SECTION 2: The American Colonies and England
▲ At busy colonial ports, merchants shipped raw materials to England and received manufactured goods from England.
American colonists imported English pottery. ►
WITNESS HISTORY 
AUDIO
An Illegal Trade
According to English law, the colonies could import manufactured goods only through English ports, where an additional tax was collected. Yet, the letter below holds that colonial importers evaded the law.
“… There has lately been carried on here a large illicit [illegal] trade….
A considerable number of ships have … lately come into this country directly from Holland, laden … with reels of yarn or spun hemp, paper, gunpowder, iron, and goods of various sorts used for men and women’s clothing.”
—William Bollan, advocate general of Massachusetts, 1743
Objectives
- Explore how English traditions influenced the development of colonial governments.
- Analyze the economic relationship between England and its colonies.
- Describe the influence of the Enlightenment and the Great Awakening on the 13 colonies.
Terms and People
- Magna Carta
- Parliament
- English Bill of Rights
- habeas corpus
- salutary neglect
- mercantilism
- Navigation Acts
- Enlightenment
- Benjamin Franklin
- Great Awakening
NoteTaking
Reading Skill: Identify Supporting Details Use the format below to outline the section’s main ideas and supporting details.
- Government in the Colonies
- Traditions of English government
- Magna Carta
Why It Matters During the eighteenth century, the colonists looked to England as their model for literature, government, and their economy. Important English documents, such as the Magna Carta and the English Bill of Rights, were the basis of colonial government and law. In addition, the colonial economy was dependent on trade with England. Although the relationship between England and the 13 colonies was a close one, during the 1700s, the distant American colonies began to form their own ideas about government and the economy. Section Focus Question: How did English ideas about government and the economy influence life in the 13 colonies?
Government in the Colonies
England developed an empire of many disunited colonies during the 1600s. Lacking money, the English Crown granted charters to private companies or lords proprietors, individuals who supported the monarchy. Compared to the Spanish or French, the English monarch exercised little direct control over the colonists.
Traditions of English Government
Also unlike the kings of France and Spain, the English monarchs were bound to uphold the provisions of the Magna Carta, a document English nobles forced King John to accept in 1215. The Magna Carta protected English nobles by limiting the king’s ability to tax them and by guaranteeing due process, or the right to a trial. Before levying a tax, the king needed the consent of the nobles.
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