Mercantilism and the Empire
- Most European kingdoms in the 17th century adopted the economic policy of mercantilism, which looked upon trade,
colonies, and the accumulation of ________________ as the basis for a country's military and political strength.
- According to mercantilist doctrine, a government should regulate _____ and production to enable it to become self-sufficient.
- Colonies were to provide ____________________ to the parent country for the growth and profit of that country's industries.
- Colonies existed for one purpose only which was to _________________ the parent country.
- Mercantilist policies had guided both the _________________ and the _________________ colonies from their inception.
- Mercantilism began to be applied to the English colonies only after the turmoil of England's ________________ had subsided.
Acts of Trade and Navigation
- England's government implemented a mercantilist policy with a series of ____________________ Acts from 1650 to 1673,
which established three rules for colonial trade:
1. Trade to and from the colonies could be carried only by _____________ or ______________-built ships, which could be
operated only by English or colonial crews.
2. All goods imported into the colonies, except for some perishables, could pass only through ports in ________________
3. Specified or "enumerated" goods from the colonies could be exported to _____________ only. _____________ was the
original "enumerated" good, but over a period of years, the list was expanded to include most colonial products.
Impact on the colonies
- The Navigation Acts had both positive and negative effects on the colonies.
- Positive effects: 1. New England ________________________ prospered
2. Chesapeake tobacco had a monopoly in ___________________
3. English military forces protected the colonies from potential attacks by the ____________ & __________
- Negative effects: 1. Colonial ______________________ was severely limited
2. Chesapeake farmers received ____________________ for their crops
3. Colonists had to pay ___________________________ for manufactured goods from England
- Mercantilist regulations were unnecessary, since England would have been the colonies' ___________ trading partner
- Whatever economic advantages were obtained from the Navigation Acts were more than offset by their negative
_____________________ effects on British-colonial relations.
- __________________ slowly developed in the colonies against regulatory laws imposed by the distant government in London.
- Especially in New England, colonists would routinely defy the Navigation Acts by ________________ in French, Dutch, and
other prohibited goods.
Enforcement of the acts
- The British government was often lax in enforcing the acts, and its agents in the colonies were known for their _____________
- Occasionally, the crown would attempt to overcome colonial resistance to its trade laws.
- In 1684, it revoked the charter of Massachusetts Bay because that colony had been the center of ________________ activity.
Brief experiment: the Dominion of New England
- A new king, __________________, succeeded to the throne in 1685.
- He was determined to increase royal control over the colonies by combining them into larger administrative units and doing
away with their __________________ ____________________
- In 1686, he combined NY, New Jersey, & various New England colonies into a single unit called the Dominion of New England.
- Sir Edmund Andros was sent from England to serve as ___________________ of the dominion.
- The new governor made himself instantly unpopular by levying _________, limiting town _________, and revoking land titles.
- James II did not remain in power for long.
- His attempts at asserting his royal powers led to an uprising against him.
- The Glorious Revolution of 1688 succeeded in deposing James and replacing him with two new sovereigns, ________& _____.
- James' fall from power brought the ___________________________________ to an end.
- Massachusetts Bay, New York, and the other colonies again operated under separate ____________________
Permanent restrictions
- Despite the Glorious Revolution, mercantilist policies remained in force.
- In the 18th century, there were more English officials in the __________________ than in any earlier era.
- Restrictions on colonial trade, though poorly enforced, were widely _________________ & _____________________
The Institution of Slavery
- Of far greater importance than mercantilism was a colonial institution that became rooted in American society in the closing
decades of the 17th century.
- That was the institution of slavery.
- The number of slaves grew _____________, from only a few thousand in 1670 to tens of thousands in the early 18th century.
- By 1750, half of Virginia's population and two thirds of __________________________ population were slaves.
Increased demand for slaves
- The following factors explain why slavery became increasingly important, especially in the southern colonies.
1. __________________________________: Increases in wages in England reduced the supply of immigrants to the colonies
2. Dependable ________________________: Large-plantation owners were disturbed by the political demands of small farmers
and indentured servants and by the disorders of Bacon's Rebellion. They thought that slavery would provide a stable labor
force totally under their control.
3. ___________________: As tobacco prices fell, rice and indigo became the most profitable crops. To grow such crops
successfully required both a large land area and a large number of inexpensive, relatively unskilled field hands,
Slave laws
- As the number of slaves increased, white colonists adopted laws to ensure that African Americans would be held in bondage
for life and that their slave status would be _____________________ by their children.
- In 1641, ____________________________ became the first colony to recognize the slavery of "lawful" captives.
- Virginia in 1661 enacted legislation stating that children automatically inherited their mother's slave status _______________
- By 1664, ______________________ further locked African slaves into perpetual bondage by declaring that baptism did not
affect the slave's status, and that white women could not marry African-American men.
- It became customary for whites to regard blacks (whether slave or free) as social _____________________
- Thus, both _______________ and ____________________ became an integral part of American colonial society.
Triangular trade
- In the 17th century, English trade in African slaves had been monopolized by a single company.
- After the Royal African Company's monopoly expired, many New England merchants entered the lucrative _______________.
- Merchant ships would regularly follow a triangular, or three-part, trade route.
1. A ship loaded with barrels of rum would start out from a New England port like Boston and cross the Atlantic to West Africa;
there the __________ would be traded for hundreds of captive __________________.
2. The ships would set out on the difficult Middle Passage for the Africans who were forced to experience it. Those Africans
who survived the frightful voyage would be traded as slaves in the __________________ for a cargo of ____________________
3. Completing the last side of the triangle, the ship would return to a _____________________ port where the sugar would be
sold to be used in making _________. Every time that one type of cargo was traded for another, the slave-trading entrepreneur
usually succeeded in making a substantial ________________________