Transcript Mercantilism

The Road to Revolution-1763-1775
The Revolution was effected before the war
commenced. The Revolution was in the minds
and hearts of the people. John Adams, 1818
The Deep Roots of Revolution
• Insurrection of thought
usually precedes
insurrection of deed.
• Revolutionary thinking of
the colonists had begun
in their minds long before
the musket balls began to
fly.
• Pulling up stakes in the
Old World was a
revolutionary act; to
immigrate was to rebel
• The dangerous 3,000
mile voyage put distance
from England
• America was a new world
for the making
• Authorities in Britain were
now of a different breed
and unfit to tell the
colonists what to do.
• The colonial legislatures
became the colonists true
and authoritative
legislative body
• The colonists began to
view themselves as
“Americans”
The Mercantile Theory
• “Britain’s empire was
acquired in a ‘fit of
absentmindedness’
• The colonies were never
really planned out nor
planted by England
except Georgia
• The founding was done
haphazardly by trading
companies, religious
groups, land speculators,
and others
• London did not realize
that a new nation was
being born
• Mercantilism was a word
that allowed British to
justify their control of the
colonies.
• This theory shaped all
major nations of Europe
from the sixteenth to
the eighteenth
centuries.
• Mercantilism-wealth was
power, and that a country’s
economic wealth (and hence
its military and political power)
could be measured by the
amount of gold or silver in its
treasury. In order to amass
gold or silver, a country
needed to export more than it
imported. A nation that
possessed colonies thus had a
distinct advantage, since the
colonies could both supply raw
materials to the mother country
(thereby reducing the need for
foreign imports) and provide a
guaranteed market for exports
• All leading European nations
relied on strong central
governments to enforce these
mercantilist doctrines.
• The primary purpose of a
colony was to make the mother
country wealthy
• The American colonies were
expected to provide ships,
sailors, trade, and a market for
British manufactured goods
• Trade with other countries was
discouraged and products
such as tobacco and sugar
would be grown in America in
order to keep the gold and
silver within the Empire
Mercantilist Trammels on Trade
• Navigation Laws were enacted to
ensure that the colonies abided by
England’s trade laws.
• The first Navigation act was enacted in
1650 to hinder the Dutch trade.
Commerce (trade) could only take place
among English vessels.
• The merchant marine (civilian
commercial shippers) aided the Royal
Navy
• European good in route to America had
to first land in England where custom
duties could be collected and the British
middleman would get his profit.
• “Enumerated” products
(certain “listed” items) such
as tobacco had to be
shipped to England and not
to a foreign market.
• Certain products such as
woolen cloth and beaver
hats, were forbidden to be
manufactured in America
since it would compete with
English industry. Industry
was restricted in America
because of this.
• No banks existed in the
colonies and the money
problem was severe. Colonials
were buying more goods from
England than they were
selling. Gold and silver,
primarily from Spanish coins
from the West Indies, was
drained out of the colonies.
• Bartering became necessary
and items like nails, pitch,
feathers, butter were used as
currency
• The colonies began to issue
paper money. This money
depreciated and endangered
British merchants. England
prohibited the colonists from
passing lax bankruptcy laws
• The colonists were become
enraged over the currency
issue.
• Any colonial law passed in
their legislatures could be
declared null and void by the
“Privy Council” (the king’s
advisers).
• The “royal veto” was used
sparingly. However, the
colonists felt betrayed by
Britain such as forbidding
colonial reforms such as
curbing the degrading trade in
African slaves.
The Merits of Mercantilism
• Even though the Americans
assumed that the British
mercantile system was
thoroughly selfish and
deliberately oppressive, the
Navigation Laws until 1763
were laxly enforced through a
policy of “salutary neglect”
(Britain chose to ignore the
colonial infractions).
