THE MERCANTILE THEORY
 Policy of all major European nations from 16th to l8th centuries.
 Mercantilism – Belief that wealth was power and that a country’s economic wealth
(both military and political power) could be measured by the amount of gold or silver in its treasury.

Mercantilism
Elements of the Theory
 To get gold, must export more than import
 Colonies provide export markets
 Colonies provide source for raw material
 Colonies can’t trade with others
 Colonies can’t produce their own finished goods
 Encourage colonies to produce what mother country must import

Mercantilism Trammels On Trade
 Parliament passed many laws to enforce the mercantile system
 Navigation Laws – most famous

Significance
 Other Laws

Merits of Mercantilism
 Salutary Neglect.

Robert Walpole .
 Smuggling.
 Americans did reap many direct benefits from
Mercantilism.

What were they?

Benefits of Mercantilism
 Price supports and subsidies helped them compete against the Europeans.
 Tobacco monopoly.
 They had rights of Englishmen and opportunities for self-government.
 Protection of the strong British army and
Navy
 Prosperity trickled down

The Menace Of Mercantilism
 Downside to Mercantilism

It hurt economic initiative

Southern planters were treated more favorably.

Mercantilism was humiliating to Americans
• “Revolution broke out because England failed to recognize an emerging nation when it saw one”my FAVORITE President

1763  Pontiac’s Rebellion
Fort Detroit
British “gifts” of smallpox-infected blankets from Fort Pitt.

Pontiac’s Rebellion

BACKLASH!
 Proclamation of 1763

The Stamp Tax Uproar
 After the war, Brits wanted to start taxing the American
Colonies.

Why?
 George Grenville


Prime Minister
End of Salutary Neglect.
 Revenue Acts

New Mercantilist Laws
 Sugar Act —1764
 Quartering Act of 1765
 Currency Act
 Stamp Act —1765

This Act became the most hated

 What it required
 Who it antagonized
 British view of its fairness
 American view of its fairness
 No taxation without representation
 Virtual representation

Parliament Forced To Repeal The Stamp
Act
 Stamp Act Congress of 1765
 Non-importation agreements of
British goods
 Sons of Liberty and
Daughters of Liberty
 Declaratory Act
Tarring and Feathering a
Tax Stamp Agent

The Townshend Tea Tax And The Boston
Massacre
 Charles “Champagne Charlie”
Townsend emerges as PM
 1767-Parliament passes the
Townshend Acts
 Colonists object

Reasons
 1768 British officials landed 2 regiments of troops (700) in Boston

Boston Massacre

The Seditious Committees Of Correspondence


Townsend Acts were a failure


Repealed
Tea?
Sam Adams


Organized the local
Committees of
Correspondence in Mass
Purposes?
Sam Adams

Boston Tea Party
 1773-British East India
Company had a big problem



What was it?
How did Parliament try to remedy it?
Why was Parliament so motivated to fix the problem?

Tea Act 1773


Britain gave BEIC a complete monopoly on the American tea business.
Consequences:



Able to sell tea more cheaply than the smuggled tea
Cuts out the American middle-man
Angers colonists. Americans see as a trick to make the tax palatable.

Boston Tea Party
 None of the tea cargo of the Company reached its destination .

Maryland


South Carolina
Boston —
• Dec. 16, 1773.
• 342 chests of tea smashed and dumped the tea into Boston harbor.
• Boston Tea party

Boston Tea Party

Response to Boston Tea Party
 Reactions of public
 Reaction of Parliament
 Intolerable Acts

Boston Port

Mass. Government Act

Quartering Act

Admin. of Justice Act

Quebec Act - 1774
 Not part of the Intolerable Acts. But passed at the same time.
 What did it say?
 Colonists believed it was “intolerable” and designed to punish them.

Why?

Quebec
Before and
After
1774

The Continental Congress And
Bloodshed
 First Continental Congress

1774

Philadelphia

Reasoning?
 12 Colonies
 55 Delegates
 Drew up a Declaration of Rights

The Continental Congress And
Bloodshed
 Expressed loyalty to Britain
 Demanded repeal of all British laws taxing colonists
 Banned all trade with Britain
 Organized Continental
Association to enforce the ban

Nonimportation, nonexportation, nonconsumption
 Advised each colony to form a militia
 Pledged to meet again if demands were not met

Lexington and Concord
 Sam Adams
 John Hancock
 Paul Revere
 Shot Heard
Round the
World

Lexington

Bunker Hill
 June 1775 Bunker Hill/Breeds Hill .
 Brits under Siege in Boston.
 Militia puts forces on Breeds Hill.
 Brits under Gage blundered by assaulting the hill directly. Reason?
 Brits beaten off twice and take heavy casualties, but capture the hill on third try.
 1/8 of all Brit officers lost in the war are lost here.
 Americas take a moral victory
 Gives Americans false confidence.

Strengths and Weaknesses
 British Strengths
 British Weaknesses
 American Strengths
 American
Weaknesses