BRITISH ECONOMICS IN PRE-REVOLUTIONARY AMER.   Term Paper ID:22358 Click to get this paper

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Paper Abstract: Examines abuses & defects of English mercantilist system as cause of Revolution. Paper Introduction: The beginning of the American Revolution was instigated at least in part by the British mercantilist economic system governing the relationship between the mother country, England, and the thirteen colonies, a policy which led to an unfavorable balance of payments with reference to the colonies. The colonies bought the goods and services of the mother country and were encouraged to develop those raw materials the home capitalists required. The colonies were aided by the investment of the mother country?s balances and by new capital. Mercantilism was a general economic theory popular in the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries and followed by all colonial powers of the time. It contributed to the onset of the American Revolutionary War because of the British policy aimed at building strong, wealthy, and independent national Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. 76).English capitalists, merchants in the northern colonies, and planters inthe southern colonies were operating in a failing system in which theirclashes of interest were becoming sharper and sharper. A new age now begins: Volume I. New York: McGraw-Hill.Stokesbury, J.L. The lessons of history. England had bound the colonies to itself in economic subservience.Opportunities for colonial enterprise were possible only in commercialagriculture (supported by land speculation) and in trade. New York: Hill and Wang, 1985.Durant, W. Between 1763 and 1775, the American coloniesgrew more restive under British policies, which meant those policies werehaving precisely the opposite effect of what was intended. In the southern colonies, tobacco was the most important commodityproduced to furnish returns for the English goods and services theplantation economy required. Chicago: Quadrangle Books. The first salute. 155-167.Miller, J.C. Durant (1968). and A. However, because the exchange of goods leftEngland with a large trade surplus, English capitalists invested much ofthis surplus in southern planting operations. With theelimination of the French and Indian threat, they felt less dependent onthe British for protection, and military dependence had been one of thestrongest ties between the colonies and the mother country (Miller, 1943,37-39). England needed all of these to maintain herindependence of European supplies. Southern planters also engaged in landspeculation and the fur trade. English power was fully deployed in the colonies themselvesin greater reach for more aggressive courts and on the high seas with thenavy to protect English sugar interests. To extend the market of English merchants inEurope, in 1766 Parliament ordered that many goods (largely flour, maritimesupplies, and fish) bound for many European ports be landed first inEngland. 155). In addition, the fish caught bythe New England fishing fleets competed directly with the English fishingfleets operating in the North Sea and off the Newfoundland banks. In order to weaken colonial commercial activity further, highduties were placed on wines, fruits, and oil from Spain and Portugalbrought directly to America, while such articles brought over from Englandwere to pay much smaller duties: Doubtless all the colonists were not irritated by any one British >reform', but each individual had his own feeling of grievance which enabled him to agree fervently with the complaints of others against British policy and thus add to the heated tempers of the time (Harper, 1966, p. The revenue acts of 1764 and later were used to reduce the size ofcolonial capitalism and to increase its dependent status. The colonists were in a particularly unsympathetic mood as Britainbegan instituting her mercantilist policies. (1988). The second, passed on July4, 1776, was the Declaration of Independence. The colonies bought the goods and services of the mother countryand were encouraged to develop those raw materials the home capitalistsrequired. Antagonismshardened over mercantile policies, and the colonists discovered that theywere becoming Americans rather than British. To maintain the English monopoly of the colonial finished-goods market, certain kinds of foreign drygoods were taxed for the firsttime at the point of entry. These years included aprogression of economic moves by the British and an escalation in negativereactions from the colonists (Stokesbury, 1991, 3 -31). An essential element in the colonial agitation among northernmerchants and southern planters for greater independence and the outbreakof the Revolutionary War was the breakdown of this economic system: The American Revolution was not only a revolt of colonial against a distant government; it was also an uprising of a native middle class against an imported aristocracy (Durant, 1968, p. Wright (ed.). New York: Simon and Schuster.Faulkner, H.U. To pay for this everincreasing debt, southern planters had to expand their operationsconstantly both in intensity, thus wearing out the land, and in scope, bydeveloping more land further west. Causes and consequences of the American Revolution. This alone destroyed thesubservient status of the colonies to England. Finally, when the colonialneed to move into manufacturing and to develop adequate credit and bankingservices for its growing industries threatened the mercantile existence ofEnglish capitalism in the colonies, English leadership sided with Englishinterests (Countryman, 1985, 1 -23). American economic history. "Mercantilism and the American Revolution." In E. English policysided with English