ABSTRACT
Before the American Revolution, economic thinkers in the American colonies necessarily thought in global terms. After all, they were part of the British Empire, which was present on all the continents, and as it prospered so might they. They argued against a variety of imperial policies that seemed inimical to their local welfare, such as the Navigation Acts, metropolitan monopolies in the sale of such goods as tea, and taxation without representation. But always these were disputes within an imperial family on which, it must be remembered, the sun never set.
