HIST 130 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Navigation Acts, Townshend Acts, Sugar Act
6 Jun 2020
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Commercial, military, and cultural ties between great britain and the north. American colonies tightened while a new distinctly american culture began to form. Transatlantic trade greatly enriched britain, but it also created high standards of living for many north american colonists. During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, improvements in manufacturing, transportation, and the availability of credit increased the opportunity for colonists to purchase consumer goods. Britain relied on the colonies as a source of raw materials, such as lumber and tobacco. Americans engaged with new forms of trade and financing that increased their ability to buy british-made goods. Massachusetts became the first place in the western world to issue paper bills to be used as money. Currency that worked in virginia might be worthless in pennsylvania. Colonists and officials in britain debated whether it was right or desirable to use mere paper, as opposed to gold or silver, as a medium of exchange.
