After reading Chapter 4 in the text, please post comments to the following questions: what were the immediate and long term potential impacts of the Early Navigation Acts on the colonial economy? Were some colonies impacted more than others, and if so, why?
The Navigation Acts increased smuggling in the short-term and fomented anti-Mercantilist sentiment and unrest that eventually contributed to the American Revolution.
ReplyDelete-Curtis Russell
While the immediate impacts of the Navigation Acts were minimal, as they began to be enforced, they put a strain on the colonies foreign trade. Some colonies were affected more than others because some of the goods listed in the Acts were there comparative advantage products.
ReplyDeleteI got the impression that England had a geographical advantage which gave them the platform in which to create the Navigation Acts. One impact of this Act was reflected by the political and economic control of the British which seems to be a catalyst for the opposition and the eventual revolutionary war.
ReplyDelete~Sandra Maki
Basically what I got from this was the navigation acts made it three times as difficult and costly to buy or transfer goods. The cause of that alone would be mass amounts of smuggling increased throughout the country to save the entreprenuers a few bucks so they would actually make some money, especially those who got things from out of the country. Since the only way to get something from out of the country would have to be approved by an english representitive, it would most likely cause more bootlegging and a drop in imports.
ReplyDeleteAnd yeah some colonies were impacted differently from the navigation acts, but most in different ways. Like for example say cotton, cotton is easy to get in the south because that's where its mainly grown. Now to get Cotton in the north it would be pretty high in cost because it would have to be tranferred by land and not by sea.
The immediate impact of the Early Navigation Acts were surprisingly few. One major reason for that was that colonial residents were considered "English" according to the law, and thus still allowed to trade, albeit with some limitations. The primary limitation being the restriction of certain exports from having destinations other than those under English control.
ReplyDeleteWhile not mentioned in the text directly, I too will agree that this likely led to an increase in smuggling of, at the very least, those goods which were otherwise restricted or difficult to acquire.
In the long term, trade and commodity taxes as levied by The Crown caused deficits in all colonies(especially the Middle Colonies) except for the Lower South. This was somewhat aleviated by trade with other countries, primarily the European trade, but other factors diminished the effects to a degree as well. This among other reasons certainly exacerbated what negative feelings that may have existed between the Colonies and England.
Lastly, as mentioned, due to regional location, and commodities available for trade, the Lower South in particular suffered fewer penalties from these Acts than the other colonial partitions.
~Spencer Pinegar
I'm not sure that I really completely understood Chapter 4's answer to your question, so I'll just regurgitate with as little commentary as possible.
ReplyDeleteThe superficial impacts of Britain's mercantile policy toward the 13 colonies as expressed in the 17th century Navigation Acts is clear. The main short term result that I could see was the 12 month buying on credit that American colonists used in order to purchase British goods.
There were several results that appeared to me as both long term and yet of no grave consequence to the colonial economies. These included the use of paper money printed in the colonies, the use of foreign coin, especially from Spain, payment in kind (commodities),and finally the colonial use of "invisible" earnings such as shipping cargoes (payment in service? or service industry?) and merchant commissions.
The main long term effect that I could see was that the constant indebtedness may have made the colonies economically dependent on Britain, since the indebtedness was an ongoing situation.
I don't really see how any of this greatly helped Britain or greatly hurt America, so I must not be understanding something.
Also I sometimes the chapter seemed to be suggesting that the military and administrative services that Britain did for the colonies was some type of colonial asset and not a liability. So I don't get that at all, unless the soldiers and government officials were either paid by the colonies, or were often colonial volunteers. But I kind of doubt that in general. So thus, I am again confused. So what part of the equation am I missing?
Gary T
The immediate potential impacts were at first minimal on the Early Navigation Acts, but as it got enforced the colonies were suffering in trade. The British would only allow to to only trade with them and not any other foreign countries. This led to the colonies smuggling their goods to the other countries other than Britain. The long term impact was that it led to the American Revolution War. The north was impacted more than the south because the south was very loyal to the British. The north supplied the goods that did not need to be farmed. When the British started to make it harder for the north to trade with other countries that the north got frustrated and trying to find ways to get around the system. The north would find a way around the system, but the British would somehow know about and so they put harsher enforcements on the north.
ReplyDeleteJustin Kwan
Riley G.
ReplyDeleteThe navigational acts implemented on the colonies by the Crown enabled a total control of the importing and exporting of goods hindering the colonies economic independence. British rule was so dominate that the colonies were very limited to exporting outside of the UK. Harbor cities grew rapidly especially the North East coastal cities as the demand fluctuated.
What England did was create a monoply on the goods coming from the colonies. The dictated what ships could carry the goods, who could captain them.
ReplyDeleteAny countries on the Continent that wanted to trade goods from the colonies had to do so through England.
The most prized good you can say where only to be exported to England. These being tobacco, sugar, cotton, indigo, etc.
It really didn't hurt the colonies until after 1696 when the Admiralty courts started to enforce the Navigation Acts.
This was all done really to stifle trade with the Dutch, and that England could surpass it for wealth and status.
-Rick Kilboy
I think the most immediate and long term impact was that since it made American shipping prohibited, America had little trading to Dutch, so that probably made America mad that they could not trade with the Dutch.
