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Difficulty: MediumBritish Taxation Policies and Colonial Resistance

Speech by Prime Minister Lord North, House of Commons, 1774

'The Americans have tarred and feathered your subjects, plundered your merchants, burnt your ships, denied all obedience to your laws and authority; yet so clement and so long-forbearing has our conduct been that it is incumbent on us now to take a different course. We must risk something to find the quiet we seek. If we do not, all is over.'

The British policy shift described in the excerpt most directly represented a departure from which of the following?

  1. The long-standing practice of salutary neglect, during which Britain allowed the colonies a high degree of autonomy in trade and governance.Answer
  2. B
    A mercantilist economic framework designed to encourage colonial industrialization and free trade.
  3. C
    The colonial acceptance of parliamentary authority established by the Coercive Acts prior to the Stamp Act crisis.
  4. D
    The policy of imposing direct internal taxes on the colonies throughout the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries.

Answer

The long-standing practice of salutary neglect, during which Britain allowed the colonies a high degree of autonomy in trade and governance.
The 'different course' referenced by Lord North refers to the Coercive Acts of 1774, which represented a final break from the period of salutary neglect. During that earlier era, Great Britain largely refrained from enforcing strict parliamentary control or direct taxes on the colonies, allowing them to develop local governance and trade systems.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze the stimulus context, identifying the speaker (Lord North), the year (1774), and the event referenced ('burnt your ships' refers to the Boston Tea Party).
Identify that the speech refers to the Coercive (Intolerable) Acts of 1774 as a 'different course' to punish Massachusetts.
This establishes the historical context of the policy shift.
2
Relate the Coercive Acts and the overall escalation of British taxation and control to broader colonial policy trends.
Recognize that these coercive and direct legislative measures marked a departure from the pre-1763 imperial policy of salutary neglect.
This directly answers the prompt's question about what policy pattern was abandoned.

Key Concept

The transition of British colonial policy from salutary neglect to active imperial intervention and direct control after the French and Indian War.
Estimated Time:1m 0s
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Topics

British Taxation Policies and Colonial Resistance

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