1760s: “British fear of American development.”
The Hat Act and the Iron Act were not themselves serious restrictions, but they did point the way to further curbs on colonial industry. In 1764 Grenville’s government followed the precedent those acts set when it forbade colonial assemblies to make their paper money legal tender. The Sugar Act, the Stamp Act, and the Townshend taxes were efforts to cream off what American development was producing. The Tea Act was a direct assault by the empire’s foremost economic power on the merchants of the port towns.
Writer Theodore Draper suggests that British fear of American development was a central theme in the transatlantic “struggle for power.” It is the case that during the very same years British domination over Ireland and India was leading to the long-term subordination of their economies to British needs. In those countries, local merchants and local trading networks were crushed as the British moved in. Local industry was stifled so that British industry could prosper. Local agriculture was organised to produce staple crops for Britain to process, rather than mixed crops for local people to use. When Britain turned from “salutary neglect” to stricter control, it pointed its North American policy in the same direction.
Edward Countryman (2003), The American Revolution.
