Transatlantic Trade Notes

Between $1607-1754$ , an Atlantic economy developed in which goods, as well as enslaved Africans and American Indians, were exchanged between Europe, Africa, and the Americas through extensive trade networks. This created a 3‑part system known as the Triangular Trade.

A three‑part route connected North America, Africa, and Europe, giving rise to the 17th century system of Transatlantic Trade (or Triangular Trade).
Leg #1: A ship would leave New England carrying rum to West Africa, trading this for captive Africans.
Leg #2: Enslaved Africans endured the Middle Passage to the West Indies where they were traded for sugarcane.
Leg #3: The sugarcane made the final leg back to New England to make more rum.

Mercantilism is the idea that a country’s wealth—and thus its power—was determined by how much more it exported than it imported.
European governments aimed to promote the sale of goods with their colonies serving one purpose: enriching the “Mother Country.”
The colonies existed to import raw materials to the Mother Country to promote that country’s industries.
Major outputs by region included: Wheat; Tobacco; Rice & Indigo; Lumber & Rum.

Mercantilism was widely adopted in Europe as a path to power; England used this theory to organize its empire and colonial policies.

Time frame: Between $1650$ and $1673$ , the British Parliament passed the Navigation Acts to regulate colonial trade and increase profit for Britain.
Purpose: Pursue mercantilist aims by controlling trade routes and terms with the colonies.
Provisions:
1) Trade between the colonies could only occur on English ships with English crews.
2) All goods imported to the colonies had to pass through ports in England.
3) Certain goods could only be exported from the colonies to England.

Enforcement challenge: Separated by the Atlantic Ocean, enforcing the Navigation Acts proved difficult (roughly $4{,}000\ ext{miles}$ apart).
Political context: England faced internal turmoil in the 17th and 18th centuries, leading to loose enforcement of these regulations (salutary neglect).
Impacts:
- Positive: Growth in shipbuilding in New England; expansion of tobacco production in the Chesapeake.
- Negative: Colonial exporters had to accept prices set for them by England; examples include low tobacco prices contributing to an economic downturn in the Chesapeake in the $1660s$ .

Much of the 17th century saw limited direct conflict as colonists operated under salutary neglect, often undercutting the Acts through bribery and smuggling.
1684: The English crown revoked the charter of the Massachusetts Bay colony due to smuggling activity.
1686: James II merged the New England colonies with New York and New Jersey into the Dominion of New England; Sir Edmund Andros was appointed governor.
Andros levied taxes, limited town meetings, and revoked land titles.
1688: The Glorious Revolution deposed James II; William and Mary took the throne and ended the Dominion.

Even as imperial control loosened, friction over trade regulation continued to simmer throughout the 17th century under the Navigation Acts.

Mercantilism was used by England to obtain raw materials from the colonies for manufacturing.
The mercantilist model sparked the transatlantic trade system that linked the colonies, Africa, and Europe.
The economic diagram of mercantilism shows flows of Gold, Silver, Foodstuffs, Raw Materials, and Manufactured Goods between the Mother Country and the Colonies, with enslaved Africans moving from Africa to the Americas.
The geographic scope includes North America (the 13 Colonies), the Caribbean, Africa, and Europe, all connected by the Atlantic Ocean and the exchange of raw materials for manufactured goods and enslaved labor.
The system relied on the exploitation of colonial resources to fuel European industrial growth and the accumulation of wealth in the Mother Country.

Core flows can be summarized as:
- MOTHER COUNTRY ↔ COLONIES: Raw materials flow to the Mother Country; Manufactured goods flow back to the colonies.
- Africa → Americas: Enslaved Africans flow into the Atlantic economy.
A simplified historical loop (Triangular Trade) described in words: New England sends rum to West Africa, West Africa sends enslaved Africans to the West Indies, the West Indies send sugarcane to New England to produce more rum.
Key commodities emphasized in the diagram include Gold, Silver, Foodstuffs, Raw Materials, Manufactured Goods, and enslaved Africans, illustrating mercantilist exchange and colonial dependencies.