HY 101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 11: Navigation Acts, Radical Whigs, Mercantilism
29 May 2018
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Chapter 07 - The Road to Revolution
I. The Deep Roots Of Revolution
1. Two ideas had taken root in the minds of the American colonists by the mid-18th century
• Republicanism: a just society as one in which all citizens willingly subordinated their
private, selfish interests to the common good
2. Both the stability of society and the authority of government depended on the virtue of the
citizenry (selflessness, self-sufficiency, and courage, especially its appetite for civic
involvement)
• It was opposed to hierarchical and authoritarian institutions such as aristocracy and
monarchy
• A group of British political commentators know as Radical Whigs
3. They feared the threat of liberty posed by the arbitrary power of the monarch and his
ministries relative to elected representatives in Parliament. They called the bribing and
patronage of the King's ministers - "corruption in a sense of rot or decay. They warned the
citizens to be on guard against corruption and to be eternally vigilant against conspiracies.
1. The Americans had grown accustomed to running their own affairs, distance weakens
authority
II. Mercantilism And Colonial Grievances
1. Britain's empire was acquired in a "fit of absentmindedness;" all except Georgia, of the 13
colonies were haphazardly founded by trading companies, religious groups, or land
speculators.
2. Mercantilism: wealth was power and that a country's economic wealth (military and
political power also) could be measured by the amount of gold or silver in its treasury
3. The London government looked at the American colonists as tenants. They were expected
to furnish products needed in the mother country
4. From time to time Parliament passed laws to regulate the mercantilist system
• The Navigation Law (1650) was aimed at rival Dutch shippers trying to elbow their way
into American carrying trade
5. Euro goods destined for America first had to be landed in Britain, the colonists regularly
bought more from Britain than they had sold there, the difference had to be made up of
hard cash. Currency issues came to a boil when dire financial need forced many of the
colonies to issue paper money, which slowly depreciated
6. Parliament prohibited the colonial legislatures from printing paper currency and from
passing indulgent bankruptcy laws - practices that might harm British merchants.
7. The British crown reserved the right to nullify any legislation passed by the colonial
assembles if such laws worked mischief with the mercantilism system
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