A series of Acts, known as the English Navigation Acts, restricted
foreign shipment for trade between Great Britain and its colonies.
LEARNING OBJECTIVE [ edit ]
Define the Navigation Acts
KEY POINTS [ edit ]
The English Navigation Acts were a series of laws that restricted the use of foreign shipping for
trade between England and its colonies. The process of restriction was begun in 1651. The goal
of Parliament was to force colonial trade development into patterns that would be favorable to
England.
The Acts of Trade and Navigation were largely obeyed, with the exception of the Molasses Act of
1733, which proved a great temptation to extensive smuggling because no effective means of
enforcement was provided until the 1750s.
The stricter enforcement of trade laws under the Sugar Act of 1764 became a source of
resentment against Great Britain formerchants in the American colonies, leading to support of
theAmerican Revolution.
TERMS [ edit ]
Molasses Act of 1733
Passed by Parliament at the insistence of plantation owners in the British West Indies, the
Molasses Act of 1733 imposed a tax of six pence per gallon of molasses but proved difficult to
enforce.
British West Indies
A former name for the British colonies in around the Caribbean.
Sugar Act
The Sugar Act, also known as the American Revenue Act or the American Duties Act, was a
revenue­raising act passed by the Parliament of Great Britain on April 5, 1764.
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Trade Restrictions
The English Navigation Acts were a series of laws that restricted use of foreign shipping for
trade between England and its colonies. The process of restriction was begun in 1651;
Parliament's goal was to force colonial trade to develop ways that would be favorable to
England. They wished to stop direct colonial trade with the Netherlands, France, and other
European countries, providing protections for British shipping and trade ventures.
The Navigation Acts enriched Britain, but caused resentment in the colonies and contributed
to the American Revolution. The Navigation Acts required all of a colony's imports to be
either bought from England or resold by English merchants in England, no matter what price
could be obtained elsewhere.
For the most part the Acts of Trade and Navigation were obeyed, with the exception of the
Molasses Act of 1733 This law proved to be a great temptation encouraging extensive
smuggling because the law provided no effective means of enforcement until the 1750s.
Stricter enforcement of the law under the Sugar Act of 1764 became a source of resentment
against Great Britain by merchants in the American colonies, a resentment that helped fuel
the American Revolution.
War Debt And the Molasses and Sugar Acts
A large trade had been growing between the New Englandand Middle colonies and the
French, Dutch, and Spanish West Indian possessions. Sugar from the British West Indieswas
priced much higher than that of its competitors. As a result colonists traded for lower­priced
goods when they could, leaving the British West Indies traders short of customers.
In the first part of the 18th Century, the British West Indies were Great Britain's most
important trading partner; Parliament was attentive to their requests. However, in the
aftermath of the Eighty Years' War, Britain was desperate for income. Rather than acceding
to the demands to prohibit the colonies from trading with the non­British islands,
Parliament passed a prohibitively high tax on on molasses imported from those islands,
hoping to both penalize and profit from foreign trades. If actually collected, the tax would
have effectively closed that source to New England and destroyed much of the rum industry.
Instead smuggling, bribery or intimidation of customs officials effectively nullified the law,
while aligning the colonies against their parent nation.
Effect on the Colonies
The deeply unpopular Molasses Act was the first of the Sugar Acts. This act was set to expire
in 1763; instead, it was renewed in 1764 as the Sugar Act. The colonists.were not pleased.
New England ports especially suffered economic losses from the Sugar Act, as the stricter
enforcement made smuggling molasses more dangerous and risky. They also argued that
their profit margin on rum was too small to support a tax on molasses. Forced to increase
their prices on rum, many colonists feared being priced out of the market. The British West
Indies, on the other hand, now had undivided access to colonial exports. With supply of
molasses well exceeding demand, the islands prospered with their reduced expenses while
New England ports saw revenue from their rum exports decrease.
The taxation structure caused further difficulties. The British West Indies had been the
primary colonial source for hard currency, or specie, and as the reserves of currency were
depleted by taxation the soundness of colonial currency was threatened.
Two prime movers behind the protests against the Sugar Act were Samuel Adams and James
Otis,, both of Massachusetts. In August, 1764, 50 Boston merchants agreed to stop
purchasing British luxury imports. In both Boston and New York there were movements to
increase colonialmanufacturing. There were sporadic outbreaks of violence, most notably in
Rhode Island. Overall, however, there was not an immediate high level of protest over the
Sugar Act in either New England or the rest of the colonies. That would begin in the later
part of the next year when the Stamp Act was passed.
The Sugar Act was repealed in 1766 and replaced with the Revenue Act of 1766, which
reduced the tax to one penny per gallon on molasses imports, British or foreign. This
occurred around the same time that the Stamp Act of 1765 was repealed.
Navigation Acts lead to conflict between the British and the Dutch
This picture depicts a battle during the First Dutch War, 1652­1654. The increasing conflict of trade
interests between England and the Netherlands in the first half of the 17th century made armed
conflict likely and it became inevitable after Cromwell's Navigation Act of 1651.