The trans-Atlantic interactions from 1600 to 1763 brought major change to the labor systems in the British North American colonies and disrupted the continuity of the economy built by the people before this time. These interactions caused the newly emerging slave trade, major diseases among the people and mercantilism by Britain. .
With the arriving of foreign immigrants to North America from across the Atlantic Ocean, there also came diseases that would soon devastate the Native American population. Indians died in the thousands thanks to the new disease they became exposed to. This devastated not only their emotional and political life, but also their economic life. Not having those to tend to crops or to meet with others for trade their economy came to a standstill. For example, fur trade, their main economic tie with the colonist, died down as a result of this epidemic. Trade within the tribes also diminished because whole villages would become extinct. With a weak economy and diminishing population the Indians were very easily pushed off of their land by the colonist. .
The southern colonies no longer had to worry about the back breaking work needed to be done during harvest time anymore due to the bringing of African slaves to Northern America. The slave trade would eventually change the whole economy of the colonies. African slaves were bought at a much cheaper price than that of an indentured servant and seemed to be treated just as well. Slaves were also a greater investment to their owners compared to the indentured servants because they lived longer and worked for the entire time that they lived. Working alongside the Native American, Irish, and English servants, slaves eventually drove out the need for their service. With this new labor system the colonies were able to produce crops at a much faster and cheaper rate to ship to Britain. .
The trans-Atlantic interactions of the colonies with foreign countries stopped in 1660 under the Navigation Acts.