Hello and welcome to a history of the United States. Episode 93. Mercantilism.

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subscription button. You can then send me an email, The History of Podcast, at gmail.com, or a tweet on

Twitter at History Jamie, and I'll send you the access codes. In our last episode, we rebooted

the series, and our march towards the Seven Years War by taking a zoomed-out approach.

We begun by looking at the imperial system, as it was in the mid-18th century, the one which the American colonists would rebel against.

We started by looking at the conservatism of the Whigish governments, which was ill-suited

to crisis, and then began to look at mercantilism, finally ending the episode by bringing up the infamous Navigation Acts.

Today we continue our passage from the Penguin History of the United States by Hugh Brogan.

Quote,

The Navigation Acts were many,

and the system they established was never wholly symmetrical or thoroughly efficient.

But their principal provisions, as set out in the Acts of 1660 and 1696, were clear and practical enough. Their purpose was to restrict the colonies to the functions listed above and to monopolise the profits of the carrying trade, indeed of all forms of

economic activity so far as was possible.

No foreigner should grow rich as a result of activities carried on within the English realm or colonies.

Under penalty of forfeiture of ships and goods, it was laid down that all vessels, importing or exporting

goods to or from any English, lands, islands, plantations or territories in Asia, Africa or America,

or carrying goods from such possessions to the English realm or carrying exports out the realm

must be truly and without fault English with English masters and crews three quarters English

foreign goods might come to the realm in such vessels only, or in vessels of

their countries of origin, a blow against Dutch middleman. Any ling, stickfish, pilchered, codfish,

...