Editing Navigation Acts (section)

===Navigation Act 1663===
{{Infobox UK legislation
| short_title           = Navigation Act 1663
| type                  = Act
| parliament            = Parliament of England
| long_title            = An Act for the Encouragement of Trade
| year                  = 1663
| citation              = [[15 Cha. 2]]. c. 7
| territorial_extent    = [[England and Wales]]
| royal_assent          = 27 July 1663
| commencement          = 1 September 1663{{efn|Start of session.}}
| repeal_date           = 29 April 1910
| amends                = 
| replaces              = 
| amendments            = [[Statute Law Revision Act 1888]]
| repealing_legislation = [[Finance (1909-10) Act 1910]]
| related_legislation   = 
| status                = Repealed
| original_text         = https://www.british-history.ac.uk/statutes-realm/vol5/pp449-452
}}

The '''Navigation Act 1663''' ([[15 Cha. 2]]. c. 7), long-titled ''An Act for the Encouragement of Trade'', also termed the Encouragement of Trade Act 1663 or the Staple Act, was passed on 27 July. This strengthening of the navigation system now required all European goods, bound for America and other colonies, had to be trans-shipped through England first.<ref name="Purvis1997"/> In England, the goods would be unloaded, inspected, approved, duties paid, and finally, reloaded for the destination. This trade had to be carried in English vessels ("bottoms") or those of its colonies. Furthermore, imports of the 'enumerated' commodities (such as tobacco and cotton) had to be landed and taxes paid before continuing to other countries. "England", as used here, includes [[Wales]] and [[Berwick-upon-Tweed]], though those places were little involved in colonial trade. The mercantile purpose of the act was to make England the [[Wiktionary:staple|staple]] for all European products bound for the colonies, and to prevent the colonies from establishing an independent import trade.<ref>Andrews, [https://archive.org/stream/colonialselfgov00andrgoog#page/n36 p.&nbsp;19]</ref> This mandated change increased shipping times and costs, which in turn, increased the prices paid by the colonists. Due to these increases, some exemptions were allowed; these included salt intended for the New England and Newfoundland fisheries, wine from Madeira and the Azores, and provisions, servants and horses from Scotland and Ireland.

The most important new legislation embedded in this Act, as seen from the perspective of the interests behind the East India Company,{{citation needed|date=October 2019}} was the repeal of legislation which prohibited export of coin and bullion from England overseas.<ref>[https://www.british-history.ac.uk/statutes-realm/vol5/pp449-452 Charles II, 1663: An Act for the Encouragement of Trade]</ref> This export was the real issue behind the act,{{citation needed|date=October 2019}} as silver was the main export article by the East India Company into India, exchanging the silver into cheap Indian gold. This change had major implications for the East India Company, for England and for India. The majority of silver in England was exported to India, creating enormous profits for the individual participants, but depriving the Crown of England of necessary silver and taxation. Much of the silver exported was procured by English piracy directed against Spanish and Portuguese merchant ships bringing silver from their colonies in the Americas to Europe. It was later revealed that the act passed Parliament due to enormous bribes paid by the East Indian Company to various influential members of Parliament.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://archive.org/details/AlexanderDelMar|title = Alexander del Mar (1836–1926)}}</ref>

{{anchor|Tobacco Planting and Plantation Trade Act 1670}}
{{Infobox UK legislation
| short_title           = Tobacco Planting and Plantation Trade Act 1670
| type                  = Act
| parliament            = Parliament of England
| long_title            = An Act to prevent the planting of Tobacco in England, and for regulateing the Plantation Trade
| year                  = 1670
| citation              = [[22 & 23 Cha. 2]]. c. 26
| territorial_extent    = [[England and Wales]]
| royal_assent          = 22 April 1671
| commencement          = 1 May 1671{{efn|Section 1.}}
| repeal_date           = 23 May 1950
| amends                = 
| replaces              = 
| amendments            = [[Customs Law Repeal Act 1825]]
| repealing_legislation = [[Statute Law Revision Act 1950]]
| related_legislation   = https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=pst.000017915564&view=1up&seq=783
| status                = Repealed
| original_text         = 23 May 1950
}}

An act tightening colonial trade legislation, and sometimes referred to as the '''Navigation Act 1670''', is the Tobacco Planting and Plantation Trade Act 1670 ([[22 & 23 Cha. 2]]. c. 26).<ref>[http://www.british-history.ac.uk/statutes-realm/vol5/pp747-74 ''An Act to prevent the planting of Tobacco in England, and for regulateing the Plantation Trade''.]</ref> This act imposes forfeiture penalties of the ship and cargo if enumerated commodities are shipped without a bond or customs certificate, or if shipped to countries other than England, or if ships unload sugar or enumerated products in any port except in England. The act requires the governors of American plantations to report annually to customs in London a list of all ships loading any commodities there, as well as a list of all bonds taken. The act states that prosecutions for a breach of the navigation acts should be tried in the court of the high admiral of England, in any of the vice-admiralty courts, or in any court of record in England, but while the act again hints at the jurisdiction of the admiralty courts, it does not explicitly provide for them. In a move against Ireland, the act additionally repealed the ability of Ireland (in the 1660 act) to obtain the necessary bond for products shipped to overseas colonies.{{sfnp|Beer|1893|p=[https://archive.org/stream/commercialpolicy00beerrich#page/426/mode/2up p.&nbsp;129]}}{{sfnp|Osgood|1907|p=[https://archive.org/stream/17thcenturycolonies03osgorich#page/208/mode/2up p.&nbsp;208ff]}}

The specifically anti-Dutch aspects of the early acts were in full force for a relatively short time. During the [[Second Anglo-Dutch War]] the English had to abandon the Baltic trade and allowed foreign ships to enter the coasting and plantation trade.{{sfnp|Reeves|1792|p=[{{GBurl|_5taAAAAcAAJ|page=276}} p.&nbsp;276]}} Following the war, which ended disastrously for England, the Dutch obtained the right to ship commodities produced in their German [[hinterland]] to England as if these were Dutch goods. Even more importantly, as England accepted the concept of [[neutral country|neutrality]], it conceded the principle of "free ships make free goods" which provided freedom from molestation by the [[Royal Navy]] of Dutch shipping on the high seas during wars in which the Dutch Republic was neutral. This more or less gave the Dutch freedom to conduct their "smuggling" unhindered as long as they were not caught red-handed in territorial waters controlled by England. These provisions were reconfirmed in the [[Treaty of Westminster (1674)]] after the [[Third Anglo-Dutch War]].{{sfnp|Israel|1997|pp=316–317}}