) which states that the real measure of a nation's wealth would be associated with the amount of precious metals it possessed. By implementing this policy, England was showing that their only concern was for the colonies to bring wealth and prosperity to England. The colonies could accomplish this by providing resources for the English to use to produce goods, and also by providing a market for the finished products. They were also expected to maintain a trade balance, so that England could export more than it imported, therefore causing other nations to be indebted to them.
Prior to the increase of settlements in North America, England had established several Navigation Acts, these directly affected all foreign and domestic trade. One of .
these was the Navigation act of 1660, which said that all goods imported or exported from any outlying English colonies must be carried on ships owned by English merchants .
and occupied by English crews. Also certain policies were mentioned in this Navigation Act that would guarantee the English merchants a monopoly on certain resources, such as tobacco, sugar, cotton, and wood, and would give them the power to apply import tax to these goods.
The first trade issue the colonies had with England was the Molasses Act of 1731, British Parliament passed this act which would tax all sugar, rum and molasses imported from foreign countries, and would also protect English merchants who had invested in plantations in these countries. Had this act been truly enforced, it could have severely damaged the colonial economy. Instead the colonists reverted to smuggling these products, and avoided dealing with the English merchants. Nevertheless as colonial trade began to expand and compete with English merchants, the Britishers demanded for commercial trade protection from Parliament. This resulted in the passing of the Hat Act, which banned all colonial hat makers from exporting their products to other colonies or Europe.
