Mercantilism, Navigation Acts
Mercantilism, Navigation Acts
and East India Co.
and East India Co.
Mercantilism
Mercantilism
" prosperity of a nation - supply of capital,
1. represented by bullion (gold, silver, and trade value) held by the state,
2. best increased through
a positive balance of trade with other nations (exports minus imports).
" The ruling government
should advance these goals by:
1. playing a protectionist role
in the economy,
2. encouraging exports
3. discouraging imports,
especially through the use
of tariffs.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercantilism
" Mercantilism superseded feudalism in Western Europe,
especially in Holland, France, and England.
The period 1500 1800 - religious and commercial wars,
Large revenues were needed
1. to maintain armies
2. and pay the growing costs of civil government.
" Foreign trade - above domestic trade,
manufacturing or processing - at the expense of the extractive industries
(e.g., agriculture).
" Besides bullion,
1. raw materials for domestic manufacturers were also sought,
2. duties were levied on the importation of such goods.
" Treaties - to obtain trading privileges.
In England mercantilist policies created
1. a skilled industrial population
2. and a large shipping industry.
http://www.bartleby.com/65/me/mercanti.html
Drawbacks:
" oversupply of money
" serious inflation.
Mercantilist ideas did not decline until the coming of
the Industrial Revolution and of laissez-faire.
" Henry VIII, Elizabeth I, and Oliver Cromwell
conformed their policies to mercantilism.
Political implications of mercantilist economics :
1. The welfare of the community - the pursuit of national strength and power
2. The workers - poor but not impoverished
3. The rich were to consume - to increase the power of the state
4. The merchants were to produce articles for trade
5. The nobility were to produce food and raw materials
http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/mercantilism.htm
Navigation Acts
Navigation Acts
" British Acts of Trade.
1. the expansion of the English carrying trade,
2. the provision from the colonies of materials England could not produce,
3. the establishment of colonial markets for English manufactures.
" The rise of the Dutch carrying trade was the immediate cause
for the Navigation Act of 1651, and was a major cause of the First Dutch War.
It forbade the importation of plantation commodities of
Asia, Africa, and America except in ships owned by Englishmen.
European goods could be brought into England and English possessions
1. only in ships belonging to Englishmen,
2. to people of the country where the cargo was produced,
3. or to people of the country receiving first shipment.
http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/history/A0835034.html
" The Navigation Act of 1651 was reenacted in the First Navigation Act of 1660.
" The First Act enumerated such colonial articles as
sugar, tobacco, cotton, and indigo;
these were to be supplied only to England.
" This act was expanded and altered by Navigation Acts of 1662, 1663, 1670, 1673.
" The act of 1663 required that
all foreign goods be shipped to the American colonies through English ports.
" In return for restrictions on manufacturing, colonial commodities
were often given a monopoly of the English market.
" The Molasses Act of 1733, which raised duties on French West Indian sugar,
angered Americans by forcing them to buy the more expensive British West
Indian sugar. Extensive smuggling resulted.
" The acts were finally repealed in 1849.
http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/history/A0835034.html
The East India Company
The East India Company
" 1600 1874,
1. chartered by Queen Elizabeth I
2. for trade with Asia.
3. to break the Dutch monopoly of the spice trade with the East Indies.
" After 1623,
when the English traders at Amboina were massacred by the Dutch,
the company concentrated its activities in India.
" It had established its
1. first factory at Machilipatnam in 1611,
2. acquired unequalled trade privileges from the Mughal emperors.
The East India Company was also the catalyst
of important cultural changes at home.
Tea from China was one of the company's key
contributions to life in Britain,
as were a variety of spices from the Banda islands
and exotic textiles from India.
http://www.fathom.com/course/ The arms used by the East India
21701760/index.html Company until 1709
" By 1708 the company had established in India
the three presidencies of Madras, Bombay, and Calcutta.
European settlements in India (1501-1739)
The City of Surat, from
Surat was the Mughal Empire s most
a Dutch engraving reproduced
important centre for overseas trade,
in John Ogilby s Asia, London 1673
particularly for textiles. It was the first
major Asian port city within reach
of the ships rounding the Cape
of Good Hope.
Fort William, Calcutta,
by George Lambert and Samuel Scott, c.1730.
A section from a panoramic scroll of the city of Delhi by Mazhar  Ali Khan, 1846.
Except for Madras, Bombay and Calcutta, none of the factories was fortified.
For most men life was hard and usually short. It was thought to take 5 years
to acclimatise but most people were lucky to last two monsoons. In some years
upto a third of overseas personnel died  victims of cholera, typhoid
and malaria.
Factory painting 1790-1800. Back view of an English
factory in Bengal(?) with high surrounding wall.
Each factory was an enclosed  campus style compound
with living quarters, public rooms, warehouses
and open yards surrounded by a fence or wall as security.
Most men did live communally taking all their meals
together and spending all their time in each other s company.
http://www.bl.uk/whatson/exhibitions/trading/exhibition1.html
" As Mughal power declined,
1. settlements became subject to increasing harassment by local princes,
2. company began to protect itself by intervening in Indian political affairs.
" It had a serious rival in the French East India Company, which under
Joseph François Dupleix launched an aggressive policy of expansion.
" The victories (1751 60) of Robert Clive over the French
1. made the company dominant in India,
2. by a treaty of 1765 it assumed control of the administration of Bengal.
http://www.bartleby.com/65/ea/EastIndB.html
1. To check the exploitative practices of the company
2. to gain a share of revenues,
the British government intervened
and passed the Regulating Act (1773),
by which a governor-general of Bengal was given
charge of all the company s possessions in India.
" By the East India Act of 1784 the government assumed
more direct responsibility for British activities in India.
" Parliamentary acts of 1813 and 1833
ended the company s trade monopoly.
" Finally, after the Indian Mutiny of 1857 58
the government assumed direct control,
and the East India Company was dissolved.
The expanded East India House,
Leadenhall Street, London, as rebuilt 1799-1800
http://www.bartleby.com/65/ea/EastIndB.html