Editing Navigation Acts (section)

==Repeal==
{{Infobox UK legislation
| short_title           = Navigation Act 1849 
| type                  = Act
| parliament            = Parliament of the United Kingdom
| long_title            = An Act to amend the Laws in force for the Encouragement of British Shipping and Navigation.
| year                  = 1849 
| citation              = [[12 & 13 Vict.]] c. 29
| introduced_commons    = 
| introduced_lords      = 
| territorial_extent    = 
| royal_assent          = 26 June 1849
| commencement          = 1 January 1850
| expiry_date           =
| repeal_date           = 1 May 1855
| amends                = [[Customs Consolidation Act 1853]]
| replaces              = {{ubl|[[Trade with India Act 1797]]|[[Duties on Foreign Vessels Act 1824]]|[[Shipping, etc. Act 1845]]}}
| amendments            = 
| repealing_legislation = [[Merchant Shipping Repeal Act 1854]]
| related_legislation   = 
| status                = Repealed
| legislation_history   = 
| theyworkforyou        = 
| millbankhansard       = 
| original_text         = https://archive.org/details/statutesunitedk08britgoog/page/70
| revised_text          = 
}}

The Navigation Acts were repealed in 1849 under the influence of a ''[[laissez-faire|free trade]]'' philosophy. The Navigation Acts were passed under the economic theory of [[mercantilism]], under which wealth was to be increased by restricting colonial trade to the mother country rather than through free trade. By 1849 "a central part of British import strategy was to reduce the cost of food through cheap foreign imports and in this way to reduce the cost of maintaining labour power" (van Houten). Repealing the Navigation Acts along with the [[Corn Laws]] eventually served this purpose (towards the end of the century).{{citation needed|date=April 2025}}