British Mercantilism essays

British Mercantilism essays Whether British mercantilism had any effect on the occurrence of the American Revolution is a many years disputed question of historians. There are many questions that need to be asked before you can decide this ultimate question. Ex: Did the Navigation Acts hold back the growing American economy or did they help boost the American economy with a sure market for all Americas products? Or, were the Navigation Acts unfair quests asked of Britain? Many historians have answered these questions, during different time periods, and all with new outlooks and reasons for their opinion. First of all, mercantilism was to unify and increase the power of Britain by a strict governmental regulation of the entire national economy through policies designed to secure an accumulation of money, a favorable balance of trade, the development of agriculture and manufactures, and the establishment of foreign trading monopolies. George Bancroft wrote in the 1830s that the Navigation Acts were so oppressive as to constitute a primary cause of the American Revolution. Charles M. Andrews, a member of the imperial school of historians, wrote in the 1930s that the Navigation Acts did not represent a policy of economic oppression but rather a sincere attempt by Britain to organize the administration of the empire. Yet another historian, Lawrence A. Harper, who wrote in 1939, took the view of the burdens outweighing the benefits received from the Navigation Acts. I agree with George Bancroft and Lawrence A Harper, I believe the Navigation Acts did more harm than good for the Americ an colonies. George Bancroft, writing from the ant-British point of view, said Colonial trade was confined so strictly by regulations that Americans were allowed to sell to foreign nations only those goods in which England had no interest. This example of economic expulsion, he said, ruined the relationship between Britain and the colonies and helped to bring ...