The English Navigation Acts were a series of laws restricting imports
and exports in Britain and its colonies.
LEARNING OBJECTIVE [ edit ]
Describe the central stipulations of the Navigation Acts and the Acts' effect on the political and
economic situation in the colonies
KEY POINTS [ edit ]
The first of the Navigation Acts was passed in 1651 as a response to the Dutch trade wars and
consequent devastation of British trade.
The Molasses Act and Sugar Acts upset colonists and contributed to the revolution.
The maintenance of a certain level of merchant shipping and of trade generally also facilitated a
rapid increase in the size and quality of the Royal Navy.
The series of Acts were passed in 1651, 1660, 1663, 1673, 1696, and 1733.
The Navigation Acts were fully repealed in 1849.
"English bottoms" included vessels built in Englishplantations (i.e. colonies), for example in
America.
TERMS [ edit ]
Molasses Act
A 1733 act of the Parliament of Great Britain (citation 6 Geo II. c. 13), which imposed a tax of six
pence per gallon on imports of molasses from non­British colonies.
English Navigation Acts
A series of laws that restricted the use of foreign shipping for trade between England (after 1707,
Great Britain) and its colonies, a process which had started in 1651. Their goal was to force
colonial development into lines favorable to England, and stop direct colonial trade with the
Netherlands, France and other European countries.
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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Enforcing the Navigation Acts
The English Navigation Acts, which were passed in the 17thand 18th centuries, restricted
foreign trade by England's colonies to force colonial trade to favor England and stop colonial
trade with the Netherlands, France, and other European countries. The first law was passed
in 1651, was renewed in 1660 and 1663, and subsequently subject to minor amendment.
These Acts formed the basis for British overseas trade for nearly 200 years.
Rationale
The major impetuses for the Navigation Acts were the ruinous deterioration of English trade
in the aftermath of the Eighty Years' War, and the opening of trade between theSpanish
Empire and the Dutch Republic. Within a few years, Dutch and Spanish merchants
overwhelmed English merchants in commerce on the Iberian Peninsula, the Mediterranean,
and the Levant. Even the trade with English colonies was dominated by Dutch merchants,
who crowded out English direct trade with a sudden influx of commodities from the Levant,
the Mediterranean, the Spanish and Portuguese empires, and the West Indies, carried in
Dutch ships and for Dutch profit. For the British government and its traders, the obvious
solution was to seal off the English and Scottish markets to these unwanted imports.
History of the Navigation Acts
The Navigation Act was passed in October of 1651 byParliament, reinforcing a longstanding
government principle that English trade should be carried in English vessels. The Acts
banned foreign ships from transporting non­English goods to England or its colonies. The
Acts specifically targeted the Dutch. It excluded the Dutch from essentially all trade with
England. In some instances, colonists and foreign merchants subverted the Acts, such as in
the West Indies where the Dutch kept up a flourishing "smuggling" trade, thanks to the
preference of English planters for Dutch import goods and the better deal that the Dutch
offered in the sugar trade. The Dutch colony of New Netherland also offered a loophole
through intercolonial trade.
Later revisions added new regulations. Ships' crews had to be three­quarters English. Ship
captains were required to post bond to ensure compliance. The 1663 revisions required the
trade to be carried in English vessels. Importers of enumerated commodities (such as sugar,
rice, and tobacco) had to land and pay a tax before going on to other countries. This
increased both the cost to the colonies and the shipping time. Colonists could trade in their
own shipping with foreign plantations or European countries other than England, provided
they did not violate the enumerated commodity clause.
The Acts were in full force for a short time only. After theSecond Anglo­Dutch War, which
ended disastrously for England, the Dutch were permitted to ship commodities produced in
the German hinterland to England as if these were Dutch goods. Even more important,
England conceded the principle of "free ship, free good" which provided freedom for Dutch
ships from molestation by the Royal Navy on the high seas, even in wars in which the Dutch
Republic was neutral. This enabled the Dutch to conduct their "smuggling" unhindered as
long as they were not caught red­handed in territorial waters controlled by England.
Effect on the Colonies
The Navigation Acts, while enriching Britain, 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. The Molasses Act of 1733 was the first of the
Sugar Acts. It levied heavy duties on the trade of sugar from the French West Indies to the
American colonies, forcing the colonists to buy the more expensive sugar from the British
West Indies instead. Colonists widely flouted the law, but efforts by the British to prevent
smuggling created hostility and caused colonial unrest. The act was set to expire in 1763, but
in 1764 the British renewed it as the Sugar Act.
Massachusetts Colonial Governor Joseph Dudley, ca. 1701
Along with Edward Randolph, Dudley was responsible for the enforcement of the Navigation Acts,
although they did not adhere entirely to the laws.
Historians debate the economic impact of the Acts, with some arguing that the burden on the
individual was small, but the impact on overall economic growth extreme. The Acts had
varying effects. Others argue that the political friction caused by the Acts was more serious
than the negative economic impact, because the merchants most affected were the most
active politically. As the colonial economy matured, the Acts would block it from serious
competition with British manufacturers. On the whole, the Acts of Trade and Navigation
were obeyed until the Molasses and Sugar Acts. The Molasses Act led to extensive smuggling
because no effective means of enforcement was provided until the 1750s. Irritation with
stricter enforcement under the Sugar Act of 1764 became one source of resentment by
merchants in the American colonies against Great Britain, helping cause the American
Revolution.
Oliver Cromwell, by Samuel Cooper
Oliver Cromwell led Parliament in passing the Navigation Act bill i