British Policy of Salutary Neglect

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Recommended: Demerits of mercantilism

The United States of 2015 offers a drastically different lifestyle to that of our ancestors. In today’s modern America, it is hard to think back and imagine the lives of those before us. Most people take for granted the freedom they experience in their everyday lives. This freedom may be owed in part to the unofficial British policy of salutary neglect. With the word “salutary” meaning favorable and promoting health, this policy was Britain’s way of letting their colonies in America prosper. This policy offered and assortment of advantages and disadvantages to both Britain and the colonies while also planting a seed among the colonies that would change the country forever.

In the early 1600s, Britain began to pursue a system of mercantilism; the idea of a country being almost solely self sufficient, by exporting more than it imports. To achieve this goal, British parliament enacted the Navigation Acts in their American colonies. The four acts were: only English or English colonial ships could carry cargo between imperial ports, certain good, including tobacco, rice, and furs, could not be shipped to foreign nations except through England or Scotland, the English Parliament would pay “bounties” to Americans who produced certain raw goods, while raising protectionist tariffs of the same goods produced in other nations, and Americans could not compete with English manufacturers in large-scale manufacturing. These acts put a major restraint on trading within the colonies, and angered many colonists as well. Instead of following these laws, colonists began to smuggle goods instead. Even though the British were fully aware of the breaking of the laws, they ignored it. This was the idea of salutary neglect as proposed by British Pr...

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...s for Britain, all good things must come to end. It should have been expected that colonies as resourceful and rapidly growing as the ones in America, would eventually desire their own government and way of life. The policy of salutary neglect was a great stepping stone for the colonies to take action toward a revolution.

Works Cited

Kelly, Martin. “Salutary Neglect.” About.com. 2011. The New York Times Company. August

11, 2011. < http://americanhistory.about.com/od/americanhistoryterms/g/salutary_neglec.htm>

Streich, Michael. “Revolutionary War Causes & Salutary Neglect.” Suite101.com. August 11,

2011.

“The Colonial Economy: Mercantilism.” Sparknotes.com. 2011. Sparknotes. August 11, 2011

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