Lesson 9: Colonial Trade and Government

Question 1

Bill of Rights Definition

Answer 1

A written list of freedoms the government promises to protect

Question 2

The Bill of Rights Definition

Answer 2

The first ten amendments to the United States Constitution

Question 3

English Bill of Rights Definition

Answer 3

A 1689 document that guaranteed the rights of English citizens

Question 4

Export Definition

Answer 4

A trade product sent to markets outside a country

Question 5

Glorious Revolution Definition

Answer 5

In 1688 the movement that brought William and Mary to the throne of England and strengthened the rights of English citizens

Question 6

Legislature Definition

Answer 6

A group of elected people who have the power to make laws

Question 7

Mercantilism Definition

Answer 7

The theory that a nation’s economic strength came from selling more than it bought from other nations

Question 8

Navigation Acts Definition

Answer 8

A series of English laws beginning in the 1650s that regulated trade between England and its colonies

Question 9

Triangular Trade Definition

Answer 9

The colonial trade route between New England, Africa, and the West Indies

Question 10

William Blackstone Definition

Answer 10

The author of Commentaries on the Laws of England. He believed in common law, which had a significant impact on ideas of self-rule in the British colonies.

Question 11

What did Mercantilist believe?

Answer 11

Mercantilists thought that a country should export more than it imported. Exports are goods sent to markets outside a country. Imports are goods brought into a country. If England sold more goods than it bought abroad, gold would flow into the home country as payment for those exports.

Question 12

What was the purpose of the Navigation Acts?

Answer 12

Beginning in the 1650s, the English Parliament passed a series of Navigation Acts that regulated trade between England and its colonies. The purpose of these laws was to ensure that only England benefited from trade with its colonies.

Question 13

What did the Navigation Acts state?

Answer 13

Under the new laws, only colonial or English ships could carry goods to and from the colonies. Colonists were banned from trading directly with other European nations or their colonies. All trade had to go through England. The Navigation Acts also listed certain products, such as tobacco and cotton, that colonial merchants could ship only to England. In this way, Parliament created jobs for English workers who cut and rolled tobacco or spun cotton into cloth.

Question 14

How did the Navigation Acts benefit the colonists?

Answer 14

The Navigation Acts helped the colonies as well as England. For example, the law encouraged colonists to build ships for their own use and for sale to England. As a result, New England became a prosperous shipbuilding center. Also, because of the acts, colonial merchants did not have to compete with foreign merchants because they were sure of having a market for their goods in England.

Question 15

Why did colonial merchants hate the Navigation Acts?

Answer 15

Still, many colonists resented the Navigation Acts. In their view, the laws favored English merchants. Colonial merchants often ignored the Navigation Acts or found ways to get around them.

Question 16

What were Yankee Traders?

Answer 16

The colonies produced a wide variety of goods, and merchant ships sailed up and down the Atlantic coast. Merchants from New England dominated colonial trade. They were known as Yankees, a nickname, and had a reputation for being clever and hardworking. Yankee traders earned a reputation for profiting from any deal.

Question 17

How did the Triangular Trade get its name?

Answer 17

Colonial merchants developed many trade routes. One route was known as the triangular trade because the three legs of the route formed a triangle.

Question 18

What was sent on each “leg” of the Triangular Trade?

Answer 18

On the first leg, ships from New England carried rum, guns, gunpowder, cloth, and tools from New England to West Africa. In Africa, Yankee merchants traded these goods for slaves. On the second leg of the journey, ships carried enslaved Africans to the West Indies. It was because enslaved Africans traveled on the second leg of a three-leg voyage that this leg was known as the Middle Passage. With the profits from selling the enslaved Africans, Yankee traders bought molasses—a dark-brown syrup made from sugar cane—and sugar. On the final leg, ships then sailed back to New England, where colonists used the molasses and sugar to make rum for sale in Africa or Europe.

Question 19

What happened as New England merchants grew wealthy from the Triangular Trade?

Answer 19

Many New England merchants grew wealthy from the triangular trade. In doing so, they often disobeyed the Navigation Acts. Traders were supposed to buy sugar and molasses only from English colonies in the West Indies. However, the demand for molasses was so high that New Englanders smuggled in cargoes from the Dutch, French, and Spanish West Indies, too. Bribes made customs officials look the other way.

Question 20

How did Rhode Island and Connecticut differ in the way of choosing a governor?

