The Navigation Acts
Three acts of Parliament -- the Navigation Act of 1660, the
Staple Act of 1663, and the Act of 1673 imposing Plantation Duties
-- laid the foundation of the old colonial system of Great Britain.
Contrary to the somewhat passionate contentions of older historians,
they were not designed in any tyrannical spirit, though they
embodied a theory of colonization and trade which has long since
been discarded. In the seventeenth century colonies were regarded as
plantations existing solely for the benefit of the mother country.
Therefore their trade and industry must be regulated so as to
contribute most to the sea power, the commerce, and the industry of
the home country which gave them protection. Sir Josiah Child was
only expressing a commonplace observation of the mercantilists when
he wrote "That all colonies or plantations do endamage their
Mother-Kingdoms, whereof the trades of such Plantations are not
confined by severe Laws, and good execution of those Laws, to the
Mother-Kingdom."
The Navigation Act of 1660, following the policy laid down in the
statute of 1651 enacted under the Commonwealth, was a direct blow
aimed at the Dutch, who were fast monopolizing the carrying trade.
It forbade any goods to be imported into or exported from His
Majesty's plantations except in English, Irish, or colonial vessels
of which the master and three fourths of the crew must be English;
and it forbade the importation into England of any goods produced in
the plantations unless carried in English bottoms. Contemporary
Englishmen hailed this act as the Magna Charta of the Sea. There was
no attempt to disguise its purpose. "The Bent and Design," wrote
Charles Davenant, "was to make those colonies as much dependant as
possible upon their Mother-Country," by preventing them from trading
independently and so diverting their wealth. The effect would be to
give English, Irish, and colonial shipping a monopoly of the
carrying trade within the Empire. The act also aided English
merchants by the requirement that goods of foreign origin should be
imported directly from the place of production; and that certain
enumerated commodities of the plantations should be carried only to
English ports. These enumerated commodities were products of the
southern and semitropical plantations: "Sugars, Tobacco,
Cotton-wool, Indicoes, Ginger, Fustick or other dyeing wood."
To benefit British merchants still more directly by making England
the staple not only of plantation products but also of all
commodities of all countries, the Act of 1663 was passed by
Parliament. "No Commoditie of the Growth Production or Manufacture
of Europe shall be imported into any Land Island Plantation Colony
Territory or Place to His Majestie belonging . . . but what shall be
bona fide and without fraude laden and shipped in England Wales
[and] the Towne of Berwicke upon Tweede and in English built
Shipping." The preamble to this famous act breathed no hostile
intent. The design was to maintain "a greater correspondence and
kindnesse" between the plantations and the mother country; to
encourage shipping; to render navigation cheaper and safer; to make
"this Kingdome a Staple not only of the Commodities of those
Plantations but also of the Commodities of other Countries and
places for the supplying of them -- " it "being the usage of other
nations to keepe their [Plantations] Trade to themselves."
The Act of 1673 was passed to meet certain difficulties which arose
in the administration of the Act of 1660. The earlier act permitted
colonial vessels to carry enumerated commodities from the place of
production to another plantation without paying duties. Under cover
of this provision, it was assumed that enumerated commodities, after
being taken to a plantation, could then be sent directly to
continental ports free of duty. The new act provided that, before
vessels left a colonial port, bonds should be given that the
enumerated commodities would be carried only to England. If bonds
were not given and the commodities were taken to another colonial
port, plantation duties were collected according to a prescribed
schedule.
These acts were not rigorously enforced until after the passage of
the administrative act of 1696 and the establishment of admiralty
courts. Even then it does not appear that they bore heavily on the
colonies, or occasioned serious protest. The trade acts of 1764 and
1765 are described in "The Eve of the Revolution".
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