Navigation Acts
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Intended to help British Mercantilism.
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Closed the colonies to all trade except that carried in English ships (helped
colonial shipbuilding).
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All goods being shipped from Europe to the colonies had to pass through
England on the way.
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Britain couldn’t and really didn’t care to enforce.
Proclamation of 1763
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Line drawn along the Appalachian Mountains.
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Controlled the western movement of the colonial settlers.
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Reserved land speculation and fur trading for English rather than colonial
entrepreneurs.
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Completely ineffective – colonists continued to go across the boundary.
Sugar Act
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Tariffs on sugar, wine, coffee.
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Lowered the duty on molasses.
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Strengthened the enforcement of the duty on sugar.
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New vice-admiralty courts created in America to try accused smugglers.
Currency Act
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Colonial assemblies had to stop issuing paper money.
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All money in circulation had to be collected and thrown away.
Stamp Act
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Taxed all printed items: deeds, newspapers, almanacs, wills, etc.
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Evoked particular opposition from the most powerful members of the
population (merchants, lawyers, etc.).
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Colonists considered it a direct attempt by England to make money off the
colonies.
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Was later repealed by Parliament because London merchants protested it.
Mutiny/Quartering Acts
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Required the colonists to provide quarters/barracks and supplies for the
British troops in America.
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Provided for the troops stationed in North America to protect the colonists
from Indian or French attacks.
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New York’s and Massachusetts’s assemblies refused to cooperate with
Parliament on this act because it was an assault in their liberties.
Declaratory Act

Colonies clearly subordinate to Parliament and England.
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Parliament could pass laws for the colonies “in all cases whatsoever.”
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Most Americans paid little attention to this law because they were too
busy celebrating the repeal of the Stamp Act.

Passed the same day Parliament repealed the Stamp Act.
Townshend Duties

Taxed lead, paint, paper, tea, and glass.

Repealed by Prime Minister Lord North except the tax on tea.

British military sets up in Boston, ultimately leading to the Boston
Massacre.
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Parliament thought colonists would accept this law because it was a tax on
external transactions.
Tea Act
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Seen by colonists as a dangerous monopoly on English goods; it put
colonial merchants at a grave disadvantage.
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This commodity was actually cheaper after this tax.
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The Boston Tea Party happened because people did not like this tax.
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Gave the British East India Company an unfair advantage.
Coercive/Intolerable Acts
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Closed Boston’s harbor.
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Reduced colonial self-government and permitted royal officers to be tried
in other colonies or in England when accused of crimes.

Provided for the quartering of troops in the colonists’ barns and empty
houses.
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These laws were clearly meant to punish the colonists in Massachusetts.