ReplyDeleteI think with America was impacted more than others because of the prohibited trade with the Dutch, we could not get things that we needed to have to survive during this time.
Tyrel Giles
Immediate effects were small other than some occasional protesting the Acts were not initally enforced. When courts were established to enfores the acts the long term effects resulted in a mounting deficit, limited trade, and high personal debit.
ReplyDeleteThe southern colonies were impaced less then the north and central as the southern colonies produced over 50% of the top 10 exports sometimes giving them a surpluss. Meanwhile the north and central became more dependent on loans and long term credit which was thinning out.
Navigation Acts were intended to protect English commerce from foreign competition. This assumed that the volume of world trade was finite and that any gain by one country could only be at the expense of another. The great Act of 1651 was aimed at the Dutch carrying trade. It required that all imports should be carried in ships either owned by English subjects or owned by the nationals of the country from which the goods came.
ReplyDeleteThe purpose of the Navigation Acts was two fold: to protect British shipping against competition from the Dutch and other foreign powers, and to grant British merchants a monopoly on colonial commodities such as Tobacco and Sugar. The Navigation Acts came about in the context of Mercantilism, the dominant economic system of the time among the European powers. According to mercantilist thought, a nation could measure its wealth in bullion, or its accumulated supply of gold.
Grace Mouele
There were few immediate impacts because of the Navigation Acts. But once they began to be enforced it caused difficulties in the colonies because their trade was extremely limited. I believe the northern colonies were impacted harder being that they weren't producing as much tobacco or rice like the plantations in the south.
ReplyDeleteIn the short term, the colonists did not really care about the acts because they were only loosely enforced. Once the acts were enforced, they biggest effect was the restriction of trade of certain items to only British lands. This meant that the colonies got what the British wanted to pay for those products rather than what would be the absolute best price for the goods elsewhere. This had the potential to contribute to the trade deficit with Britain, when they might be able to sell goods elsewhere for a better price to pay off their trade debt.
ReplyDeleteThe Navagation Acts were not enforced heavily until the late seventeenth century, meaning most people did not really care about the act being passed. Once the goods were being heavily monitired, and when the 3rd primary category kicked in, goods could be near impossible to obtain let's say in Africa. Once the goods did come to the area, the cost was so high that most of your money being traded for the product was just to pay for time and crew just to get it to the final destination. I belive we discussed this in class as well. Jacob Downs
ReplyDeleteSome of the immediate and long term potential impacts on the colonial economy because of the Navigation Acts include; the effect of non-English workers not being able to work on trade ships, foreign merchants being excluded from direct commerce with the English colonies causing the England merchants the only individuals they could trade with, and commodities produced in the colonies could only be exported with England directly. The southern economy was more greatly affected than the northern economy because of the goods they produced such as tobacco and sugar.
ReplyDelete-Trevor Smith
The immediate effects were small but the long term effects included limited trade and growing deficit. The southern colonies were impacted less than northern because they were producing a lot of the main exports while the northern colonies' trade was limited. The Navigation Acts also contributed to the later Revolutionary war.
ReplyDeleteVeronika Dimitrova
By restricting the colonies to have an open trade system with other countries, mainly Britain, it controlled their wealth and growth as an individual and colony. The colonist had to settle for whatever profit they could obtain, (at times if any profit was obtain). The surplus of valuable goods i.e. sugar, tobacco, cotton, ginger etc…, if not sold, would be thrown away. With the monopoly that Britain had created for the colonies, it made it very difficult to learn about opportunities of higher prices for products and different trade options.
ReplyDeleteIn the long run the economy was affected because Britain had the power to dictate the wealth of the colonies.
The Northern/Middle Colonies where impacted to a higher degree then the Southern Colonies because the unlike the Upper Colonies the south didn’t have the need to import as much as the north did. The southern economy was a surplus rather then a deficit like the Middle Colonies had with Britain.
At first some ships would have perhaps refused to carry certain cargo, so that encountering English ships wouldn't present a problem. However, as the text states, it took about forty years for the English to actually enforce the Navigation Act, so over time traders came to realize that the act would hardly present a problem. Because of this, once the act was enforced, far more merchants would have been forced to pay the consequences of breaking English law.
ReplyDelete-Joseph Barnes
I think that after they passed the Navigation Act, there wasn’t too much of a big impact in the colonies because they were still able to export and import their goods with others market. But I think when the Navigation Act was enforced, it contributed to the American Revolution by the fact that it was an economic impact for colonies since there market got restricted just to the British, the imports of goods started to be more expensive. So I think that that lead to the smuggling of goods in order to reduce costs.
ReplyDeleteThe big impact of the Navigation act was really small in its manner .They thought it would be a good idea good idea, but it was not wanted by the colonies which led us to the revolutionary war. Because the trade was so little this is what caused the problems.
ReplyDeleteSteven Hanna
navigation acts made it more expensive to transfer and buy goods. costs went through the roof. because of the high cost merchants and traders began to smuggle goods to make more money.
ReplyDeletethe colonies were directly impacted based on the geographic location. the south was hit the hardest by this because of the cost to transport and the time it took on land