) to be shipped to any country except England. Such goods were to pay heavy duties when shipped to England, and later on, the same duties were imported on goods sold from one colony to another.
Fortunately, these Navigation Acts were poorly enforced, a policy called "Salutary Neglect". In fact, it was hardly enforced in New England at all. Had these laws been strictly enforced, the effect on the colonies that produced the goods would have been disastrous, for they enjoyed a flourishing trade in these goods with other countries.
England practiced salutary neglect toward the colonies until the mid 1700s, which meant they pretty much allowed the colonies to run themselves as they saw fit. This was soon to change. What the colonies had developed was enough for self-rule.
The Mayflower Compact, signed aboard the Mayflower on November 11, 1620, was drawn up after a problem arose regarding settlement which might have resulted in a rebellion by some of the passengers. .
The major argument was over the fact that the Pilgrims were supposed to have settled in Northern Virginia, near present day Long Island. At the time, Northern Virginia was governed by the English. The Mayflower landed in Plymouth in present day Massachusetts. But if the Pilgrims settled at Plymouth, there would be no government ruling there. The Mayflower Compact established that government, by creating a "civil body politic". It led to the right to self-government at Plymouth in 1621. it was significant in that it was authorized by the English. In a way, the Mayflower Compact was the first American Constitution. .
The farmers of Virginia were resentful in paying high taxes and charging low prices for tobacco. In addition, their unhappiness increases in the 1670s when bands of Indians began raiding their holdings. When the Virginian governor was slow to defend the colonists against the Indians, they demanded a new election of a new House of Burgesses.
