Ch. 2.2. Primary Sources: Colonial Export Laws
Parliament passed a number of laws that targeted particular colonial industries or products in order to favor Britain’s domestic economy, by either restricting or encouraging the export from America of certain manufactured or processed goods. This section contains excerpts from three of these laws.
1. Restraining or Woolens Act, 1699
One of the first of these laws was the Woolens Act of 1699, which sought to protect the manufacture of woolen cloth in Britain by prohibiting its export from Ireland and America.
Whereas great quantities of the like manufactures have of late been made, and are daily increasing in the kingdom of Ireland, and in the English plantations in America, and are exported from thence to foreign markets, heretofore supplied from England…And for the more effectual encouragement of the woolen manufacture of this kingdom; be it further enacted…no wool, woolfells, shortlings, mortlings, woolflocks, worsted, bay, or woollen yarn, cloth, serge, bays, kerseys, says, friezes, druggets, cloth-serges, shalloons, or any other drapery stuffs, or woollen manufactures whatsoever, made or mixed with wool or woolflocks, being the product or manufacture of any of the English plantations in America, shall be loaden or laid on board in any ship or vessel, in any place or parts within any of the said English plantations, upon any pretence whatsoever.
2. Naval Stores Act, 1705
As England rose as a maritime power, it encountered increasing competition and rising prices for naval supplies. When a war broke out in the Baltic that reduced England’s access to its main source of strategic ‘naval stores,’ mostly pine trees for ships’ masts and the pine tar and resin for caulking ships, Parliament responded by passing the Naval Stores Act. It encouraged the production of these materials by offering bounties for the import from America of several types of naval stores. In the northern colonies, the law also reserved to the crown all large pine trees that were in unenclosed land. This law had little effect on the northern economy, where its reservation of trees for example was largely ignored, but it did help to stimulate the export of naval stores from the Carolinas.
Whereas the royal navy and the navigation of England, on which…the wealth, safety and strength of this kingdom so much depends, requires the supply of various stores, which are now brought in mostly from foreign ports… Be it therefore enacted…That every person or persons who shall…import or cause to be imported into this kingdom, directly from any of her Majesty’s English colonies or plantations in America…, any of the naval stores hereafter mentioned, shall have as a reward or premium for such importation…as follows:
“For good and saleable tar per ton (each ton containing eight barrels; each barrel containing 31.5 gallons), 4 pounds. For good and saleable pitch per ton, 4 pounds. For good and saleable resin or turpentine per ton, 3 pounds. For hemp…per ton…, 1 pound. For all masts, yards, and bowsprights, per ton…, 1 pound…
“And for the better preservation of all timber fit for the uses aforesaid, be it further enacted: That no person or persons within her Majesty’s colonies…[from New Jersey north]…shall presume to cut, fell, or destroy any pitch, pine trees, or tar trees, not being within any fence or actual enclosure, under the growth of 12 inches diameter at three feet from the ground, on the penalty of 5 pounds for each offense…, half of which penalty for her Majesty, and half for the informer or informers.
3. The Hat Act, 1732
Another in this series of laws that targeted certain industries was the Hat Act. At this time hats were made from both woolen cloth and the fur of various animals, especially beaver. The American colonies, especially in the north, had the advantage of a supply from the fur trade with Native Americans further in the interior, and so their hat industry enjoyed advantages as well.
Whereas…considerable quantities of hats manufactured in this kingdom have heretofore been exported to his Majesty’s plantations or colonies in America, who have been wholly supplied with hats from Great Britain; and whereas great quantities of hats have of late years been made, and said manufacture in daily increasing to the British plantations in America, and is from thence exported to foreign markets, which were heretofore supplied from Great Britain…be it enacted by the king’s most excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons in this present Parliament assembled…no hats or felts whatsoever, dyed or undyed, finished or unfinished, shall be shipped, loaded, or put on board any ship or vessel in any place or parts within any of the British plantations…to the intent and purpose to be exported, transported, shipped off, carried, or conveyed out of any of the said British plantations to any other of the British plantations, or to any other place whatsoever…