Answer 20

Although each colony developed its own government, the governments had much in common. A governor directed the colony’s affairs and enforced the laws. Most governors were appointed, either by the king or by the colony’s proprietor. In Rhode Island and Connecticut, however, colonists elected their own governors.

Question 21

What English practice made all of the colonies gain a legislature soon after they were founded?

Answer 21

As you learned, the Virginia Company decided to establish an elected assembly to attract more settlers. For this reason, and inspired by the English tradition of representative government outlined in the Magna Carta, all of the colonies gained a legislature soon after they were founded.

Question 22

What is a legislature? What was a Colonial legislature made up of?

Answer 22

A legislature is a group of people, usually elected, who have the power to make laws. In most colonies, the legislature had an upper house and a lower house. The upper house was made up of advisers appointed by the governor. The lower house was an elected assembly. It approved laws and protected the rights of citizens. Just as important, it had the right to approve or reject any taxes or budget items the governor asked for. This “power of the purse,” or right to raise or spend money, was an important check on the governor’s power. Any governor who ignored the assembly risked losing his salary.

Question 23

As colonial settlers spread inland and founded new cities, how did this influence representative government?

Answer 23

As colonial settlers spread inland and founded new cities and towns, representative government and institutions grew. Most colonial cities and towns had their own city and town councils.

Question 24

Who was the Right to Vote restricted to in the colonies?

Answer 24

Each colony had its own rules about who could vote. By the 1720s, however, all of the colonies had laws that restricted the right to vote to white Christian men over the age of 21. In some colonies, only Protestants or members of a particular church could vote. All colonies restricted the vote to men who owned a certain amount of property. Colonial leaders believed that only property owners knew what was best for a colony.

Question 25

What kind of law did colonies follow in court, or other Judicial matters?

Answer 25

The colonies followed English common law. Under common law, laws develop from the past rulings of judges. In applying laws, courts followed the principle that “like cases should be tried alike.”
Colonists brought the tradition of common law with them from England. In the 1760s, William Blackstone published a four-volume book, Commentaries on the Laws of England. In it, Blackstone reviewed the entire history of English law.

Question 26

Who was William Blackstone and what did he do?

Answer 26

Colonists brought the tradition of common law with them from England. In the 1760s, William Blackstone published a four-volume book, Commentaries on the Laws of England. In it, Blackstone reviewed the entire history of English law. As a member of Parliament and a judge in England, he believed common law was the highest and best form of law. Blackstone supported Parliament and opposed colonists’ moves toward self-rule. However, his ideas about common law took hold in the colonies. Common law was a body of laws that was valid independent of Parliament’s acts. As such, it provided a basis for self-rule and an independent legal system once the colonies began to move toward independence.

Question 27

Common Law Definition

Answer 27

A body of laws that was valid independent of Parliament’s acts

Question 28

True or False: Colonists took great pride in their elected assemblies. They also valued the rights that the Magna Carta gave them as English subjects.

Answer 28

True

Question 29

What was the impact of the Glorious Revolution?

Answer 29

Colonists won still more rights as a result of the Glorious Revolution of 1688. Parliament removed King James II from the throne and asked William and Mary of the Netherlands to rule. In return for Parliament’s support, William and Mary signed the English Bill of Rights in 1689. A bill of rights is a written list of freedoms the government promises to protect.

Question 30

What did the English Bill of Rights state?

Answer 30

The English Bill of Rights protected the rights of individuals and gave anyone accused of a crime the right to a trial by jury. Just as important, the English Bill of Rights said that a ruler could not raise taxes or an army without the approval of Parliament. The Bill of Rights also strengthened the position of representative government and institutions in the colonies.

Question 31

How did the amount of rights compare between women, men, slaves, and Native Americans?

Answer 31

English colonists in the Americas often enjoyed more freedoms than did the English themselves. However, the rights of English citizens did not extend to all colonists. Women had more rights in the colonies than in England but far fewer rights than did free, white males. A woman’s father or husband was supposed to protect her. A married woman could not start her own business or sign a contract unless her husband approved it. In most colonies, unmarried women and widows had more rights than married women. They could make contracts and sue in court. In Maryland and the Carolinas, women settlers who headed families could buy land on the same terms as men. Americans and Native Americans in the colonies had almost no rights. While so many colonists enjoyed English liberties, most African Americans were bound in slavery. The conflict between liberty and slavery would not be resolved until the 1860s.