Chp 3.1
THE AGE OF
SALUTARY NEGLECT
(1650 TO 1750)
Also known as
“Benign Neglect”
British too
busy with
other
problems to
keep close
rein on
colonies
Take the time to fill in
your colonies map
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England
felt the
colonies
where there
to serve the
mother
country
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The main goal of mercantilism was to
increase the money in a country’s treasury
by creating a favorable balance of trade. A
country had a favorable balance of trade if it
had more exports than imports.
Emergence of a world market and the policy
of mercantilism
1. New World gold and silver to Spain in 16th and 17th
centuries used to buy products from England, France and
Holland
2. 18th century great increase in global trade and
emergence of "world market"
3. English, French, and Dutch use profits for tea, spices,
silks and cotton from East Asia and India to sell in Europe
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4. British ships carry goods to Africa to trade for slaves
and shipped to America to buy tobacco. The tobacco was
sent back to England, processed and sold in Europe for
cash.
5. Slaves were perhaps the most profitable trade.
6. Trade enabled England and France to overtake Spain,
Portugal and Holland in the 18th century
7. England and France built profitable empires in the 18th
century.
ENGLISH REGULATION OF COLONIAL
TRADE
Mercantilism meant Britain
looked to the colonies as
1. Market for British goods
2. Source of raw materials that were not
native to Britain
3. As a producer of goods to be sold to other
nations and the profit would go to
England
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Triangular
trade
routes
Slaves to sugar plantations,
sugar to distillers in colonies,
rum and such to Europe
To Keep Their Profits England Decides To Pass:
Navigation Acts required
1. the colonists to buy goods only
from England.
2. prohibited the colonies from
manufacturing a number of goods
that England already produced
3. Export all valuable raw materials
to England
Navigation Acts meant:
1. Colonial shippers must use only British vessels.
2. Certain products could only be shipped through British ports.
3. Foreign ships trading with the colonies had to stop first at a
British port to pay duties.
4. Colonial manufacturing was essentially permitted only for
home consumption not export and certain goods were only to
be purchased from Britain itself.
What
was
life
like
in
the
colonies?
- Population in 1700 was 250,000; by 1750, that number was
1,250,000
- Over 90 percent-lived in rural areas
-Children and women were completely subordinate to men!
(Great Idea!!)
-Children's education had to be fit in around their work
schedules
-Married women were not allowed to vote, own property,
draft a will, or testify in court.
-Slaves often developed extended-kinship ties and strong
communal bonds to cope with the misery of servitude and
the possibility that their nuclear families might be separated
by sale
New England
society centered on
trade. Boston was
the colonies' major
port city
The middle coloniesNew York,
Pennsylvania, New
Jersey-had more fertile
land and so focused
primarily on farming
The lower South
(the Carolinas)
concentrated on
such cash crops as
tobacco and rice
Majority of
Southerners were
subsistence farmers
who had no slaves
Colonies were hardly a unified
whole as they approached the
events that led them to rebel
So how did they react to the
Navigation Acts of 1650?
First American Revolution?
• The reign of James II threatened the colonies’ tradition of selfgovernment. James became king in 1685. He wanted to rule
England and its colonies with total authority. One of his first
orders changed the way the Northern colonies were governed.
• These colonies, especially Massachusetts, had been smuggling
goods and ignoring the Navigation Acts.
• When challenged, the people of Massachusetts had claimed that
England had no right to make laws for them. The previous king,
Charles II, had then canceled their charter.
• King James combined Massachusetts and the other Northern
colonies into one Dominion of New England, ruled by royal
governor Edmund Andros. Andros angered the colonists by
ending their representative assemblies and allowing town
meetings to be held only once a year. With their assemblies
outlawed, some colonists refused to pay taxes.
First American Revolution?
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• They said that being taxed without
having a voice in government
violated their rights. Andros jailed
the loudest complainers. At their
trial, they were told, “You have no
more privileges left you than not to
be Sould for Slaves.”
• The colonists sent Increase Mather
to England to plead with King.
However, a revolution in England
swept King James and Governor
Andros from power.
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Glorious Revolution
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– The English Parliament had decided to overthrow King
James for not respecting its rights
– He had dismissed the last Parliament in 1685. The
Protestant leaders of Parliament were outraged. They
offered the throne to James’s Protestant daughter, Mary,
and her husband, William of Orange. William was the
ruler of the Netherlands.
– Having little support from the people, James fled the
country at the end of 1688. Parliament named William
and Mary the new monarchs of England. This change in
leadership was called England’s Glorious Revolution.
Glorious Revolution
• Glorious Revolution didn’t mean much besides
Andros leaving
• 1691 new royal charter again - new permanent
royal gov’t
– Loss ancient charter
– Now voting not just church members but all male
property owners (those Puritans lost power now!)
Glorious Revolution
• Wm and Mary meant “salutory neglect”
• But
– More English officials remain due to Charles II
– They were often corrupt and loyal to England
– Not locally elected
Period of Salutary Neglect and
Time to Practice Running the
Country
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The governor could strike down laws
passed by the assembly, but the
assembly was responsible for the
governor’s salary. If he blocked the
assembly, the assembly might refuse to
pay him. During the first half of the
1700s, England interfered very little in
colonial affairs. This hands-off policy
was called salutary neglect. Parliament
passed many laws regulating trade, the
use of money, and even apprenticeships
in the colonies. But governors rarely
enforced these laws. The colonists got
used to acting on their own.