AMSCO 2.4 Transatlantic Trade Notes

Overview

AMSCO Topic 2.4, Transatlantic Trade (AMSCO p.49 - p.53), covers how the Atlantic economy connected Europe, Africa, and the American colonies through triangular trade, and how England tried (and mostly failed) to control colonial commerce through mercantilist policy. The chapter runs from the Navigation Acts of 1650-1673 through the Dominion of New England and the Glorious Revolution of 1688, all within APUSH Period 2 (1607-1754). The big takeaway is a pattern you'll see again in Unit 3: England writes trade rules, colonists evade them, and salutary neglect lets the gap between policy and practice grow until it becomes the fundamental problem in the relationship.

Timeline of the transatlantic trade period during the colonial era (1607-1754). Image Courtesy of Siya

Triangular Trade

Triangular trade was a three-part shipping route connecting North America, Africa, and Europe, and every leg of it turned a profit for the merchants involved. A typical voyage starting in New England looked like this:

• A ship left a New England port carrying rum to West Africa, where the rum was traded for hundreds of captive Africans.
• The ship then sailed the Middle Passage, the horrific voyage across the Atlantic. Africans who survived were traded in the West Indies for sugarcane.
• The ship completed the triangle by returning to New England, where the sugar was sold to be made into rum, restarting the cycle.

Variations on the route included stops in England or Spain, but the logic was the same: each trade produced a substantial profit for the slave-trading entrepreneur.

A few details worth remembering:

• The chapter opens with Henry Louis Gates Jr.'s point that the slave trade depended on "complex business partnerships between African elites and European traders." It was a transatlantic business, not a one-sided raid.
• In the 17th century, English slave trading was monopolized by the Royal African Company (RAC). When the RAC couldn't supply enough enslaved Africans to meet planter demand, Parliament ended its monopoly in the late 17th century, and New England merchants entered the lucrative business.
• This is the economic backbone of slavery's growth in the colonies, which AMSCO develops further in Topic 2.6 on slavery in the British colonies.

Mercantilism and the Navigation Acts

Mercantilism is the economic theory that a country's wealth is determined by how much more it exports than it imports. Under this thinking, colonies existed for exactly one purpose: to enrich the parent country by supplying raw materials that fed its industries. Governments promoted sales abroad and used tariffs to discourage imports.

• Spain and France followed mercantilist policies from the start of colonization.
• England started applying them after the end of the English Civil War in 1651.

The Navigation Acts (1650-1673)

England put mercantilism into practice with a series of Navigation Acts passed between 1650 and 1673. The acts set three rules for colonial trade:

1. Trade to and from the colonies could only be carried on English or colonial-built ships, operated by English or colonial crews.
2. All goods imported into the colonies (except some perishables) had to pass through ports in England first.
3. Specified "enumerated" goods from the colonies could be exported only to England. Tobacco was the original enumerated good, and the list expanded greatly over the years.

In plain terms: colonial trade had to flow through England, on England's terms, so England captured the profit.

Impact on the Colonies

The Navigation Acts cut both ways, and the exam loves this kind of "mixed effects" analysis.

Benefits for the colonies:

• Boosted New England shipbuilding (colonial-built ships counted as "English").
• Gave Chesapeake tobacco a monopoly in the English market.
• Provided English military protection against French and Spanish attacks.
• The triangular slave trade was largely unaffected by the increased regulations.

Costs for the colonies:

• Colonists couldn't manufacture their own goods, so they paid high prices for manufactured goods from England.
• Chesapeake farmers could sell their crops only to England, so they had to accept low prices. In the 1660s, low tobacco prices from overproduction brought hard times to Maryland and Virginia. When Virginia's House of Burgesses tried to raise tobacco prices, London merchants retaliated by raising prices on goods exported to Virginia.

Trade with American Indians

Colonists also kept trading with American Indians for furs, food, and other goods, which created ongoing contact and cultural exchange, especially along the western frontier.

• Some Indians adopted Christianity, and some colonial men married Indian women.
• Intermarriage was uncommon, and when it happened, the couple almost always lived in the Indian community rather than the settler one. Pocahontas and John Rolfe, who lived in Jamestown, were a rare exception.
• This thread continues in Topic 2.5 on interactions between American Indians and Europeans.

Salutary Neglect: Why Enforcement Failed

England's enforcement of its own trade rules was lax, a policy known as salutary neglect. Mercantilist theory called for strict enforcement; the practice was nearly the opposite. Three factors made enforcement difficult:

• Distance. The Atlantic Ocean separated London from the colonies, so exerting real authority over distant possessions was hard.
• England was distracted. Between 1642 and 1763, England was in constant turmoil: the English Civil War, a revolution that replaced the monarch, and four wars with France.
• Corruption. Britain's colonial agents were often corrupt, so colonial merchants evaded regulations easily with well-placed bribes.

AMSCO adds an interesting kicker: regulation might not have been necessary at all. England and its colonies were natural trading partners with close economic and cultural ties, and the colonies probably would have sold their abundant natural resources mostly to the English with or without rules forcing them to.

The Dominion of New England and the Glorious Revolution

When the crown did try to enforce its trade laws, it backfired. In 1684, the crown revoked the charter of Massachusetts Bay because the colony had been a center of smuggling. Whatever economic gains this brought England were offset by the damage to English-colonial relations. New Englanders especially defied the acts by smuggling goods from other countries.

James II and the Dominion

A new king, James II, took the throne in 1685, determined to increase royal control by combining colonies into larger administrative units and eliminating representative assemblies.

• In 1686, he merged New York, New Jersey, and the New England colonies into the Dominion of New England.
• Sir Edmund Andros was sent from England as governor. He made himself instantly unpopular by levying taxes, limiting town meetings, and revoking land titles.

The Glorious Revolution (1688)

James II's power grab triggered an uprising in England. The Glorious Revolution of 1688 deposed James and replaced him with William and Mary. James's fall ended the Dominion of New England, and the colonies went back to operating under separate charters.

Ongoing Trade Tensions

After the Glorious Revolution, mercantilist policies stayed on the books, but enforcement efforts were never sustained enough to be effective. Until 1763, salutary neglect and colonial resistance to regulation continued. Trade regulation wasn't the only source of friction between the colonists and England, but it would remain the fundamental problem. Hold onto that line; it sets up the imperial crisis after 1763 that drives Unit 3.

Key Terms to Know

Practice and Next Steps

Pair these notes with the Topic 2.4 Transatlantic Trade course study guide for the College Board framing of the same material, and review how this topic connects to the colonial regions you covered in AMSCO 2.3. All the chapters in this unit live on the APUSH AMSCO Notes page.

To check your understanding:

• Run through guided multiple-choice practice on Period 2 to test cause-and-effect questions about trade and mercantilism.
• Try a practice FRQ with instant scoring. Salutary neglect and the Navigation Acts are classic SAQ and LEQ material.
• Look up any term that's still fuzzy in the APUSH key terms glossary.