ABSTRACT
The closing years of the Seven Years War (1756-1763) saw Britain's imperial star at its zenith. An impressive run of successes at home and abroad culminated in the Treaty of Paris of 1763, which ratified British possession of a vast new global empire. The relationship between Britain and its North American colonies had oscillated since the establishment of the first permanent English settlement at Jamestown, Virginia in 1607. In North America the colonies took advantage of their freedom to develop their own dynamic political culture. The Board of Trade, the principal central government agency in Britain with authority over colonial affairs, had only advisory powers. It struggled - and usually failed - to gain support for its efforts to develop a more efficient administrative system. The most important factor was undoubtedly the increase in the colonies' value to Britain - a product of their extraordinary territorial, demographic and economic growth.