• John Hancock of
Massachusetts (president of
the Continental Congress who
signed the Declaration of
Independence in 1776) was
known as the “king of
Smugglers” (though
exaggerated)
• Americans reaped direct
benefits from the mercantile
system. London paid liberal
bounties (price supports) to
those colonials who produced
ships’ parts and ships’ stores.
During the Revolution, this
money dried up. America had
a steady and reliable market
with Britain.
• The Southern colonies were
allowed to exclusively grow
tobacco, which England had
outlawed in England and
Ireland.
• The colonials had undiluted rights of
Englishmen; self-government; and
they did not have to tax themselves
to support a professional army and
navy for protection against the
French, Dutch, Spaniards, Indians,
and pirates.
• The colonists did have “militias”
(civilian trained soldiers).
• “Prosperity trickles down.”
Americans enjoyed a generous
share of Britain’s profits under the
mercantile system. The average
American was probably better off
economically than the average
English person at home.
• Britain did not intend to punish the
colonists but wanted them to
succeed for the good of both
England and America.
• Mercantilist theory exists
today: protective tariffs;
prohibiting the export of hightechnology products with
possible military applications.
• The colonists of Spain and
France embraced mercantilist
principles
The Menace of Mercantilism
• Mercantilism did burden the
colonials with annoying
liabilities. After 1763 (French
and Indian War) the mercantile
laws were very strictly
enforced.
• The colonists were not at
liberty buy, sell, ship, or
manufacture under conditions
that they found most profitable.
• The southern colonies were
“pets,” and were generally
favored over the northern
ones, chiefly because they
grew non-English products like
tobacco, sugar, and rice.
• Revolution was one seed that
sprouted from New England as
the proud descendants of the
Puritans greatly resented
being treated like unwanted
relatives.
• The one-crop Virginians also
had grievances. They were
forced to sell tobacco in
England and often received
low prices from British
merchants. Debt became more
common.
• Impoverished Virginia thus
joined the Massachusetts
against England.
• Above all, mercantilism
was an insult (debasing) to
the Americans. They felt as
though they were being
treated as children
economically, politically,
and socially.
• Benjamin Franklin wrote in
1775 (one year before the
Revolution),
“We have an old mother
that peevish is grown;
She snubs us like
children that scarce walk
alone;
She forgets we’re grown
up and have sense of
our own.”
The Stamp Tax Uproar
• The costly Seven Years’
War which ended in 1763
forced Britain to change
its policies with America.
These policies promoted
the revolution
• Britain was now one of
the biggest empires in the
world and in debt.
• British officials did not
feel that the colonials
should pay off the debt.
But it did feel that they
should pay one-third the
cost of maintaining
10,000 redcoats in
America for its protection.
• British Prime Minister George
Grenville:
– 1763 strictly enforced the
Navigation Laws
– Sugar Act of 1764-first tax law
passed by Parliament
– Increased the duty on foreign
sugar from the West Indies
– Quartering act of 1765 colonists had to provide food
and quarters for British troops
– The Stamp Tax-1765 stamped paper or the affixing
of stamps on papers:
certifications, pamphlets,
newspapers, diplomas,
marriage licenses
• Grenville’s legislation seemed to
jeopardize the basic rights of the
colonists as Englishmen. Both the
Sugar act and the Stamp act
provided for trying offenders in
the admiralty courts, where juries
were not allowed. The burden of
proof was on the defendants, who
were assumed to be guilty unless
proven innocent. Trial by jury and
“innocent until proven guilty” were
concepts held highly among the
colonials.
• With the French threat gone and
Pontiac’s rebellion crushed, why
did the Colonies need protection?
Was it to strip them of their
rights?
• “No taxation without representation”
became the battle cry. The colonies
that were against this representation
were the ones who had denied
adequate representation to their
own back-country pioneers.
• “The Americans made a distinction
between “legislation” and “taxation.”
