The Sea and the American Revolution

Greetings, Round Tablers and friends!  Our indefatigable commentator Lynne Saginaw sent in this post just before Thanksgiving.  

Thank you, Lynne.

The Revolution At Sea (Part I)
Published last year, The Sea and Civilization, Lincoln Paine’s “Maritime History of the World” has a few things to say about the role of seafaring in the run-up to American Revolution. See if you agree with him.

Image via Wikipedia Commons/Charny

He writes, “The proximate cause of the American Revolution can be traced to crown policies implemented in the wake of the Seven Years’ War, but the roots of the colonists’ self-confidence can be traced to the previous century. All but ignored by king and Parliament during the English Civil War of the English Civil War of the 1640s, merchants and cod fishermen in British North America had carved out a place for themselves in the trade with the West Indies, which, stripped of their forests to make way for sugarcane depended on North America for much of their food and virtually all of their wood. 

"As a result, the eighteenth century saw an explosive growth in shipbuilding in British North America, which accounted for about one-third of the ships in the British merchant marine. American shipwrights launched about a thousand vessels in the 1660s, the majority of them relatively small by the standards of the day, and not competitive with larger English-built vessels but more than adequate for the trade of the western Atlantic and Caribbean. Colonial seamen and shipwrights benefited from the Navigation Acts because they were allowed to serve under the British flag and to build ships for British owners. 

"On the whole, however, the colonists deeply resented the prohibitions in the Navigation Acts, the expectations of which were unrealistic for the simple reason that there were not enough ships to serve all of Britain’s far-flung colonies. Moreover, by law European goods imported into the colonies had first to be unloaded and reloaded in England. This re-exportation caused unnecessary delays, drove up handling costs, and resulted in the imposition of double duties on some goods – for import to and export from England. The number of enumerated goods that could be exported only to England and not to other British colonies, much less to foreign ports, increased steadily. By the 1750s, these included sugar, molasses and rice, copper and iron ore, tobacco and cotton, and naval stores like tar, lumber, pitch and hemp, and as a result, smuggling was rampant”  (Paine, 485-86).

You can see where this is going. A neglected colony creates a profitable industry, and then finds the mother country, suddenly hard up for funds, trying to cut in on the action.

Source: 
Paine, Lincoln, The Sea and Civilization: A Maritime History of the World. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2013.

What were the Navigation Acts?
Wikipedia.com states:  "Navigation Acts were a series of laws that restricted the use of foreign ships for trade between Britain and its colonies. They began in 1651 and ended 200 years later. They reflected the policy of mercantilism, which sought to keep all the benefits of trade inside the Empire, and minimize the loss of gold and silver to foreigners. They prohibited the colonies from trading directly with the Netherlands, Spain, France, and their colonies. The original ordinance of 1651 was renewed at the Restoration by Acts of 1662, 1663, 1670, and 1673 subsequently subject to minor amendment. These Acts formed the basis for British overseas trade for nearly 200 years. Another way to define this is laws created by England to limit their colonies' trade with other countries."

Next up in Part 2: More on how an argument about trade policy became a shooting war.

Up for review on December 2:  Send Me A Fast Ship by Tim McIntyre
Would-be reviewers are hereby advised that the December 2 distribution of books for review will include Send Me a Fast Ship by Tim McIntyre, a brand new history of the American Navy in the Revolution. 

Only members not currently on assignment may qualify to review.

Next Meeting: December 2, 2014

Greetings to all!  Our next Round Table meeting is Tuesday, December 2, 2014, at 6:00 p.m. in the Coffee House Club, 20 West 44th Street, 6th Floor.  For all the details, please visit our website at http://arrt-ny.org/meeting.html

It is sure to be a lively meeting, and we hope to see you there!

BAND OF GIANTS

Round Tabler Jack Kelly's new book, Band of Giants, garnered a wonderful review in the Wall Street Journal on November 5.  Read all about it here: http://bandofgiants.org/reviews/

Thanks to Tom Fleming for the tip.  And congratulations to Jack for a job well done!