ON THE EVE OF THE REVOLUTION

- There were 30 colonies after the initial settlement which were quite shake enough by the
incident of Salem witch-hunt.

The 1700’s (= 18th) there were now 30 colonies falling into 3 groups: the North, the Middle and
the South. During the 18th century, the economic system in the North centered on various
activities:
• First, agriculture (particularly around the production of Indian corn (=maize),
cattle raising (= raising of animals for meet, milk…) hog—> preserved meat (—> with salt for
example to dry the meat and conserve it).
• Secondly, the making of alcohol, particularly from sugar (—>molasses—> RUM) re neries/
distilleries.
• Timber industry (—> making of woods that can be used to make houses, construction woods).
• Ship-building.

- Some products were exported to Europe: corn, meet, sh, conversely, there were importation
too, wheat our.

-In the South, the main crop was:

• tobacco, and 70% of tobacco production were located in Virginia. It was successfully exported
to Europe.
• Rice: North+South Carolina in Georgia was the main production location.

- The main features/characteristic of the Southern colony was the use of black slaves.

I )- The colonial Economy.

- In all those colonies, agriculture was the predominant activity. There also was a cottage
industry (—> small-scale industry) in the textile eld and in the production of leather (—>from
cow skin/hide). Those items were only design for the domestic trade/local market.
Another features of colonial economy was the great diversity of activities. There were 2 factors of
economic growth:
1. Between 1700 - 1790, an estimate 350.000 people emigrated from England. These increase in
population would provide the labor force/man power, these people would be the new actors
of the colonial economy (—>woking in the els, factories…), they would actively participate in
the colonial activities.
2. The existence of strategic places/sites (—> cities and harbors/ports). In cities, there is a lot of
economic activity/trading going on. The ports/harbors are the gateways into the colonies for
immigrates.

- Those places were important because they were the centers of government (ex; Boston,
Filadel a, New York, New Port, Charleston…)

II )- The tightening of the British system

- Since the 17th century, Britain had tried to control the economic activities in the colonies.
But before the 1760’s, the colonists never had any problem side-stepping even the stringent/
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 severe regulation, they were easily side-step by the colonists through the practice of piracy, to
the resort of smuggling, or thanks to their commercial relation-ships with the West Indies.
- Britain signed-up a numbers of treaties with Indians. That led to the closing of the Western
Frontier. In theory, when the early charters were delivered by the King to the 1st joint-stock
company, the territories granted to those companies had no Western limit (—>because there
were no limitation in terms of longitude). Now the proclamation line made in 1763 was to run
along the Alleghenies. But, 1763 was also the date were the war with French and Indians
ended. The treaty of Paris signed in 1763 marked the victory of the British. The British were
now the main actor in North America. The British government decided to close the Western
frontier and forced the colonist to remain on the east cost, this was he proclamation

- 1763 —> the treaty of Paris is signed.

The British won the war against the French.

- 1660’s —> Trade and Navigation Acts.

They were 3 kind of clauses (—> article):

Shipping clauses= Any items, particularly tobacco, rice, furs and indigo (—> use to
dye) had to be carried on British vessels/ships only.
Commodity clauses= Some product and especially those four importants (tobacco,
rice, furs and indigo) were taxed.
Restraining clauses= The colonists were prohibited from engaging in certain activities
to protect English manufactures. Ex: the making of iron products —> they weren’t supposed to
work on this. Broadly speaking, these measures were also meant to make sure the colonists
wouldn’t become competitors for the English.

However, it was still hard for the British to really control the colonists, ex: the king had many thing
to think about, so he hadn’t got the time for this. By the times, orders given in London were
actually enforced/e ective in America about 1 year had elapsed. In spite of the regulations, Britain
still had di culty to control the colonies. Moreover, the British ministers were not that strict, they
never imposed a very authoritarian legislation until Charles Townshend who were the nancial
minister/ the chancellor of the Exchequer from 1766 - 1767.

The rst important taxe measures were take in 1764 with the Sugar Plantation and Revenue Act.
This policy/taxation measure was enforced under George Grenville (—>before Townshend). The
Sugar Act placed high duties (—>heavy taxes to pay) on certain products/commodities,
Ex: Co ee from foreign countries, Indigo and sugar (—> using for making molasses—> rum). In
addition, the importation of foreign Rum was prohibited all together. Also, some products were
taxed for the very rst time,
Ex: Silk from India.

That same year, the Currency Act were passed in 1764. According to theses legislation, the
colonists were not allowed to issue any paper money —> this hindered trading operation inside
the colonies. The colonists began to think that the British politician had some dark designs on the
colonies. They believed that they were being exploited, they feared that they liberties were
threatened. Actually, the British ministers though the colonists were not paying enough taxes for
their own military protection, but the colonists had one main objections, they had not
representative in the Parliament.
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 In 1765, the Stamp Act was passed. Now, all o cial documents needed to bare/have a stamp.
This caused the protest of the colonies, but now those protests were more political, not only
economic. The House of Burgesses in Virginia articulated those protests:
1. The colonists have the same rights as any British subjects
2. Concerning Virginia, only the colonial/local assembly
3. The members of that House gave a warning= any outside attempt to impose taxes would be
viewed as destructive of British and American liberty.

In Massachusetts, one organisation called the Sons of liberty started to protest against the
presence and the role of royal o cials in America. In October 1765, the Stamp congress took
place in New York, 9 colonies out of the 13 colonies sent representatives.

As a result of this movement of protest, George Grenville was replaced by Lord Rockingham who
decided to repeal those acts which had been declared null and void. However, he remained as
rm with the colonist as ever.
In 1767, the Townshend Acts were passed, (—>more products were taxed) In December 1767,
James Dickinson (—>a Philadelphia lawyer) wrote a letter from a farmer in Pennsylvania. He wrote
and published a pamphlet were he expressed the colonists…

In Massachusetts, Samuel Adams led a group of radical, they were protesting in Massachusetts
(—> movement of protest everywhere). They were acts of violence in Boston, in 1770 with 4
people being killed by British soldiers.
After March 1770, the acts were repelled, except for tea. This led to the creation of another
taxations measures, the Tea Act of 1773. In December of that year, a number of colonists from the
« Son of Liberty » boarded the vessel/ships of the East India company (—> was the ship which
carried teas). They threw the tea cargos over board, some of them were dressed Iroquois (—>
India tribe). This was known as the Boston Tea Party.
As a direct result, tentions would keep growing and this would lead to the American revolution.
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