They conceded the right of
Parliament to legislate about matters
that affected the entire empire,
including the regulation of trade. But
they steadfastly denied the right of
Parliament, in which no Americans
were seated, to impose taxes on
Americans. Only their own elected
colonial legislatures, the Americans
insisted, could legally tax them.
• Grenville dismissed these
protests on the grounds of
“virtual representation.”
Grenville claimed that every
member of Parliament
represented all British
subjects.
• If the colonists had
representation in Parliament,
they would have been outvoted
anyway. So in theory, the
colonists did not want
Parliamentary representation.
• When England replied that
powers could not be divided
between “legislative” authority
and “taxing” authority, the
colonists then dismissed the
powers of Parliament altogether.
•
Parliament Forced to Repeal the
Stamp
Act
The Stamp Act Congress of
1765 -nine colonies met in New
York City to draw up a list of
rights and grievances and sent
them to the king and to
Parliament.
• Though the grievances were
primarily ignored, this was a
step toward colonial unity.
• Nonimportation agreements more effective than the Stamp
Act Congress. “Buy American”
(boycotting British products).
Home-spun woolen garments
were becoming popular. This
was the first united action
among the American people.
• Patriotic groups such as
“Sons of liberty” and
“Daughters of liberty”
enforced the nonimportation
with slogans of “Liberty,
Property, and No Stamps.”
Tar and feathering became
popular against those who
broke the colonial laws.
Mobs ransacked officials
houses, confiscated their
money, and hanged effigies
of stamp agents on liberty
poles.
• The Stamp Act was repealed
in 1766. One-quarter of
British exports and about
one-half of British shipping
was hit.
• In order to save face,
Parliament passed the
Declaratory Act. This futile
measure proclaimed that
Parliament had the right “to
bind” the colonies “in all
cases whatsoever.”
• Grateful residents of New
York erected a statue to
King George III which would
later be melted down into
thousands of bullets to be
fired at his own troops.
The Townshend Tea Tax and the
Boston “Massacre”
• Charles Townshend took
control of Parliament
persuaded Parliament to pass
the Townshend Acts of 1767.
This was an indirect customs
duty payable at American
ports. It would tax products
before coming into the stores.
The taxes would be used to
pay the royal governors and
judges in America.
• Suspicions increased when
Parliament suspended the
legislature of New York in
1767 for not complying with
the Quartering Act.
• Tea was now being taxed.
Tea smugglers in
Massachusetts became
prominent. Britain landed two
regiments of troops in Boston
in 1768.
• Boston Massacre -March 5,
1770 60 townspeople
heckled about 10 Redcoats,
two whom were hit. The
troops opened fire without
orders and killed or wounded
eleven “innocent” citizens.
Crispus Attucks, a runaway
“mulatto” was killed. He was
the leader of the mob. John
Adams (future president)
defended the soldiers. Only
two were convicted then
released.
The Seditious Committees of
Correspondence
• King George-1770, only
32-was influenced by the
Prime Minister Lord
North. Though Parliament
repealed the Townshend
Acts, a three-pence tax
on tea continued.
• Britain continued to
enforce the Navigation
Laws.
• Samuel Adams of Boston, cousin
of John Adams, was a master
propagandist and engineer of
rebellion. He had a deep faith in
the common people and called
them his “trained mob.” He was
skillful as a phamphleteer and
was known as the “Penman of
the Revolution.”
• Adams organized the
Committees of
Correspondence. Each colony
would set up a committee of
correspondence in which to
exchange ideas with other
colonies. These committees
evolved into the first American
congresses.
Tea Parties at Boston and Elsewhere
• In 1773, the Powerful
British East India Company
was facing bankruptcy with
17 million pounds of unsold
tea. Even though the tea
would be sold to the
colonials at a cheap price
they still resented the
hidden tax. American
principle was more
important than price
• At Annapolis, Maryland, the
crowds burned the tea
ships. In Boston, the
crowds held the “Boston
Tea Party.”
