Download The Effects of Mercantilism

The Effects of Mercantilism
Mercantilism, briefly, is an economic and political policy whereby a state tries to gain greater
wealth and power than its rivals. The mercantilism of the 1600’s and 1700’s aimed at building a powerful,
self-sufficient empire in a world divided by religious wars and bitter commercial rivalry. Under
mercantilism, a state’s government tried to gain greater power than it’s rivals by building a larger army and
navy. To build greater military power, the state needed money. To get money, a state tried to sell to other
countries more goods than it bought from them. It tried, in other words, to build a favorable balance of
trade. A state gains a favorable balance of trade when it exports more than it imports.
If a state secured a highly favorable balance of trade, it could be self-sufficient, become wealthy,
and build a powerful army and navy. Colonies were an essential part of that plan. The British, for
example, thought that colonies would strengthen Great Britain in three ways: providing raw materials,
providing markets for goods, and strengthen the merchant fleet that could train naval personnel and provide
ports for naval bases.
-Restrictions on manufacturing
To apply the mercantile theory of trade, the British parliament passed many laws. One series of
laws restricted nearly all the manufacturing of the British Empire to England. They forbade the colonists
from exporting raw materials even neighboring colonies. They prevented the skilled workers from leaving
Great Britain for fear of them going to the colonies and starting manufacturing plants. At first the colonists
didn’t mind the restrictions because they had neither the money nor the skilled labor to establish such
industries.
-Restrictions on shipping, buying, and selling
Another series of laws beginning in 1651, the Navigation Acts restricted all trade in the empire to
British ships exclusively. Some colonists benefited from this because since they were still British
citizens they could be involved in this. They began to build and sail British ships. The Navigation Act
of 1660 listed, or enumerated, specific colonial products that could be shipped only to England and
could not be sold to any other country where they might receive a higher price. The British also paid
bounties to the colonists to stimulate the production of certain goods. In the Navigation Act of 1663,
Parliament required most manufactured goods to be bought from England. Furthermore, if products
were being bought from another European state they had to be shipped to England first to be loaded on
an English ship and an import duty had to be paid.
- Direct and Triangular Trade
Three most lucrative trade routes for the colonists were direct trade with Great Britain, direct trade
with the West Indies, and Triangular trade. The colonist traded raw materials to Great Britain and
received manufactured goods. The colonists sent grain, fish, meat, and lumber to the West Indies and
received sugar, molasses, and money. In triangular trade the colonists sent rum to Africa, African
states sent slaves and gold to the West Indies, and the West Indies sent sugar molasses and gold to the
colonies.
-Problems of the Mercantilism system of trade
The mercantile laws were in place to establish a system to organize trade for the colonies. For the
most part when colonies evaded or broke mercantile laws the British followed a policy of salutary
neglect where they didn’t really enforce the laws that they created. The laws were in place just to give
a guideline and influence the colonists to trade in the manner that the empire desired. The problem
with this will arise when the British need money to repay their war debt. The new mercantile laws will
be designed not just to influence, but also to produce revenue. This new policy will cause conflict.
British Laws / Colonial Reactions
1.
French and Indian War- or Seven Years’ War. Dispute among British colonies and French
about Ohio Valley land. After initial defeats, the British were victorious with help of
Washington and colonial militias.
2.
Proclamation of 1763- The Proclamation of 1763- Ordered settlers to withdraw from lands
wet of the Appalachian Mountains. Brought fur trade under British control. No trader could
cross the mountains without British consent. American fur traders and colonists who wanted
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to settle the western lands were filled with resentment. As well as merchants and land
speculators who had already bought land beyond the Appalachians.
3.
Sugar Act of 1764- Placed a duty on molasses, sugar, and other products imported from
outside the British Empire. Purpose was to collect revenue. Lowered previous duty on
molasses, but was strictly enforced. This interfered with colonial merchants, ship owners,
and rum distillers. Cut into the profits from smuggled goods. Angry colonial merchants
began to organize committees to discuss means of resistance.
4.
The Stamp Act of 1765- Placed a tax on licenses of all kinds, on diplomas, playing cards,
newspapers, advertisements, and legal documents in order to raise revenue.
5.
Stamp Act Congress 1765- Colonists upset of this direct tax. Delegates from 9 colonies met
in New York. They declared loyalty to the King but vowed to resist all taxes levied without
the consent of their colonial legislatures.
