Booklet 4 || 1714 - 1763

Question 1

What was Britain like in 1714?

Answer 1

• Long wars against France had left Britain more confident about position overseas
• Little attention to the American colonies between 1713 and 1763
• In 1714, George I took power, already had responsibilities in Hannover
• Period often referred to as Salutary Neglect
• Changed after 1739 when England spent next 25 years at war with France, set of wars were more concerned about colonial problems

Question 2

What took place in regard to transportation during this period?

Answer 2

• Number of criminals who had been convicted of capital crimes and had their sentence commuted to transportation increased rapidly
• Act passed 1718 which paid merchants a subsidy to take prisoners across the Atlantic
• For the 60 years following, 30,000 convicts were sent to North America

Question 3

When was the South Sea Company formed?

Answer 3

1711

Question 4

What was the South Sea Company a consequence of?

Answer 4

The Wars of Spanish Succession

Question 5

What assumption was made when the South Sea Company was created?

Answer 5

Favourable terms could be agreed with Spain, who held a monopoly on trade with Southern America and the Caribbean following the war

Question 6

What was different about the South Sea Company with those previous?

Answer 6

• Not purely a trading company
• Had undertaken to take on an amount of the government’s debts, accrued through costly wars, in return for the privileges it was granted
• Allowed people to trade government securities (saving bonds) for stocks in the Company

Question 7

Why was the Treaty of Utrecht hugely detrimental for the South Sea Company?

Answer 7

• While Phillip of Spain allowed the South Sea Company to send 4800 slaves to the Americas yearly (Assiento), he only allowed one ship to go to the Americas per year for the purposes of other trade
• Phillip also demanded that of this shipment, 1/4 of the profits should be paid to the Spanish throne
• Company found itself in a position where it had invested a large amount of money in an infrastructure which far outweighed the needs of the trading possibilities it had been granted

Question 8

What was the South Sea Bubble?

Answer 8

• Share price of the Company rose, over £1000 per share
• Stock price fell to £100 per share by December 1720, leaving the Company, banks and the Royal Charter in disarray
• Numerous individuals involved with the scheme and stockholders were ruined by this

Question 9

What was implemented in reaction to the South Sea Bubble?

Answer 9

The ‘Bubble Act’ of 1720

Question 10

What was the Bubble Act?

Answer 10

• Aimed to reduce speculation and threat of corruption
• Stopped the creation of joint stock companies which ruled out one of the ways in which the British had organised their expansion overseas

Question 11

Why was the slave trade not as profitable as first hoped?

Answer 11

• High death rate of slaves in transportation
• Taxes levied
• Relatively ineffective management of the South Sea Company compared to the East India Company
• Spain also acted to minimise the profitability of British trading ventures in its sphere of influence, they were able to delay and detain British ships so that Spanish cargoes arrived first and could be sold at a higher price

Question 12

When did the Assiento end?

Answer 12

1750 - South Sea Company were given a one-off payment by the Spanish to compensate them for this

Question 13

What were the opinions of the colonial assemblies in North America?

Answer 13

• Saw themselves as bodies parallel to the House of Commons
• Felt that they could use their authority over finance to control royal governors
• Felt that because they voted for local taxes which would then pay the Governor’s salary, then the Governor should let the assembly have its own way

Question 14

How did the governors of North American colonies change?

Answer 14

17th century - military men with a sense of authority
18th century - replaced by gentlemen with good connections in London

Question 15

What phrase can be used to describe the colonial policy of the British government?

Answer 15

Salutary neglect

Question 16

What was the main focus of British legislation during the first half of 18th century?

Answer 16

Keeping the Navigation Acts up to date, tended to not legislate on issues that were seen as internal issues of the colonies

Question 17

What was the demography of the American population during this period?

