The council for foreign plantations was continued, sometimes under a patent and sometimes as a committee of the privy council, until in 1696 it was commissioned as the board of trade. As a board of inquiry and report, subordinate to the privy council, the most important business relating to the Colonies was transacted before it. The acts of trade, in which the principles of the system were laid down, were passed in 166o, 1663, 1673 and 1696. They expanded and systematized the principles of mercantilism as they had long been accepted. The import and export trade of the Colonies was required to be carried on in English and colonial built ships, manned and commanded by Englishmen. The policy of the staple was applied to the trade of the Colonies by the enumeration of their chief products which could not be raised in England and the requirement that such of these as were exported should be brought to England and pay duties there, and that the supplies not needed for the English market should be sent thence to foreign countries. The same policy was applied to all colonial imports by the requirement that they should pass through English ports. In order to prevent intercolonial traffic in enumerated corn modities, which might lead to smuggling, the act of 1673 provided for the levy of an export duty on them in the Colonies in cases where a bond was not given to land them in the realm.
In the i8th century severe restrictive measures were passed to prevent the growth of manufactures in the Colonies; but these acts proved mostly a dead letter, because the Colonies had not reached the stage where such industries could be developed on any scale. Certain compensations favourable to the Colonies also appear in the system, e.g., the measures to suppress the raising of tobacco in England and Ireland, in order that the colonists might have the monopoly ; the payment of bounties on the importation of naval stores and on the production of indigo by the colonists; the allow ance, on the re-exportation of colonial products, of drawbacks of part or all of the duties paid on importation ; the admission of colonial imports at lower rates of duty than were charged on the same products from foreign countries. In order to ensure the en
forcement of these acts elaborate provisions became necessary for the issue of bonds, and this, with the collection of a duty in the Colonies, led to the appointment of colonial customs officers who were immediately responsible to the commissioners of the customs and the Treasury Board in England. With them the governors were ordered to co-operate. Courts of vice admiralty, with author ity to try cases without a jury, were established in the Colonies; and just before the close of the r7th century they were given juris diction over violations of the acts of trade, a power which they did not have in England. It thus appears that the resolve to en force the policy set forth in the acts of trade resulted in a note worthy extension of imperial control. How far it was successful in the immediate objects sought it is impossible to say. In some of the Colonies and at some times the acts were practically nulli fied. Illegal trading was always carried on, especially in time of war. But in the large it is probable that the 'acts were effective, and their existence always furnished a standard to which officials were required to conform.
By the Act of Union of 1707 Scotland was admitted to the ad vantages of the English trade system. In 1733, in order to check the development of the French colonies and prevent the importa tion of their products into English possessions, the Molasses Act was passed. This provided for high specific duties on rum, molasses and sugar, when imported from foreign colonies into those of Great Britain. So high were these rates that they could not be collected, and little attempt was made to enforce the act.
Returning to the I 7th century, the conquest of New Nether land by the British in 1664 was an event of great importance. Taken in connection with the settlement of the Carolinas, it com pleted the hold which the English had upon the North American coast and gave them for the first time an extent of territory which could be profitably developed. The occupation of New Netherland was effected by a royal commission, which was also empowered to hear complaints and report a plan for the settlement of disputes in New England. A little more than ten years later a similar body, accompanied by a military force, was sent to Virginia to adjust matters at the close of Bacon's rebellion. But the commission of 1664 was the most noteworthy example of its kind. Yet, though it succeeded at New Amsterdam and in the southern Colonies of New England, it failed at Boston. Massachusetts would not admit its right to hear appeals. It did not succeed in wresting from Massachusetts the territory of New Hampshire and Maine, which the heirs of Gorges and Mason claimed.