The British, French , and Spanish governments had policies that prohibited trade between territories owned by different countries. The laws forced all island plantation produce to be sent to Europe.The laws limited the amount of product coming in to areas that needed them, and forced people to smuggle them in, and also were a lot cheaper than the products sold by people such as the English. While smuggling was beneficial economically toward areas that needed them, they negatively affected legal sellers from selling their goods due to them not being able to beat the prices of the smuggled goods. Smuggling sparked a positive response in buyers and sellers of the goods which were able to be shipped, and bought at a lower price, and
