24. NAVIGATION ACTS. In the 17th century the independence of the English nation as a nation had been secured. Spain had been conquered at sea, and henceforth maritime power became more than ever the great national ideal. Comparatively safe from the dominance of a foreign power, and her internal resources in process of rapid development, all the condi tions were present for England to expand be yond the seas and to attempt to secure for her self that pre-eminent position in the world's commerce hitherto held by Holland. England's dominating purpose during the 17th century was to build up her foreign commerce, to out rival the Dutch at every point, to constitute herself the great warehousing and distributing depot of Europe and to induce the colonies to contribute to the power of the mother country by growing commodities for her to re-export. When Scotland or Ireland seemed likely to en croach on the colonial trade they were care fully excluded.
All through the changes of dynasty from Charles I to the time of the Whig predomi nance the same idea holds good; and the instru ment by which all this was to be effected was the series of Navigation Acts or Acts of Trade.
The Navigation Acts were no new thing in the 17th century. There was one as early as 1390 (5 R. II, St. I, c. 23). It forbade goods to be exported or imported by Englishmen except "in ships of the King's liegance.° This act was inoperative, however, owing to the lack of English shipping, but the idea of the statute was never lost sight of. A similar act was passed in 1463 (3 Ed. IV, c. I) but was dropped after three years. Efforts were again made to enforce a monopoly for English ships under Henry VII (I H. VII, c. 8 and 4 H. VII, c. 10) and in 1540 the old laws were re-enacted, the freights defined, and inducements offered to aliens to use English ships. Elizabeth gave up the policy of confining English trade gen erally to English ships and by an act of 1563 (5 Eliz., c. 5) merely reserved the coasting trade.
In the 17th century the Navigation Acts were revived. In the early part of the century they took the form of royal letters and procla mations, but in the latter part thepolicy was embodied in the statutes of 1651 and the series of acts between 1661 and 1696.
From the 17th century till the final repeal of the acts between 1822 and 1854, the policy of confining English and colonial trade to English ships was consistently pursued.
The novel feature of the 17th century Navi gation Acts did not lie so much in their con tinuous enforcement as in their enlarged scope and their application to the colonial trade. The Dutch being the greatest traders of the time had got the bulk of the English colonial trade into their hands by making advances to the colonists on the security of future crops. These they duly received when grown and dis tributed from Amsterdam. This conduct the English regarded as directly contrary to the whole object of colonization, the general view at that time being that people should only leave the mother country in order to build up Eng lish trade and shipping elsewhere.
The feeling of jealousy with regard to the Scotch was almost as strong. It is true that they were not such formidable rivals, but they were said to sail cheaper than the English, and as they had close trade relations with the Dutch it was feared that the latter might get hold of the English trade through the Scotch.
"The Plantations are His Majesty's Indies* runs a report of the Commissioners of Customs (30 Oct. 1661) "without charge to him secured and supported by the English subjects who employ above 200 saile of good English ships every year, breed abundance of mariners and begin to grow commodities of great value and esteeme.° Were the Scotch allowed to trade freely on the same footing as Englishmen it would "in one word overthrow the very essence and design of the Act of Navigation.* The jealousy of both the Dutch and the Scotch was keenly felt in the 17th century. As soon as the plantations showed signs of de velopment measures were taken, primarily against the Dutch, in order to secure the grow ing trade for England.