277 f., 304
f.] which had been successful in its general design--to destroy the
Dutch carrying trade and to stimulate British ship-building. In the
eighteenth century a similar policy was applied to the colonies. For it
was claimed that the New England traders who sold their fish and lumber
for sugar, molasses, and rum in the French West Indies were enriching
French planters rather than English. Consequently, a heavy tariff was
laid on French sugar-products. Moreover, inasmuch as it was deemed most
essential for a naval power to have many and skilled ship-builders, the
Navigation Acts [Footnote: Subsequent to the Act of 1651, important
Navigation Acts were passed in 1660, 1663, 1672, and 1696.] were so
developed and expanded as to include the following prescriptions: (1)
In general all import and export trade must be conducted in ships built
in England, in Ireland, or in the colonies, manned and commanded by
British subjects. Thus, if a French or Dutch merchantman appeared in
Massachusetts Bay, offering to sell at a great bargain his cargo of
spices or silks, the shrewd merchants of Boston were legally bound not
to buy of him.
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