6.
Sons of Liberty 1765- Townspeople who rioted in large towns and destroyed the offices of
Stamp tax collectors. They burned stamps and houses of British officials. Tar and
feathered. They justified their violent acts as battling for their rights as English subjects.
7.
Boycotts 1765- Many of the colonists joined together and agreed to non-importation
agreements, not to buy or import British goods. Within months products from Great Britain
vanished from colonial stores and warehouses.
8.
Quartering Act of 1765- while the colonist were already furious Parliament passed the
Quartering Act that required the to provide barracks and supplies for British troops stationed
in America.
9.
Repeal of the Stamp Act 1766- Under heavy pressure from the struggling British merchants,
Parliament repealed the Stamp Act. Colonists rejoiced in the repeal. The son of liberty
erected a flagpole in NYC called the Liberty Pole and pledged their devotion to the cause of
liberty.
10. The Declaratory Act of 1766- Parliament asserted its “full power and authority to make laws
to bind the colonies and people of America….in all cases whatsoever.” The question was
did Parliament have the authority to tax the colonies without them having representation in
Parliament.
11. Townshend Acts 1767- Put an indirect tax on articles of everyday use (tea, lead, glass, paint)
and legalized writs of assistance. This prompted again direct action and violence in the
colonies.
12. Suspension of the New York Assembly 1767- New Yorkers expressing their resentment of
the Townshend Acts and writs of assistance, refused to quarter troops. Britain suspended its
assembly denying them the right to representative government. Samuel Adams calls for the
colonies to unite for resistance.
13. Repeal of the Townshend Acts 1770- Lord North, Prime Minister of Britain, calls for a
repeal of the Townshend Acts because of the unrest and the non-importation policies were
hurting British businesses. Tea tax remains in place. Temporary order is restored in the
colonies.
14. Boston Massacre March 5, 1770- A large crown surrounded the 29th Regiment yelling
insults and throwing snowballs. One of the soldiers gives the order to fire. 5 civilians are
killed, Crispus Attucks a runaway slave becomes the first person to die for Independence.
Two soldiers are convicted of manslaughter, but soon released.
15. Committees of Correspondence 1772-1774- Samuel Adams leads citizens in Boston to form
a committee in Boston to keep the colonies and world informed of actions in the colonies.
Similar committees spring up in other colonies. A system of communication was in place.
16. Tea Act of 1773- Parliament enabled the British East India Company to sell tea at a lower
price, but kept the taxes in place like the Townshend Acts. Colonists refuse to buy the tea
on principle. Tea was left to rot, a ship with tea in Annapolis was burned.
17. Boston Tea Party 1773- Colonists dresses as Indians destroy 342 chests of tea valued at
thousands of dollars in the harbor by throwing it in the water.
The Coercive (Intolerable) Acts of 1774- Four Acts to discourage violence and strengthen British
control in the colonies. Closed port of Boston, forbade Massachusetts ton meetings, Quartering
act, and moved trial of British officials to England. British General Thomas Gage was named
governor of Massachusetts. Colonists begin the idea of settling the matter by force.
19.
Quebec Act 1774- Britain greatly enlarged the colony of Quebec to include Ohio Valley all the
way to the Mississippi. Colonists see this as another way to punish the colonies by cutting off the
western lands of Massachusetts, Connecticut and Virginia.
Political Thoughts of the Revolutionary War
Patrick Henry’s Speech Before the Virginia Convention- 1775
Gentlemen may cry peace, peace. But there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that
sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the
field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that the gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so
dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not
what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!
Thomas Paine’s “The Crisis” 1776
These are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis,
shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now deserves the love and thanks of man
and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the
harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem to lightly; it is
dearness only that gives everything its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon it’s goods; and
it would be strange indeed if so celestial article as FREEDOM should not be highly rated…
Important Battles of the Revolutionary War
Lexington and Concord
Late at night on April 18th a group of Patriots in Charleston saw two lights gleaming briefly from the
window in the steeple of the Old North Church in Boston. The lights were a signal, arranged by a Patriot,
to warn friends in Charleston that British Redcoats were crossing the Charles River on their way to
Lexington and Concord, where Patriots had secretly stored rifles and powder. The signal had been
arranged in case the Patriot found it impossible to escape from the closely guarded city and give the signal
in person. After rowing under the cover of darkness to Charleston, the Patriot leaped into the saddle of a
waiting horse and galloped off into the night – and into the history books.
