rest are prohibited to be imported there unless brought directly from Great Britain. . . . One of these illicit traders, lately departed hence for Holland, proposed to one of the greatest sellers of broadcloths here (and how many others I can’t say) to supply him with black cloth from thence, saying the country might be better and cheaper supplied with broadcloths of that colour from Holland than from England; but to prevent or rather increase your lordships’… I need only to acquaint you that I write this clad in a superfine French cloth, which I bought on purpose that I might wear about the evidence of these illegal traders having already begun to destroy the vital parts of the British commerce; and to use as a memento to myself and the customhouse officers to do everything in our power toward cutting off this trade so very pernicious to the British nation.”
Not surprisingly, the Americans felt otherwise regarding the regulations.
In 1763, a Boston newspaper complained that: “…a colonist cannot make a button, a horseshoe, nor a hobnail, but some sooty iron-monger or respectable button maker of Britain shall squall and bawl that his honour’s worship is more egregiously maltreated, injured, cheated and robbed by the rascally American Republicans.”
During the period from 1668 to 1763, England and France engaged in a series of wars, conducted in Europe but also in the two nations’ colonial empires.
There were The War of Devolution in 1668; King William’s War (known in Europe as the War of the League of Augsburg) from 1689 to 1697; Queen Anne’s War (War of Spanish Succession) from 1702 to 1713; the War of Jenkins’ Ear from 1739 to 1742 (with Spain); King George’s War (War of Austrian Succession) from 1740 to 1748; and the French and Indian War (Seven Years’ War) from 1754 to 1763. England triumphed, but in the process expended a great deal of wealth.
The nation had a debt of 130 million pounds, which required 4.5 million pounds annually for interest alone.
It cost England 350 000 pounds annually to maintain its North American garrison.
But there were benefits.
Having the choice between annexing Canada and the French islands of Guadeloupe, Martinique and St Lucia, England chose Canada, not because it recognised the potential there, but not to anger the English West Indies interests in Parliament.
The latter feared competition from the French sugar islands should they be annexed by England and exempted from the Navigation Laws.
By then, England’s direct investment in the Indies came to 60 million pounds, six times that of investments on the North American mainland.
The islands’ financial backers were far more important in London’s scheme of things than Virginia tobacco or New England’s naval stores and fish!
In the 17th Century, the French colonies in the Caribbean were more productive than those of England.
Sugar flowed to France from Martinique, Guadeloupe, and Santo Domingo, the last producing more sugar than all of the English possessions in the region. After being refined, the sugar was sold throughout Europe.
In exchange for sugar, the French sent their colonists tools, cloth and other manufactured goods, as well as slaves.
Thus France, like England, had accepted mercantilism. Part of this was encouraging trade with the English colonists.
Bribery, collusion and smuggling were in wide evidence along the Atlantic waterfront in the century after 1650, while the English generally looked the other way.
Sir Robert Walpole, who was Prime Minister from 1721 to 1742, took note of the rapid economic growth in the northern colonies, and was reluctant to enforce laws he felt not only would cause economic problems in America, but also result in political friction.
Walpole’s successors followed the same course of action during the next two decades, as wars occupied most of their attention.
This policy of no enforcement started to change in 1762, when John Stuart, the Earl of Bute, a Tory, became Prime Minister, and in the following year, which saw the English triumph in the Seven Years’ War, when George Grenville became Prime Minister.
Grenville thought the northern colonists had benefitted from the war through the elimination of French forces in Canada and the West and so should pay for part of the cost of the war and of maintaining armed forces in America.
The Americans, for their part, seemed to believe the English had gone to war for their own reasons, not to assist the colonies and in any case were not prepared to pay taxes when they had avoided and evaded them for so long.
Moreover, the northern merchants had developed a lively trade with the French colonies in the West Indies, which they intended to continue.
According to the mercantile plan, New England was supposed to provide the West Indies with grains, fish as well as other foods and purchase sugar, molasses, and local products from the islanders.
The New Englanders indeed did sell their products to the British West Indies, but insisted on payment in cash, even during the wars with the French.
This gold was spent on sugar and molasses in the French islands, where the prices were lower and the quality better.
In 1763, the French islands supplied more than 95 percent of the molasses imported into Massachusetts.
The molasses was turned into rum, which was used as trading goods in Africa in exchange for slaves.
Grenville was not as concerned with colonies and mercantilist considerations as were some of his predecessors.
While admitting the worth of the Indies, Grenville had doubts regarding the value of the North American possessions.
Only tobacco and lumber seemed worthwhile products of these colonies. England could obtain its lumber elsewhere.
Besides, the great lumber shortage had come to an end as England and other parts of Europe converted to coal as fuel and for the most part had eliminated charcoal use in the reduction of metallic ores.
Grenville was eager to enforce the regulations, not because he valued the northern colonies for their innate worth but rather the reverse. They were a burden on the Empire and needed to contribute their share to its upkeep.
Dr Michelina Andreucci is a Zimbabwean-Italian researcher, industrial design consultant and is a published author in her field. For comments e-mail: linamanucci@gmail.com