The 18th Century

Part 2

Birth of a Consumer Society

• After midcentury, Americans began buying more English goods than their parents or grandparents had done, giving birth to a CONSUMER REVOLTIONS.

• Between 1740 and 1770, English exports to the American colonies increased by an astounding 360 percent.

• In part, this new American market shift reflected a fundamental transformation in the British economy.

• The pace of the British economy picked up dramatically after 1690.

• Small factories produced certain goods more efficiently and more cheaply than the colonists could.

• The availability of these products altered the lives of most Americans, even those with modest incomes.

• Franklin noted in his Autobiography how changing consumer habits affected his life.

• To help Americans purchase American goods, British merchants offered generous credit.

• Colonists deferred settlement by agreeing to pay interest on their debts.

• The temptation to acquire British finery blinded many people to hard economic realities…American debts continues to grow…

• British industrialization undercut American handicraft and folk art

• The shifting patterns of trade had immense effects on the development of an American culture.

• First, the flood of British imports eroded local regional identities. Commerce helped to “Anglicize” American culture by exposing colonial consumers to a common range of British manufactured goods.

• Deep sectional differences remained (from the 13 colonies) – but all seemed drawn to sophisticated London.

• At mid 18th century, colonial exports flowed along well-established routes.

• More than half of American goods produced for export went to Great Britain.

• The Navigation acts were still in effect, and “enumerated” items such as tobacco had to be landed first at a British port.

The Navigation Acts1650-1696

• The Navigation Acts were passed by the English Parliament in the seventeenth century.

• The Acts were originally aimed at excluding the Dutch from the profits made by English trade.

• The mercantilist theory behind the Navigation Acts assumed that world trade was fixed and the colonies existed for the parent country.

The Navigation Acts of 1660 and 1696 restricted American trade in the following ways;1. Only British ships could transport imported and exported goods from the colonies.

2. The only people who were allowed to trade with the colonies had to be British citizens.

3. Commodities such as sugar, tobacco, and cotton wool which were produced in the colonies could be exported only to British ports.

THE NAVIGATION ACTS• Before 1763 the English civil war and the Glorious Revolution were taking place in

Europe.

• During this time the British had to deal with the wars in Europe and really didn't enforce the Navigation Acts, due to their preoccupation with the war.

• Colonist then stopped following the laws, and smuggling and bribery became a common sight throughout the colonies.

• The colonists began trading with non-British colonies in the Caribbean, this trading contributed to many colonial merchants and farmers prospering.

• Britain once again tried to enforce these laws after the French and Indian War, but the colonists sternly objected.

• These acts aroused great hostility in the American colonies.• The Navigation Acts were finally revoked in 1849 after Britain supported the policy of

free trade.

The Navigation Acts• Throughout the colonial period, after the middle of the

seventeenth century, the one great source of irritation between the mother country and her colonies was found in the Navigation Acts.

• The twofold object of these acts was to protect English shipping, and to secure a profit to the home country from the colonies.

• As early as the reign of Richard II steps had been taken for the protection of shipping, but not before 1651 were there any British statutes that seriously hampered colonial trade.

• The Long Parliament, in 1642, exempted New England exports and imports from all duties, and a few years later all goods carried to the southern colonies in English vessels were put on the free list.

• In addition to these laws there were two other classes of laws, all, however, belonging to the same system, which tended to impede the development of the colonies, -- the corn laws and the laws against manufacturing.– The corn laws in the interest of the British - beginning about

1666, practically shut out from England grain raised in the colonies.

– This drove New England and New York to manufacturing, and this again led England to forbid manufacturing in the colonies.

– These laws were far more effective than the Navigation Acts.

• It is stated that in 1708 New York manufactured three fourths of the woolen and linen goods used in the colony, and also fur hats in great numbers, many of which were shipped to Europe and the West Indies.

• This trade was largely suppressed by English laws passed at various times.– In 1732 an act forbade the exporting of hats to England, to foreign

countries, or from one colony to another.– It also limited the number of persons a maker of hats might employ.– Iron was found in all the colonies, and forges and furnaces were

established in many places.

• But in 1750 Parliament enacted a law declaring that "no mill or other engine for rolling or slitting iron," "nor any furnace for making steel shall be erected in the colonies"!

• Parliament also enacted laws at various times restricting the manufacture of woolen goods.