business interests and sought to control or eliminatethe colonial competition in many growing "American" industries. Origins of the American Revolution. Several more economic constraints were placed on the colonies leadingup to the Restraining Acts of 1775, which cut almost all the colonies offfrom the northern fisheries and limited their trade entirely to GreatBritain, Ireland, and the British West Indies. The Americans had their owneconomic problems in the form of a postwar depression. In 1765, the importation of several foreigngoods were banned altogether. The purpose of the British general program was to protect theEnglish capitalist interests which now were being jeopardized as a resultof the intensification of colonial capitalist competition. The economic events of 1763-1775 (following the end of the SevenYears' War in 1763 and before the virtual shutoff of English imports in1775) are best understood when we realize that English policy toward thecolonies never really changed from the path followed throughout colonialhistory. The northern colonies were less fortunate.They directly produced few of the goods necessary for the maintenance ofthe English economy. The British experienced an economic crisis in 1763 at the time ofGeorge III's ascension to the throne. The American Revolution. A short history of the American Revolution. (1966). The intent was toencourage native shipping so as to avoid dependence on foreign ships(Faulkner, 1954, 1 7). Indeed, the burden of the new policieswould rest most heavily on the American colonies, and this was consideredfair since Britain had incurred much of her war expenses defending thosecolonies from the French. (1985). The northern merchants found moreprofitable outlets for their lumber in the Caribbean and in Spanish andPortuguese territory. Thecolonial courts were directed to issue general search warrants, and thepeacetime navy was converted into a patrol fleet with powers of search onthe high seas. Now, Britain turned to thecolonies for much-needed revenue. The strugglewas over colonial manufacturing, wild lands and furs, sugar, tea, andcurrency, all of which meant, simply, the survival or collapse of Englishmercantile capitalism. The mercantilist policy proved unsuccessful over time, for reasonsnoted by Tuchman: Subject to supply and demand, of crops and markets, trade has a way of carving its own paths not always obedient to the mercantilist faith (Tuchman, 1988, 21).The constant advance of population into the frontier areas cut down thefield of operations for the fur trade. (1976). The grains and cattle produced along the middle andupper Atlantic seaboard were not permitted to enter England in order toprotect the English agricultural industry. England encouraged these industriesthrough bounties, the relaxing of trade restrictions, and the granting offavored positions in the domestic market (Smith, 1976, 133-141). The colonies were aided by the investment of the mothercountry's balances and by new capital. (1991). New York: Harper & Brothers.Harper, L.A. Knopf.----------------------- 1 Mercantilism was a general economic theory popular in the sixteenth,seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries and followed by all colonial powersof the time. Until that time, the policy towardthe colonies had been one of salutary neglect. pp. The Act of 1764and the Stamp Act of 1765 called for the payment of duties and taxes inspecie, thus further draining the colonies of currency and contracting thecredit base. Thisoccurred when the expanding commercial activities of northern merchantcapitalists came into conflict with English sugar and banking interests.Southern planters, in their role of land speculators, collided with Englishland speculators and the English fur industry. (1954). ReferencesCountryman, E. The purpose was the raise revenueand not to protect producers, and British officials enforced it as well asthey could until war broke out a decade later (Countryman, 1985, 44-47). The production of iron was stimulated byencouragement from England; however, most of the iron was absorbed in thecolonies themselves so the export of iron to England remained low.Although mercantilist policies kept the southern colonies dependent, thosesame policies never worked well in the mid-Atlantic and New Englandcolonies (Tuchman, 1988, 21-23). The SecondContinental Congress met and announced two declarations of freedom. New York: Alfred A. New York: William Morrow.Tuchman, B. It contributed to the onset of the American Revolutionary Warbecause of the British policy aimed at building strong, wealthy, andindependent national states, and this was to be achieved by promotingeconomic independence and a favorable balance of trade. Thefirst, passed on April 6, 1776, was a reaction to English mercantilism,nullifying the Acts of Trade and Navigation. Englanddid depend on the northern colonies for lumber, naval supplies, furs, whaleproducts, and iron. Boston: Charles Scribner's Sons.Smith, P. These economic policiescreated a revolutionary environment in the colonies. After the Caribbean sugar-producing islands were returned to France in1763 following the Seven Years' War, the English government sought toprotect British sugar interests by ordering the English navy to stamp outcolonial smugglers operating in the illicit foreign West Indian trade. The beginning of the American Revolution was instigated at least inpart by the British mercantilist economic system governing the relationshipbetween the mother country, England, and the thirteen colonies, a policywhich led to an unfavorable balance of payments with reference to thecolonies. (1943). If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again: Search for: or Click here to request an essay written just for you.