The British Empire: A source for good or evil? February 2014 | Page 23

The British people was mercantilist i.e. there power was founded on the colect
of taxes and the profit of the merchents. At this time, the main thing to control was
the transports : navigation. Britain made, in 1651, a Navigation Act : the colonies
could buy only from Britain and they could sell there materials only to britain ; they
had to use British ships for those exchanges. We could think they were nice to their
colonies because they weren't exploiting them freely. It was only calculations. They
did not made the mistake the Spanish did in America, they did not exploit and starve
them to death because they needed them .

In this picture we see see there richness came from the difference between the
money they gave (buying) and the money the earnt (selling). Britain was the only
contry of Europe to have such diversed ressources, there colonies were "gold mines".
They bought those raw materials cheaper than they would sell them in Britain and
Europe and than the value they had for them. Plus, they could sell their products to
the colonies at high prices since they had to buy. Britain had made a monopoly out
from its colonies.Without forgetting that selling a lot of products made the british
people prosper : they had jobs.
By trading with its colonies, Britain became very rich – one of the richer of
Europe at this time – and its people prospered. But it was at the expence of them !

Questions : 1) What kind of goods were sold by the british people ? By the
colonised people ?
2) How evolved the exchanges with the african colonies ? (doc 2)
3) When was the Navigation Act released ? What was its main acts ?