The American Nation A History of the United States, Combined Volume (14th Edition)

Rhode Island yards constructed perhaps 250 ships of
100 to 400 tons for transatlantic commerce and twice
that many sloops and schooners for fishermen and
coastal traders.
Two forces that worked in opposite directions
must be considered before arriving at any judgment
about English mercantilism. While the theory presup-
posed a general imperial interest above that of both
colony and mother country, when conflicts of interest
arose the latter nearly always predominated. Whenever
Parliament or the Board of Trade resolved an Anglo-
American disagreement, the colonists tended to lose.
Complementary interests conspired to keep con-
flicts at a minimum, but in the long run, as the
American economy became more complex, the
colonies would have been seriously hampered and
much more trouble would have occurred had the sys-
tem continued to operate.
On the other hand, the restrictions of English
mercantilism were greatly lessened by inefficiency.
The king and his ministers handed out government
posts to win political favor or to repay political debts,
regardless of the recipient’s ability to perform the
duties of the office.
Transported to remote America, this bumbling
and cynical system scarcely functioned at all when local
opinion resisted it. Smuggling became a respected
profession, and bribery of English officials a standard

The Great Awakening 85

practice. Despite a supposedly

prohibitive duty of sixpence a

gallon imposed by the Molasses

Act of 1733, molasses from the

French West Indies continued

to be imported. The duty was

seldom collected.

Mercantilist policies hurt

some colonists such as the

tobacco planters, who grew far

more tobacco than British con-

sumers could smoke. Tobacco

planters wanted to ship directly

to Dutch or French ports. But

the policies helped others, and

most people proved adept at

getting around those aspects

of the system that threatened

them. In any case, the colonies

enjoyed almost continuous

prosperity, as even so dedicated

a foe of mercantilist restrictions

as Adam Smith admitted.

By the same token,

England profited greatly from

its overseas possessions. With

all its inefficiencies, mercantil-

ism worked. Prime Minister Sir Robert Walpole’s

famous policy of “salutary neglect,” which involved

looking the other way when Americans violated the

Navigation Acts, was partly a bowing to the inevitable,

and partly the result of complacency. English manufac-

tures were better and cheaper than those of other

nations. This fact, together with ties of language and a

common heritage, predisposed Americans toward

doing business in England. All else followed naturally;

the mercantilist laws merely steered the American

economy in a direction it had already taken.

The Great Awakening

Although a majority of the settlers were of English,

Scotch, or Scots-Irish descent, and their interests gen-

erally coincided with those of their cousins in the

mother country, people in the colonies were begin-

ning to recognize their common interests and charac-

ter. Their loyalties were still predominantly local, but

by 1750 the word American, used to describe some-

thing characteristic of all the British possessions in

North America, had entered the language. Events in

one part of America were beginning to have direct

effects on other regions. One of the first of these

developments was the so-calledGreat Awakening.

By the early eighteenth century, religious fervor

had slackened in all the colonies. Prosperity turned

1700 1710 1720 1730 1740 1750 1760 1770 1774

2,800,000

£ 3,000,000

5-Year Averages (1774: 4-Year Average)

2,600,000

2,400,000

2,200,000

2,000,000

1,800,000

1,600,000

1,400,000

1,200,000

1,000,000

800,000

600,000

400,000

200,000

0

Value of imports from England

Value of exports to England

Colonial Trade with England, 1700–1774