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Difficulty: HardTransatlantic Trade and Mercantilism

"Mighty and destructive obstructions are hourly laid upon us by the severe restraint and prohibition of the Acts of Navigation, which shuts us up from all other markets but our own, and makes us buy all our commodities at the price the merchants of London please to set on them, and sell our tobacco at what they will allow us."
— Governor William Berkeley of Virginia, *Enquiries to the Governor of Virginia*, 1671

Which of the following developments in the seventeenth century was the most direct cause of the grievances expressed in the excerpt?

  1. A
    The British government's attempt to foster industrial self-sufficiency and free-market capitalism within the colonies.
  2. The implementation of imperial trade policies designed to subordinate the colonial economy to Great Britain.Answer
  3. C
    The decline of merchant shipping and agricultural production in New England's colonies.
  4. D
    The transition from chattel slavery to indentured servitude as the primary agricultural labor force.

Answer

The implementation of imperial trade policies designed to subordinate the colonial economy to Great Britain.
The grievances expressed by Governor Berkeley directly criticize the Navigation Acts, which were the cornerstone of the British mercantilist system in the seventeenth century. By requiring the colonies to trade enumerated goods like tobacco only with England and purchase manufactured imports solely from English merchants, the acts subordinated the colonial economy to ensure economic benefits flowed primarily to the mother country.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze the historical context of the stimulus.
Identify that the speaker is William Berkeley, the governor of Virginia in 1671, complaining about the 'Acts of Navigation' and restrictions on tobacco trade.
Understanding the speaker and the commodity helps ground the question in the Chesapeake colonial economy and British imperial regulation.
2
Relate the details of the grievances to seventeenth-century economic policies.
Recognize that forcing colonies to sell cash crops (tobacco) exclusively to London and buy goods at London-dictated prices represents the British mercantilist system.
Connecting the stimulus to the concept of mercantilism is necessary to identify the core historical development being tested.
3
Evaluate the options to find the one that accurately describes this economic policy.
Select the option stating that the grievances were caused by the implementation of imperial trade policies designed to subordinate the colonial economy to Great Britain.
This option correctly describes the Navigation Acts as an enforcement of mercantilism, while the other choices represent historical inaccuracies, regional conflations, or labor system misconceptions.

Key Concept

Mercantilism and the Navigation Acts
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Topics

Transatlantic Trade and Mercantilism

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