Changes

==Effect on Trade==

==Effect on Trade==

The navigation acts proper, and other restrictive acts, such as the one relating to sugar and molasses, affected colonial trade and industry in various ways. The act of 1651, which was intended primarily to regulate commerce between the mother country and her colonies, stimulated colonial ship-building and the colonial carrying trade by giving English and colonial ship owners the monopoly of this commerce. Later acts, as we have seen already, went farther and restricted the freedom of colonial trade. In the act of 1660 the only North American product affected by the enumerated list was tobacco. Even though the English lawmakers prohibited its exportation to other countries, they compensated the colonies for the loss of their markets by encouraging its re-exportation from England to the rest of Europe, by prohibiting its cultivation in England, and by placing a heavy tax on tobacco imported into England from other countries. In both these respects the American colonies appear to have been benefited by the colonial policy of the mother country.

The navigation acts proper, and other restrictive acts, such as the one relating to sugar and molasses, affected colonial trade and industry in various ways. The act of 1651, which was intended primarily to regulate commerce between the mother country and her colonies, stimulated colonial shipbuilding and the colonial carrying trade by giving English and colonial ship owners the monopoly of this commerce. Later acts, as we have seen already, went farther and restricted the freedom of colonial trade. In the act of 1660 the only North American product affected by the enumerated list was tobacco. Even though the English lawmakers prohibited its exportation to other countries, they compensated the colonies for the loss of their markets by encouraging its re-exportation from England to the rest of Europe, by prohibiting its cultivation in England, and by placing a heavy tax on tobacco imported into England from other countries. In both these respects the American colonies appear to have been benefited by the colonial policy of the mother country.

The non-enumerated articles, which included almost every colonial product of any great importance, were excluded from the English markets, and, after 1766, even from the markets of France, Holland, and the Scandinavian countries. Such a policy of exclusion, however, did not within itself seriously injure the industrial progress of the colonists. They merely traded with the West Indies and southern Europe instead of with the mother country. They were injured, however, when the English government required them to import their European goods from England and their rum, molasses, and sugar from the English plantations in the West Indies. The first requirement often compelled the colonial ship captain, after unloading a cargo of non-enumerated articles in southern Europe, to sail to England for a load of colonial imports, or to return home with an empty hold. The second requirement cut off the supply of money from the foreign West India islands, which the colonists had used to buy manufactured goods from England.

The non-enumerated articles, which included almost every colonial product of any great importance, were excluded from the English markets, and, after 1766, even from the markets of France, Holland, and the Scandinavian countries. Such a policy of exclusion, however, did not within itself seriously injure the industrial progress of the colonists. They merely traded with the West Indies and southern Europe instead of with the mother country. They were injured, however, when the English government required them to import their European goods from England and their rum, molasses, and sugar from the English plantations in the West Indies. The first requirement often compelled the colonial ship captain, after unloading a cargo of non-enumerated articles in southern Europe, to sail to England for a load of colonial imports, or to return home with an empty hold. The second requirement cut off the supply of money from the foreign West India islands, which the colonists had used to buy manufactured goods from England.