Jake Bovard
Dr. Smith
HIST 1611
18 October, 2017
Ignorance, Protest, and Rebellion Snowball Colonial disregard of British legislation began with the Navigation Acts, a series of pieces of legislation that sought to keep the colonies from trading with anyone who wasn’t the British mainland. The passage of these acts directly caused more than one war between the Dutch and the English, leaving a very sparse fleet to actually enforce those acts. That lack of real coverage to directly enforce the England exclusive trade allowed traders and smugglers to import their goods with impunity, as what ships there were guarded the ports. The main problem with the Navigation Acts is simply that they began the bad practice of terrible lawmaking in the …show more content…
rum, while keeping their own prices the same, the Crown sought to make its American citizens pay for molasses products at a much higher price. When the import tax of both French and English molasses products was comparable, the French product was cheaper while at the same time of almost equal quality to English molasses. Because of this, Americans bought the French product more often than the English product, leading to a much larger supply of molasses for the English versus the French. After the Molasses Act went into effect, English molasses became the cheapest option for American purchase. However, the real lack of enforcement on the Colonial side made for smuggled French molasses products to be much cheaper. It is due to lost profits that the Sugar Act became law. The active and aggressive enforcement style that the Crown went with made smuggling no longer a viable option for the cheap import of French Caribbean products. Even though the import tax on French molasses products became half of its Molasses Act price, the English products were still much cheaper. A higher price on liquor wouldn’t be a problem if the Stamp Act hadn’t also stifled one of the American Colonies’ most profitable exports, lumber. Under the new legislation, the only place that American lumber could go is the British mainland. When subjected to the Molasses Act this inconvenience could be circumvented through smugglers. …show more content…
Heatedly debated in Parliament, once passed taxed most paper goods in the British Colonies, from legal documents to playing cards. This presents a clear shift in British policymaking from taxing only goods people could live without to taxing materials necessary for life to continue in the colonies. This makes it easy to also identify a shift in the colonial response to the legislation levied upon them as when the decisions from London drastically change, as does the colonial response. Many state legislatures called the stamp act unconstitutional (taxation without representation), which led to the Stamp Act Congress. The most interesting idea to come from this congress is the idea that instead of taxing goods, Parliament should instead tax the colonial profits, a potential solution that Parliament itself should have explored as it may have staved off a potential revolt. It’s quite simple really, since the colonies are an extension of Britain, the profits they undoubtedly will accrue are in a way Britain’s. From that it really isn’t a terrible idea to just tax whatever profit a colony manages to make and it’s doubtful they would complain since British ships protect their merchandise during
Dr. Smith
HIST 1611
18 October, 2017
Ignorance, Protest, and Rebellion Snowball Colonial disregard of British legislation began with the Navigation Acts, a series of pieces of legislation that sought to keep the colonies from trading with anyone who wasn’t the British mainland. The passage of these acts directly caused more than one war between the Dutch and the English, leaving a very sparse fleet to actually enforce those acts. That lack of real coverage to directly enforce the England exclusive trade allowed traders and smugglers to import their goods with impunity, as what ships there were guarded the ports. The main problem with the Navigation Acts is simply that they began the bad practice of terrible lawmaking in the …show more content…
rum, while keeping their own prices the same, the Crown sought to make its American citizens pay for molasses products at a much higher price. When the import tax of both French and English molasses products was comparable, the French product was cheaper while at the same time of almost equal quality to English molasses. Because of this, Americans bought the French product more often than the English product, leading to a much larger supply of molasses for the English versus the French. After the Molasses Act went into effect, English molasses became the cheapest option for American purchase. However, the real lack of enforcement on the Colonial side made for smuggled French molasses products to be much cheaper. It is due to lost profits that the Sugar Act became law. The active and aggressive enforcement style that the Crown went with made smuggling no longer a viable option for the cheap import of French Caribbean products. Even though the import tax on French molasses products became half of its Molasses Act price, the English products were still much cheaper. A higher price on liquor wouldn’t be a problem if the Stamp Act hadn’t also stifled one of the American Colonies’ most profitable exports, lumber. Under the new legislation, the only place that American lumber could go is the British mainland. When subjected to the Molasses Act this inconvenience could be circumvented through smugglers. …show more content…
Heatedly debated in Parliament, once passed taxed most paper goods in the British Colonies, from legal documents to playing cards. This presents a clear shift in British policymaking from taxing only goods people could live without to taxing materials necessary for life to continue in the colonies. This makes it easy to also identify a shift in the colonial response to the legislation levied upon them as when the decisions from London drastically change, as does the colonial response. Many state legislatures called the stamp act unconstitutional (taxation without representation), which led to the Stamp Act Congress. The most interesting idea to come from this congress is the idea that instead of taxing goods, Parliament should instead tax the colonial profits, a potential solution that Parliament itself should have explored as it may have staved off a potential revolt. It’s quite simple really, since the colonies are an extension of Britain, the profits they undoubtedly will accrue are in a way Britain’s. From that it really isn’t a terrible idea to just tax whatever profit a colony manages to make and it’s doubtful they would complain since British ships protect their merchandise during