The patriot of course was Paul Revere. He and two fellow Patriots, William (Billy) Dawes Jr., and
Dr. Samuel Prescott, rode through that fateful night, pounding on farmhouse doors, shouting their cry of
alarm. Behind them, as the hoofbeats of their faded into the distance, lamps winked on in kitchens.
Women, their eyes filled with worry, hastily prepared food while the men in the family hurriedly pulled on
clothes and lifted their muskets and powder horns from pegs on the wall. Then the men marched off across
the fields to join their friends and neighbors at the appointed meeting place.
British troops, meanwhile, had rowed across the Charles River and were marching down the road
toward Concord. They reached Lexington at dawn on April 19, 1775. The “minutemen” (militia members
who had promised to be ready at a minute’s notice) were there before them, gathered in ranks on the village
green. Major Pitcairn, commander of the British patrol, ordered the colonists to drop their guns and leave
the green. The colonists started to leave, but held on to their guns. Then someone fired a shot.
Immediately, without waiting for orders, the British troops fired several volleys. When the smoke cleared,
eight colonists lay dead. Ten others were wounded.
The British troops went on to Concord, where they cut down a liberty pole, set fire to the
courthouse, and destroyed several gun carriages. After encountering armed Patriot forces at Concord’s
North bridge, the British started back towards Boston. But the countryside was swarming with angry
colonists. From behind stone walls and the shelter of buildings, the colonists fired steadily on the redcoats,
who now retreated to Boston. British casualties amounted to 73 killed, 174 wounded, and 26 missing.
The redcoats reached Boston late in the day. Curious townspeople saw weary faces, bloody
bandages, and men in tattered uniforms carrying their wounded comrades. When night fell, campfire lights
rimmed the city. These were the fires of rebellion, fed by many of the 16,000 minutemen from the
surrounding countryside.
Saratoga
Aroused to more vigorous efforts by their defeats at Trenton and Princeton, the British now
determined to end the war in 1777. They decided on a plan that would separate New England from the rest
of the states. The plan involved three separate forces to meet at Albany and crush the American forces. All
three forces were not familiar with the rugged terrain and the trackless forests swarming with militia. One
of the forces was led by British General Burgoyne.
General Burgoyne supply raiding party was destroyed at Bennington by General John Stark and a
force of New England militia. At Bemis Heights near Saratoga on the upper reaches of the Hudson River,
Burgoyne met the main body of the American forces in the area. Outnumbered by nearly two to one, and
outmaneuvered by the American leaders (Phillip Schuyler of New York, Horatio Gates of Virginia,
Benjamin Lincoln of Massachusetts, Daniel Morgan of Virginia, Daniel Morgan of Virginia, and Benedict
Arnold of Connecticut) Burgoyne surrendered his entire force of nearly 6,000 troops at Saratoga on
October 17, 1777.
The British Parliament, sobered by the news of Burgoyne’s defeat, sent commissioners to the
Continental Congress with an offer to suspend the Intolerable Acts and pardon the Patriots. Unfortunately
for the British, their concessions came nearly two years too late.
Yorktown
During the summer of 1781, the war proceeded swiftly to a conclusion. British General
Cornwallis had positioned his troops at Yorktown on a peninsula near the mouths of the York and the
James River where he could receive supplies from the British fleet. General Washington arranged a plan
where the French Navy could block the supply route and surround the British forces.
Cornwallis was hopelessly trapped. Behind him was the French fleet. Before him was a greatly
superior force of American troops, reinforced with 6,000 French troops. He surrendered his entire army of
7,000 soldiers on October 19, 1781. The formal Treaty of Paris was signed on September 3, 1783
(although the surrender at Yorktown in reality ended the war). America was awarded 1) independence, 2)
all the land between the Appalachian Mountains and the Mississippi River from the Great Lakes south to
Florida, and 3) the right to fish in the Gulf of the St. Lawrence and off the Coast of Newfoundland. It was
advantageous to the Americans that the commissioners (Benjamin Franklin, John Jay, John Adams, and
Henry Laurens) dealt only with Great Britain. If the French and Spanish had gotten in on the negotiations,
America would not have gotten such a great deal.