| 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.
|
