The Navigation Acts
The Navigation Acts were a group of laws which restricted the ability of the colonies to trade with any nation outside Great Brittan. There were two Navigation Acts between the years 1660 and 1663. The one in 1660 states that every ship must have ¾ of its crew to be Englishmen, and the one in 1663 required that any European goods going to the American colonies were to pass through England first. Thats tedious!
About a decade later, the Molasses act was made. This one required a heavy import tax on any sugar coming from the French West Indies to the American colonies. They made this act because the English feared that their sugar making rivals, the French, were making way better sugar than them, so the British made the Molasses act so the French would think it was too expensive to make sugar. But the French totally ignored this law and started smuggling, bribery, or intimidation to the port officers. But for some reason, the British still benefited most out of the Molasses act. Strange huh?
The last act of today, the Currency act. This law was created when the British realized that they were being played in American currency instead of British. American currency was depleted British currency. The Navigation, Molasses, and Currency acts effected the town a lot. It was mostly psychological as the colonists came to realize that the parliament wasn’t acting in their “best interest”, a fact that contributed to the revolutionary war.
The revolutionary war essays will be coming out sometime this year. I’m looking forward to learning about more colonial times and most of the famous inventors in 8th grade. This will probably happen next week (not the revolutionary war essay, just for 8th grade essays)! Until next time!
