| Act/Regulation |
Date |
Significance/Features |
Navigation Act
|
1651 |
- Required all crews to be at least 1/2 English in nationality
- Most goods must be carried on English or colonial ships
- Goal: eliminate Dutch competition from colonial trading routes
|
Navigation Act
|
1660 |
- Required all colonial trade
to be on English ships
- Master and 3/4 of crew must be English
- Long list of "enumerated goods" developed, including tobacco, sugar,
rice, that could only be shipped to England or an English colony
|
Staple Act
|
1663 |
- Required goods bound for the colonies shipped from Africa, Asia, or
Europe to first be landed in England before shipping to America.
|
Plantation Duty Act
|
1673 |
- Required colonial ship captains to guarantee that they would deliver
enumerated goods to England or suffer financial penalties.
- Colonial arm of English customs offices
established
|
Navigation Act
|
1696 |
- Further tightened earlier Navigation Acts
- Created system of admiralty courts to enforce trade regulations and
punish smugglers
- Customs officials given power to issue writs of assistance to board
ships and search for smuggled goods
|
Woolens Act
|
1699 |
- To prevent competition with English producers, prohibited colonial
export of woolen cloth.
|
Hat Act
|
1732 |
- Prohibited export of colonial-produced hats.
|
Molasses Act
|
1733 |
- All non-English imported molasses taxed heavily to encourage
importation of British West Indian molasses.
|
American Revenue Act (Sugar Act)
|
1764
|
- Lord Grenville institutes new policies to generate revenue by
combining new duties on imported goods with strict collectiion
provisions. Tax on French West Indies molasses was actually lowered, but
enforcement attempted to end bribes and smuggling.
|
