The Imperial System

1. The Imperial System England’s Attempt at Control

2. Mercantilism A set of ideas about the world economy and how it works. • Sell more than you buy • Be self sufficient in raw materials • Establish colonies where raw materials were available • New England had no raw materials so they turned to triangular trade and smuggling

3. The Navigation Act • Required all goods imported or exported from the colonies to be carried on English ships, and stated that at least three-fourths of the crew on each ship had to be English • The Act also listed specific raw materials that could only be sold to England or other English colonies. • The list included sugar, tobacco, lumber, cotton, wool, and indigo – the money making products for the colonies.

4. The Staple Act • Required everything that the colonies imported had to come to England first. • They would pay taxes in England which would increase the cost of the product for the colonists. • Frustrated, colonial merchants broke the laws • As a colonial power, England had the authority to enact and enforce the Navigation Acts.

5. The Glorious Revolution of 1688 • James II was offending the English by practicing Catholicism • Parliament invited his daughter and her husband William and Mary to take the throne of England • James left when they arrived and the bloodless change of power became known as the Glorious Revolution.

6. English Bill of Rights • William and Mary had to swear to obey the laws of Parliament • These laws became known as the English Bill of Rights • It made it illegal for the king to impose taxes or raise an army without the consent of Parliament

7. English Bill of Rights • It guaranteed freedom of speech within Parliament and banned bail and excessive bail and cruel and unusual punishments • Every English subject had the right to petition the king and the right to a fair and impartial jury in legal cases.

8. Bill of Rights • Parliament also passed the Toleration Act, granting freedom of worship to nearly all Protestants but not to Catholics and Jews. • Eventually the ideas found in the English Bill of Rights and the Toleration Act would be expanded and incorporated into the American Bill of Rights.

9. John Locke • A philosopher who wrote that all people were born with certain natural rights including life, liberty, and property • He said that a monarch’s right to rule came from the people • His ideas inspired American colonists.