• Many various reactions
stirred both those in
American and in Britain
•
Parliament Passes the “Intolerable
The “Repressive acts” Acts”
(known in Britain) or the
“Intolerable Acts” (known in
America) was passed in
Parliament in order to
punish Boston.
– Boston harbor was
closed until damages
were paid
– Many chartered rights of
Massachusetts were
taken away
– Restrictions were placed
on town meetings
– Enforcing officials who
killed colonials in the line
of duty were sent to
England for trial.
– The “Quebec Act of 1774”Britain did not know how to
control the French in Canada
• Guaranteed the Catholic
religion
• Retained many of their old
customs and institutions
which did not include a
representative assembly or
trial by jury in civil cases
• Boundaries of the old
Province of Quebec were
now extended southward al
the way to the Ohio river-this
would extend the Roman
Catholic Religion
– The colonists viewed this as an
encroachment to their rights as
Americans
The Continental Congress and
bloodshed
• The Boston Port Act was
enacted in order to send
food from the colonies to
Boston
• 1774- The First
Continental Congress -met
in Philadelphia to consider
ways of redressing colonial
grievances. 12 of the 13
showed up except Georgia.
Samuel Adams, John
Adams, George
Washington, Patrick Henry.
• This congress listed a
Declaration of Rights and
sent to the American
colonies, the king, and the
British people.
• The Association was the most
significant action of the Congress. A
complete boycott of all British goods.
This was the closest to a written
constitution yet. This congress was not
trying to break away, just repeal the
Parliamentary taxes. If the grievances
were not addressed, the congress would
meet the next year in 1775.
• 1775-British troops were sent to
Lexington and Concord to seize weapons
and to arrest Samuel Adams and John
Hancock. Shots were fired at Lexington
between the British and the Minute Men
thus known as the “Shot heard ‘round
the world”. In many instances this began
the war. Open fighting emerged at
Concord. 300 British casualties and 70
killed. War had begun.
Imperial Strength and Weakness
• British Strengths
– British out populated the
colonists 3:1
– Britain held the naval power
and the wealth
– 50,000 man professional
army -colonists-none except
the colonial militias.
– Britain hired 30,000 German
Hessians (mercenary-hired
soldier)
– 50,000 American Loyalists those loyal to Britain
– Indians
• British Weaknesses
– Troops to Ireland
– France was waiting to attack Britain
(loss from French and Indian War)
– The London government was confused
and inept (King George III and Lord
North)
– British did not want to kill their
American cousins.
– English Whig’s favored Americans;
British Tory’s did not. Many Whig’s felt
English freedom was being fought in
America
– Second-rate generals in America
– Britain had to conquer America
– Britain 3,000 miles away
– America had no capital to be
conquered.
American Pluses and Minuses
• American Strengths
– George Washington and
other strong leaders such
as Benjamin Franklin.
– Open foreign aid from
France, Spain, Holland
– Defensive fighting
– Colonists were selfsustaining with their
agriculture
– Self-reliant
– Marksmen
– Just cause
• American Weaknesses
– Badly organized
– The Articles of
Confederation were
not adopted until1781
– Sectional jealousy
– Economic difficulties ”Continental” paper
money
– Desertion in the army
A Thin Line of Heroes
• 1777-1778 Valley Forge -lack of food
• Manufactured goods were generally in
short supply
• American militiamen were unreliable
• German Baron von Steuben whipped into
shape 7,000-8,000 regulars.
• Blacks fought and died for the American
cause-5,000 freed Blacks in the Northern
States.
• Lord Dunmore, royal governor of Virginia,
promised freedom to Blacks who entered
the army.
• 14,000 “Black Loyalists” were sent to
Nova Scotia, Jamaica, and England after
the war.
• American profiteers made profits by
selling to the British for profit.
• Only a select minority of the American
colonials attached themselves to the
cause of Independence with a spirit of
selfless devotion. Seldom have so few
done so much for so many.