By the 18th century, the relationship between the American colonists and Britain and the British Parliament had as its basis a complex pattern of economic ties and conditions. The fact that the American Revolution was initiated over taxes and economic independence more than any other single issue was no historical accident, for while Britain and the American colonies were tied together in a number of cultural, social and political ways, the relationship (as is the rule between a mother country and her colonies) remained at base an economic one. This paper examines the ways in which the economic performance of the American colonies affected the colonistsÆ relationship with Britain, discussing the deterioration of that relationship in the years before the Revolution.
In some key ways, the Americans suffered in terms of their relationship with Britain by having succeeded too well economically. This success both gave them a taste of independence and ensured that they would be taxed more heavily. If one examines the earliest English New World settlements, there is no resentment of levies having to be returned to England because there was nothing to lay levies on. But throughout the 18th century, the American colonists became increasingly aware of and resentful of the fact that their relationship to England was one of simple economic gain to Britain. This does not surprise the modern reader of history, for home countries always establish colonies to create sources of revenue. But the American colonists, bound to England by language, custom, and king, were unwilling to accept the fact that England was in turn bound to them only for the money and goods that they could squeeze out of their colonies.
Jernegan (1959) lists six economic factors that significantly and substantially affected the relationship between Britain and the colonies: (1) a rapid and significant increase in the importation of black slaves into the South and indentured ...