Trade

Model answer

X is the Staple Act of 1663. Y is that duties had to be paid on enumerated goods such as tobacco and sugar shipped from one English colony to another, collected by customs officers in the colonies.

Model answer

The re-export trade was important first because it made London one of Europe's great trading centres. Under the Navigation Act of 1660, enumerated colonial goods such as sugar and tobacco had to be shipped to England, so English merchants, not the Dutch, sold them on to the rest of Europe. The East India Company also brought calico and pepper to London for re-sale. Re-exports grew so fast that by about 1700 they made up nearly a third of all English exports. London's merchants, warehouses and shipping prospered, and after the Fire the Royal Exchange was rebuilt and reopened in 1669 as the centre of this business.

Secondly, the re-export trade strengthened the Crown's finances. Goods had to pass through English ports, so customs duties were paid on them, and from 1671 customs commissioners collected these duties directly for the king. In the trade boom of the 1680s customs revenue rose sharply, which helped Charles II to rule without Parliament from 1681.

Thirdly, it boosted shipping and industry. More cargoes meant more voyages for English ships, contributing to the growth of the merchant fleet to an estimated 340,000 tons by 1686, and it encouraged new industries such as sugar refining and tobacco processing. England began to take over part of the Dutch role as the warehouse of Europe, especially when the Dutch and French were at war between 1674 and 1678 while England stayed neutral.

The most important result was the boost to royal revenue, because it gave Charles independence from Parliament in his last years. But this wealth also depended on sugar and tobacco grown by enslaved Africans on colonial plantations.

Model answer

The Royal African Company was important first because it organised the English slave trade on a large scale. Chartered in 1672, it replaced the Company of Royal Adventurers, which had been ruined by losses in the Second Dutch War. The new company had a monopoly of English trade with West Africa. As Figure 1 shows, it held forts and trading posts such as Cape Coast Castle on the Gold Coast, its headquarters, and James Island in the Gambia, where its agents exchanged English cloth, metal goods and guns for enslaved Africans, gold and ivory. These permanent bases allowed it to trade far more than individual merchants could.

Secondly, it supplied the plantation colonies. By the 1680s the Company was carrying about 5,000 enslaved Africans a year across the Atlantic, mainly to Barbados and Jamaica, where they were forced to work on sugar plantations. Many died on the Middle Passage. This supply of enslaved labour allowed the sugar colonies to grow rapidly, which in turn increased trade and customs revenue in England.

Thirdly, the Company tied the Crown closely to the slave trade. James, Duke of York, was its governor and leading shareholder, and many courtiers and merchants invested. Enslaved people bought by the Company were often branded with the letters DY or RAC. Gold from its trade was used to make the guinea coin.

However, the Company never fully controlled the trade. Independent 'interlopers', including Bristol merchants, broke its monopoly, and planters complained that it charged too much. Even so, it was the largest single English slave-trading organisation of the period and made London the centre of the trade, so it played a central part in making England one of the leading slave-trading nations.

Model answer

The Navigation Acts brought England serious problems, especially war with the Dutch and resentment in the colonies, but I agree with the statement because their benefits for English shipping, trade and royal revenue were greater and longer lasting.

The first major benefit was the growth of English shipping. The Act of 1660 required colonial trade to be carried in English ships with mainly English crews and barred foreigners from the coastal trade. Historians estimate that the merchant fleet grew from about 115,000 tons in 1629 to about 340,000 tons by 1686. This meant more work for shipbuilders and sailors, and a larger pool of seamen who could be pressed into the navy in wartime.

A second benefit was the growth of trade and revenue. Because enumerated goods such as sugar and tobacco had to come to England, London became a centre for re-exporting them to Europe, and by about 1700 re-exports made up nearly a third of English exports. Every cargo paid customs duties, which were collected directly by royal commissioners from 1671. In the trade boom of the 1680s customs revenue rose so much that, together with French subsidies, it allowed Charles II to rule without Parliament after 1681.

However, the Acts also caused problems. They sharpened rivalry with the Dutch and helped cause two wars. The Second Dutch War was very expensive: Parliament voted about 2.5 million pounds in 1664, and the war ended in humiliation when the Dutch raided the Medway in 1667 and towed away the Royal Charles. At the Treaty of Breda England even had to relax the Navigation Act. The cost of the wars added to the Crown's debts, which led to the Stop of the Exchequer in 1672.

The Acts also caused trouble in the colonies. Tobacco planters in Virginia suffered low prices, and New England merchants evaded the rules so openly that the government passed the Plantation Duty Act of 1673 and sent Edward Randolph to Massachusetts in 1676; its charter was revoked in 1684. Scots, excluded from English colonial trade, also resented the Acts.

Overall, the benefits outweighed the problems. The wars had several causes besides the Acts, such as rivalry in Africa and Charles's alliance with France, and many of the colonial problems fell on colonists rather than on England. By contrast, the growth of shipping, the re-export trade and customs revenue lasted and laid the foundation for England's later commercial and naval power. The Acts benefited English merchants and the Crown far more than they harmed England, even if colonists and taxpayers paid part of the price.