• These laws bore heavily on the northern colonies, but were little felt in the South, where manufactories were rare.

• Probably the harshest of England's laws in the suppression of colonial trade was the Molasses Act of 1733.

• By this act prohibitive duties were placed on molasses and sugar, from the French West Indies to the colonies.

• HOW IT AFFECTS NEW ENGLAND: – New England enjoyed a great trade with the islands, receiving

molasses and sugar for flour, stock, lumber, and fish, part of which could not be sold to England owing to the corn laws.

• Had the Molasses Act been enforced, the prosperity of New England would have been at an end.

• The northern colonies, which produced the same kinds of goods as England produced, and consequently were barred from the English trade, suffered deeply by the trade laws, while the southern colonies, which raised commodities, such as tobacco and rice, which could not be duplicated in England, suffered far less.

• The Board of Trade and Plantations, established as a permanent body in 1696, kept account of the acts of colonial legislatures, corresponded with the governors, and informed itself thoroughly concerning all matters of colonial trade.

• But in spite of all efforts the Navigation Acts could scarcely be enforced at all.

• LAWBREAKERS: – It may be said that the whole people became lawbreakers, and

often the customs officials and even the governors connived at their practice.

• SMUGGLING:– Smuggling was universal. It went on regardless of the admiralty

courts established in most of the colonies. "Juries found their verdicts against the most undoubted facts.“

• The Molasses Act was certainly an economic and a political blunder; it not only made the people lawbreakers, it led them to hold Parliament in contempt, as not able to enforce its own laws.

The Clash of Political Cultures

• The political history of the 18th century illuminates a growing tensions with the empire.

• Americans of all regions repeatedly stated their desire to replicate British political institutions.

• Parliament, they claimed, provided a model for the American assemblies.

• America wants a system of checks and balances to keep a tyrant in check…

• The colonists assumed that their own governments were modeled on the balanced constitution of Great Britain…

• They argued that within their political system, the governor corresponded to the king and the governor’s council to the House of Lords…

• The colonial assemblies were perceived as American reproductions of the House of Commons and were expected to preserve the interests of the people against those of the monarch and aristocracy.

• As colonists, however, they discovered general theories about a mixed constitution were even less relevant in America than they were in G.B….

• By midcentury a majority of the mainland colonies had royal governors appointed by the crown…

• Many were career army officers who had through luck, charm, or family connection had gained prestige…

• Posts of patronage….• These governors did not rock the boat…• Royal governors possess enormous power in the

colonies…• Royal governors posses the right to VETO and

DISMISS judges…

• The Royal governors also served as military commanders in each province…

• Political practice in America differed from the British model in another crucial aspect…

• Royal governors were advised by a council, usually a body of about 12 wealthy colonists selected by the Board of Trade in London upon the recommendation of the governor…

• During the 17th century, the council had played an important role in colonial government, but its ability to exercise independent authority declined steadily over the course of the 18th century…

• Its members certainly did not represent a distinct aristocracy within American society…

• If Royal governors did not look like kings, nor American council like the House of Lords, colonial assemblies bore little resemblance to the 18th century House of Commons…

• The major difference was the size of the American franchise…

• In most colonies, adult white males who owned a small amount of land could vote in colony wide elections…

• One historian estimates that 95% of this group in MA were eligible to participate in elections…

• The number in VA was @ 85%.

• These figures have led many scholars to view the colonies as “middle-class democracies,” Societies run by moderately prosperous yeoman farmers who – in politics at least – exercised independent judgment…

• Colonial governments were not democracies in the modern sense of that term.

• Possessing the right to vote was one thing, exercising it quite another.

• Americans participated in elections when major issues were at stake-the formation of banks in mid-18th century MA, for example – but most of the time were content to let members of the rural and urban gentry represent them in the assemblies..

• These colonial politics excluded women and nonwhites from voting.

• The point to remember is that the power to expel legislative rascals was always present in America, and it was this political reality that kept autocratic gentlemen from straying too far from the will of the people.

Economic Transformation

• The colonial economy kept pace with the stunning growth of population.

• During the first ¾ of the 18th century, the population increased at least eightfold – and the per capita income did not incline.

• With the exception of the urban dwellers, such as sailors whose employment varied with the season, white Americans did quite well.

• An abundance of land and the extensive growth of agriculture accounted