How did England try to control trade with its American colonies?

1 Answer
Aug 22, 2017

The concept was mercantilism. By tariffs, navigation acts, and taxes England attempted to monopolize all trade with the American colonies.

Explanation:

The economic model of mercantilism was that the colonies were forced to trade only with the " mother" country. The colonies would provide a source of raw materials and merchandize that could only be sold to the " mother" country. In return the colonies would provide a market for the manufactured products of the " mother" country.

For England it was a win win. What raw materials that England could not used could be sold by British merchants for a profit to other countries. England could control the cost and assign a value to the raw materials from the colonies much less than the value of the goods on a global open market.

England could also set the prices for its manufactured products setting the value higher than what the colonies might have been e able to get from other countries. The navigation acts required all goods coming to the colonies had to be shipped in British flagged ships.

Manufacturing in the colonies was discouraged by the use of tariffs and taxes on all manufactured goods produced in the colonies. The tariffs and taxes insured that the cost of manufactured goods from the colonies could not compete with the cost of manufactured goods made in England.

British revenue vessels attempted to enforce the navigation acts. Any attempt to ship goods in or out of the colonies not regulated by England was regarded as the crime of smuggling. The navigation acts were not completely successful in regulated trade but these laws did help build the resentment toward England that caused the revolutionary war.