U.S. History 1 Hon Ch. 4

Economic Development and Imperial Trade in the British Colonies

Mercantilism

  • Economic system whereby the government intervenes in the economy for the purpose of increasing national wealth

  • English adopted this policy in order to achieve a favorable balance of trade with the empire as a whole, with exports exceeding imports

  • British colonies played a crucial role in Mercantilism since it allowed the British to buy things from themselves instead of other nations (tobacco and rice)

Navigation Acts

  • Set of acts put in place to end Dutch dominance in overseas trade

  • All trades from or to Britain or one of their colonies must be done through a British ship with British leaders

  • Enumerated goods (tobacco, sugar, indigo, and rice) had to be shipped to Britain or one of their colonies before they could be exported elsewhere, making the British Middle Men

  • Parliament subsidized certain goods (linen and gunpowder) in order for British merchants to undersell European competitors

  • Colonists were not allowed to cultivate certain products (wool, felt hats, and iron) in order to make sure that the main land British merchants received the most wealth

  • Smugglers defied these rules, and there were more common whenever Britain found itself at war

Colonial Regional Exports

  • Triangle Trade (Manufactured products to Africa and colonies, slaves to the Americas, natural products to Europe and Africa)

  • West Indian Sugar made up about 50% of British Colonies’ profits

  • Tobacco from the Chesapeake colonies were also very profitable

  • Rice and Indigo became very popular in South Carolina

  • Wheat production boomed in the middle colonies

  • New England did not have any significant crops, yet they maintained a stable economy by offering services within the colonies

American Imports from England

  • British imports relieved costs for products which were to expensive to make in the Americas

  • Natives were very picky with products that the British tried giving them, yet Native leaders sometimes imported goods for their personal use

  • Americans ended up importing more than they were exporting

  • Some American planters got into debt due to high British prices on tobacco

The Transformation of Culture

Manners and Etiquette 

  • Many Americans were not interested in copying the manners of the British

  • Americans started to focus more on religion than secular life

  • They did not like how secular the British were

British Fashion and Houses

  • Colonists were importing more and more from the British every year

  • Americans stopped buying products from the British as much and shifted their focus onto land which could be passed down to their children

  • Grand houses were made by wealthy colonists in order to have better quality of life

Literacy

  • Courtesy books were made in order to teach men and woman basic etiquette

  • Women were only taught very basic things as anything more complex would not help them become better house wives

  • 70% of men and 45% of women were literate

  • The bible was the most read book in New England

  • Boston Newspaper was the first newspaper to be made in the colonies

Enlightenment

  • Age when European thinkers started to question the status quo

  • These thinkers gave God a less active role in people’s lives and questioned his will

  • Franklin was one of the most relevant thinkers in the colonies

  • Due to Franklin retiring at a young age, he had time to invent new things

  • The best selling book in the colonies was the bible, and they were not very interested in other enlightenment ideals

Great Awakening

  • Puritan churches were established in all of New England’s states (except RI), and they were funded by taxpayers

  • Churches required people to prove that they experienced a spiritual conversion before they were allowed communion and/or their children to be baptized

  • These rules made people go to church a lot less, so the church started to impose less strict standards

  • Mass and other colonies started to impose slight religious toleration

  • Ministries were very spread apart, which made it harder for preachers to go from one place to another

  • People started to neglect the Anglican establishment, and this made people convert to other Christian denominations

  • Middle colonies were religiously diverse, therefore there was no dominant religion

  • Lutherans notices that certain laymen were trying to take control of their churches

The Great Awakening (or the mass revival of the church) took place in the Middle Colonies and New England due to people fearing for their lives

  • George Whitefield was an Anglican minister who spread his ideals to the colonies

  • New lights were a dramatic and better way of preaching than the old lights which were very boring and formal

  • Anglicans started to convert to baptism

  • These changes did not impact women’s membership in the church

  • This sparked political awareness and participation

Colonial Political World

Dominion of New England

  • Failed plan led by James II in order to combine eight northern colonies into one major province in order to have better control over the colony

  • Sir Edmund Andros was put in charge to lead this major province

Lords of Trade

  • Organization made by James II and Charles II which was a committee of the Privy Council to oversee colonial affairs

Glorious Revolution

  • English revolution that was put in place because the new king was catholic, but everyone else was protestant

  • People from Boston overthrew Andros and shipped him back to England in protest

  • Plymouth and Maine were not part of Mass Bay

  • Political stability was established (sort of) and voters no longer had to be Puritan

  • Maryland took advantage of this revolution and ended Catholic proprietorship within the colony

  • The revolution sparked an anti Catholic sentiment

  • The English also overthrew the tyrannical king and formed political stability

  • Representative government was established in England and the American Colonies

Parliament/Bill of Rights

  • Parliament was established in England in order to limit the King’s power

  • Bill of rights outlined the laws that were put in place in order to establish the parliament’s political power

  • Colonies formed their their own assemblies in order to also establish a form of representative government

Salutary Neglect

  • The English parliament did not acknowledge the Colonial assemblies, but they only imposed rules in relation to trade and defense

  • Anyone that was not a white man with property was not allowed to vote because they were not as educated as the white men

  • The American government was growing closer to the British model, but they were never identical

  • More Americans were eligible to vote than the British

Virtual vs Actual Representation

  • Virtual Representation overlooks the nation as a whole, and it was more common in Britain

  • Actual Representation overlooks local states, districts, or anything of that sort and was popular in Colonial America

  • Most American colonies were outraged that the Monarch would appoint their district’s governor instead of having the people choose their own governor

  • These governors had authority over the Colonial Assemblies

  • Governors were sent to colonies after having been trained on how to rule, so the people of the colonies had absolutely no say in how their community would be run