Answer 17

• Population growth, at the beginning of the 18th century it was about 250,000, rose to 2 million by 1776
• Just under half of the population consisted of white immigrants (half settlers and half indentured labourers), other half slaves
• Population was becoming less English, large number of Ulstermen, Scotsmen and Germans among the settlers

Question 18

What restrictions were put on the American colonies during this time?

Answer 18

1699 - forbidden to spin woollens for export
1750 - Iron Act allowed them to smelt iron ore into pig iron but not to go any further in processing it
The British felt that they were paying enough for the defence of America and were entitled to impose a unified industrial policy

Question 19

How did imports and exports compare between the mainland American and Caribbean colonies and why?

Answer 19

1760
West Indies took £1m and mainland America took £2m worth of British exports
Imports from the West Indies were £1.8m and the mainland £0.6m

Question 20

When was Georgia set up?

Answer 20

1732

Question 21

What were General Oglethorpe’s intentions with Georgia’s creation?

Answer 21

Intended to be a place where people released from debtors’ jail could make a fresh start, however very few debtors went out

Question 22

When did Georgia become a Royal Colony and why?

Answer 22

Settlers became dissatisfied, settlers argued that the charitable trust (which previously ran the colony) wouldn’t let them grow certain crops, but the main reason for their agitation was that they wanted to be able to own slaves like their northern neighbours

Question 23

How much did defence of the mainland American colonies cost the British?

Answer 23

around £20,000

Question 24

Features of the French colonies in America

Answer 24

• Had moved into the interior by two rivers, the St Lawrence and Mississippi and used them as communication routes
• French were few in number and relied on support from the French government, with little support from the French public

Question 25

How did the presence of French colonists in inland America impact the British, specifically the Hudson Bay Company?

Answer 25

• 50,000 inhabitants of New France continuously moving inland was alarming for the British
• Hudson Bay Company would normally get 10 beaverskins for a gun, however as the French moved into the interior they were able to save the Indians all the transport costs and hassle of travelling and sell them a gun for 30 beaverskins
• Competition made conflict more likely and meant that in any conflict rival groups of Indians would be involved, i.e. those who traded with the British and those with the French

Question 26

What area was most important to Britain, starting in the early 18th century?

Answer 26

The Caribbean islands due to the sugar trade (which was dependant on slaves to grow the sugar)

Question 27

Systems of labour on the Caribbean islands

Answer 27

• Transportation of convicts on mainland America meant that there was some free white labour to do much of the hardest work in growing rice and tobacco
• However, in the Caribbean most white men were effectively guards and jailers, whereas black slaves carried out the labour- growing sugar and carrying out the first stages of refining it were the main economic activities on the islands, the tariff structure discouraged completing the refining until it reached Britain

Question 28

Impact of the sugar trade on Britain

Answer 28

• Increase in flow of sugar transformed people’s diets, sugar was used in new products made in Britain such as jams, biscuits or sweetened drinks
• Honey had been the only previous sweetener, sugar had been extremely expensive and was considered to be a luxury
• Sugar became the most important single item imported into Britain
• In the 18th century British consumption rose steadily over 2% a year

Question 29

Transportation of Slaves

Answer 29

• Another part of the economy was stimulated by the need to provide labour for the sugar plantations
• The Royal Africa Company had collapsed under the weight of its fixed costs in 1752 and had ceased transporting slaves in 1731, which led to the government giving minimal support to slave trading merchants to maintain the forts on the West African coast
• Initially, British government thought the merchants should use their profits to maintain these forts, but by the mid-18th century this attitude had changed to giving support to those merchants who struggled to meet the maintenance costs, it as clearly how important the sugar trade had become
• Britain began to dominate the slave trade because of the nation’s commitment to sugar and naval dominance which meant that Britain replaced the Netherlands as the main supplier of slaves to other European colonies
• By mid 18th century, about 70,000 slaves were being taken across the Atlantic every year, around half of them were on British ships, half of these slaves went to the British colonies and the rest were sold to other colonies in the Americas
• Later in the century, the numbers had risen to about 100,000 a year and Britain’s share became even larger