Trade and Empire: The British Customs Service in Colonial America, 1660-1775 - Taschenbuch

According to the thinking of the first British Empire (1606-1783), the American colonies existed primarily to increase the economic well-being of the mother country. But a series of Acts of trade and Navigation passed by the British Parliament proved to be ineffective because the colonists continually violated the laws. Attempts at reform in the 1760s came too late and after a decade of crisis the contest between British authority and colonial opposition degenerated into an armed conflict. Mr. Barrow explores questions raised about the attitudes of the colonists toward the English mercantile system and how the revolution put an end to the colonial customs service and to the first British Empire as well.