TRADE & EMPIRE: The British Colonial Service In Colonial America 1660~1775.

black full cloth hardcover 8vo. (octavo). dustwrapper in protective plastic book jacket cover. vg cond. binding square & tight. covers a little spotty. edges clean. top corner clipped on front flyleaf, otherwise contents free of markings. dustwrapper in vg cond. a few faint spots on rear, not price clipped but price has a line drawn through it (see photos). nice clean copy. no library markings, store stamps, stickers, bookplates, no names, inking, underlining, remainder markings etc~. first edition. first printing (same date on title & copyright page, no additional printings indicated). ix+336p. appendices. bibliography. notes. index. american history. british empire. american revolution. colonial america. ~ The philosophical basis and sustaining structure of the First British Empire ( 1606~1783) were essentially commercial in character. According to the prevalent thinking of the period, colonies existed primarily to increase the economic well~being of the mother country. This mercantilist principle was embodied in a series of Acts of Trade and Navigation passed by the British Parliament between 1660 and 1696 in order to control most of the import and export trade of the American colonies to the advantage of England. Initial enforcement of the Acts was left to colonial governors and the colonists themselves, but the autonomy this arrangement allowed soon proved unsatisfactory, and in 1673 the English customs service was formally extended to America. Although the system was organized and operative as early as 1710, by that date it was also obvious that it was not effective. The colonists violated the laws continually, and the individual customs officers were operating on their own, far from England, with little real authority or power. Reports sent back to London showed increasingly that the basic problem was simply that the English government did not have the political authority within its colonies to enforce its programs. Various suggestions for reform were presented, centering on the raising of a revenue independent of the colonial legislatures and the political reorganization of the colonial governments. But the rise to power in England of Robert Walpole and the Whigs, with their policy of concentrating on internal matters, resulted in a laissez~faire approach to colonial relations, leaving the colonists relatively free of interference. As a consequence, the customs service ~ and, in fact, English authority generally ~ remained weak and ineffectual in many critical ways down to 1760. Concern for colonial reform, however, was increasingly evident in governmental circles in the 1750's, and after the defeat of France in the Seven Years' War England undertook to reinforce her prerogatives in America. Unfortunately for the English, these attempts at reform came too late; the Americans openly resisted the efforts to raise new revenues independently of their legislatures, and after a decade of crisis the contest between English authority and colonial opposition degenerated into an armed conflict. The last English customs official was driven from America in 1775, and with his departure came an end to the long campaign to direct and dominate the economic life of the American colonists. The Revolution put an end to the colonial customs service ~ and to the First British Empire as well.