The wars of the two preceding reigns had largely increased the
National Debt (S503), and the Government resolved to compel the
American colonies to share in a more direct degree than they had yet
done the constantly increasing burden of taxation. England then, like
all other European countries, regarded her colonies in a totally
different way from that in which she considers the colonies she now
holds.
It was an open question at that time whether colonial legislative
rights existed save as a matter of concession or favor on the part of
the Home Government. It is true that the Government had found it
expedient to grant or recognize such rights, but it had seldom defined
them clearly, and in many important respects no one knew just what the
settlers of Virginia or Massachusetts might or might not lawfully
do.[1]
[1] Story's "Constitution of the United States."
The mother country, however, was perfectly clear on three points:
1. That the American colonies were convenient receptacles for the
surplus population, good or bad, of the British Islands.
2. That they were valuable as sources of revenue and profit,
politically and commercially.
3. That, finally, they furnished excellent opportunities for the
King's friends to get office and make fortunes.
Such had long been the feeling about India, and such too was the
feeling, modified by difference of circumstances, about America.
Politically the English colonists in America enjoyed a large measure
of liberty. So far as local legislation was concerned, they were in
most cases preactically self-governing and independent. So, too,
their personal rights were carefully safeguarded. On the other hand,
the commercial policy of England toward her colonies, though severely
restrictive, was far less so than that of Spain or France toward
theirs. The Navigation Laws (S459) compelled the Americans to confine
their trade to England alone, or to such foreign ports as she
directed. If they sent a hogshead of tobacco or a barrel of salt fish
to another country by any but an English or a colonial built bessel,
they were legally liable to forfeith their goods. On the other hand,
they enjoyed the complete monopoly of the English tobacco market, and
in certain cases they received bounties on some of their products.
Furthermore, the Navigation Laws had not been rigidly enforced for a
long time, and the New England colonists generally treated them as a
dead letter.
When George III came to the throne he resolved to revive the
enforcement of the Navigation Laws, to build up the British West
Indies, and to restrict the colonial trade with the Spanish and French
West Indies. This was done, not for the purpose of crippling American
commerce, but either to increase English revenue or to inflict injury
on foreign rivals or enemies.
Furthermore, British manufacturers had at an earlier period induced
the English Government to restrict certain American home
manufactures. In accordance with that policy, Parliament had enacted
statutes which virtually forbade the colonists making their own woolen
cloth, or their own beaver hats, except on a very limited scale. They
had a few ironworks, but they were forbidden to erect another furnace,
or another mill for manufacturing iron rods or plates, and such
industries were declared to be a nuisance.
William Pitt, who later became Lord Chatham (S538), was one of the
warmest friends that America had; but he openly advocated this narrow
policy, saying that if British interests demanded it he would not
permit the colonists to make so much as a "horseshoe nail." Adam
Smith, an eminent English political economist of that day, vehemently
condemned the British Government's colonial mercantile system as
suicidal; but his condemnation came too late to have any effect. The
fact was that the world was not ready then--if indeed it is yet--to
receive the gospel of "Live and let live."