when he wrote "That all colonies or
plantations do endamage their Mother-Kingdoms, whereof the trades of
such Plantations are not confined by severe Laws, and good execution of
those Laws, to the Mother-Kingdom."

The Navigation Act of 1660, following the policy laid down in the
statute of 1651 enacted under the Commonwealth, was a direct blow aimed
at the Dutch, who were fast monopolizing the carrying trade. It forbade
any goods to be imported into or exported from His Majesty's plantations
except in English, Irish, or colonial vessels of which the master
and three fourths of the crew must be English; and it forbade the
importation into England of any goods produced in the plantations unless
carried in English bottoms. Contemporary Englishmen hailed this act
as the Magna Charta of the Sea. There was no attempt to disguise its
purpose. "The Bent and Design," wrote Charles Davenant, "was to make
those colonies as much dependant as possible upon their Mother-Country,"
by preventing them from trading independently and so diverting their
wealth. The effect would be to give English, Irish, and colonial
shipping a monopoly of the carrying trade within the Empire. The act
also aided English merchants by the requirement that goods of foreign
origin should be imported directly from the place of production; and
that certain enumerated commodities of the plantations should be carried
only to English ports. These enumerated commodities were products of the
southern and semitropical plantations: "Sugars, Tobacco, Cotton-wool,
Indicoes, Ginger, Fustick or other dyeing wood."

To benefit British merchants still more directly by making England the
staple not only of plantation products but also of all commodities of
all countries, the Act of 1663 was passed by Parliament. "No Commoditie
of the Growth Production or Manufacture of Europe shall be imported into
any Land Island Plantation Colony Territory or Place to His Majestie
belonging... but what shall be bona fide and without fraude laden and
shipped in England Wales [and] the Towne of Berwicke upon Tweede and
in English built Shipping." The preamble to this famous act breathed no
hostile intent. The design was to maintain "a greater correspondence and
kindnesse" between the plantations and the mother country; to encourage
shipping; to render navigation cheaper and safer; to make "this Kingdome
a Staple not only of the Commodities of those Plantations but also
of the Commodities of