ABSTRACT
The French and Indian and Seven Years War brought to wider attention the long-term problems of revenue raising and administration in a widely flung and loosely constituted empire. It also raised a broad consensus in Britain on the necessity for reform of colonial trade and customs in particular and of imperial governance in general. What Pownall appreciated perhaps more than most was that in older colonies habits of autonomy and representative government had set in early. His propositions aim to prevent such habits catching on in the newer colonies. Pownall had a distinguished career after 1763. He advised on the location of the Proclamation Line of 1763, consulted with Charles Jenkinson (later Lord Liverpool), who helped draw up colonial taxation measures, advocated creation of the American Department and became its undersecretary (under Hillsborough) in 1768.
