ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a study of English trade up to the time when American Independence and Industrial Revolution fundamentally changed the conditions in which it was carried on, is based in the main on the trade figures for 1699-1701, 1722-4, 1752-4 and 1772-4. The growth of the German industry threatened many of the oldest English markets in central Europe, and it began to receive some measure of protection from the Imperial government. The appearance of corn surpluses late in the seventeenth century led to a system of bounties to encourage their export, and this export reached a peak in the years round 1750 when it contributed quite significantly to the total English export trade. The seventeenth-century Navigation Laws, which were not seriously modified before 1786, gave English merchants and shipowners a complete monopoly of trade with the colonies. The prospects for trade based on privilege and non-economic influences were becoming gloomy indeed during the last quarter of the eighteenth century.
