regional basis of the different colonies of english america. what i want to do today is take more of an imperial approach and talk about the maturation of the english empire. you might be curious about the date. hopefully the reason for that will become clear over the course of this lecture. as a point of the part sure, most people may think about english america, mainland north america, something like this image is what comes to mind. as we talked about it with respect to the other empires in north america, maps are discursive. there are more assertions of claims of territory. small little clusters of settlements, you can barely see it. there is a dark patch around chesapeake day. a scattering of dots along the atlantic coast. represents 200 people. colonies inds, the english mainland north america are not altogether unlike the other parts of english america in the caribbean. they are islands in the sea of wilderness. calling -- using the term colony. the english possessions in north america are more dominions than colonies. what is the difference? we talked about this earlier, what the difference is between a dominion and a colony. .> dominion is on its own it is still part of the greater empire. but they are more tied to the economic and military aspects of the overall empire. prof. coombs: perfect. great answer. dominions are off on their own. the only thing that really makes these various possessions in north america a larger emerging state is the fact that they are english. many charters have been issued by the crown. their authorization for their founding comes from the english monarchy. there is no structures to tie them to the mother country to speak of whatsoever. between 1644 and 1638, massachusetts received no help from england in terms of fighting in that conflict. nor did virginia in the course of the third anglo conflict. fought these were entirely by the settlers themselves. using their own weapons, they had to build their own for its, there is no english troops involved whatsoever. over the course of the 16 30's, having dutch penetration of english possessions in terms of overseas trade. charles the first issued a number of directives to the virginia council of states to governors insisting tobacco being shipped from virginia and the chesapeake be sent to england. there is no system of regulations requiring basin produced england at all. ok. that is going to change. happening,nd what is understand a little bit of english history. when we think about the acts of trade navigation, where this incess begins, the first act 1651, you probably know from reading the textbook this is associated towards the dutch. the dutch are the targets. this is emerging. what i want to argue to you is while they are economic and content, economics is the weapon wielded by this developing english imperial state against againstland -- we need to knowasons are more about the house of stuart and the house of orange in the netherlands. in 1641, mary stuart, g is known as the princess royal. charles the first is william the second father-in-law. mary is charles's eldest daughter. in 1647. that office william worked on behalf of charles behalf supporting him in the second english civil war. following the execution of charles in 1649, william worked for the restoration of his son. he's forced to flee england. you have the house of orange operating in cooperation and closely tied through marriage to the stewart's. this is important. in england, even as the dutch are helping charles and harboring the future charles the second, england undergoes a major transformation. the king being executed, the country is transformed into a commonwealth. the last parliament called by charles the first, stripped of anybody who was resistant in terms of bringing charges executing the king. it transforms into a commonwealth by abolishing the house of lords. juncture, ont that the left, you see john pam, the leader of a certain faction. leader,t. john, another one of these guys, both of them hold that vision. if you think back to that article that we read on the origins of the english empire, that sense of apocalyptic thinking that informed elizabethans had been so important in 1607. it spilled over into the founding of massachusetts. this is part of the same group. we could write the history of the formation of the english empire the 17th century. these men hold that same vision. it is going to reach it's the moment -- it's fulfillment. thisare going to pursue into the western design which we have already discussed. the immediate object is to try and craft a union with the united provinces. not an alliance. they want to combine england, scotland, and ireland with the united provinces into a single powerful protestant state. this is what they want to achieve. because of his growing outrage of the pro-royalist actions andin some of the provinces the provocations of their negotiations these to form an anglo dutch union, st. john departs and discussed, comes back, and rams through parliament this first act of trade navigation of 1651 to punish them. to punish these elements within the dutch -- that don't want to do the right thing. ships.t banned foreign the second thing, it banned third-party country ships transporting goods from a country outside of europe. eliminating the dutch from trading with the colonies. it is an aggressive action to punish them. these long term we know acts marks the first step toward the imperial regulation of colonial trade. the growing tensions resulting set the stage for the first anglo dutch war of 1652, 1654. england is going to a series of wars over the 17th century. by a stateent headed acting as an executive begins this war with the dutch in 1652. aret moves forward, there are political developments within england. frustrated at the refusal to call for new elections to elect a new parliament and establish a tolerant national church, in 1653, oliver cromwell dissolves parliament by force and is soon thereafter appointed lord protector for life. theee him walking into house of parliament, forcing members out. then we see him as lord protector. england gained the upper hand in the naval struggle even as the war produces no clear winner. conflict,e end of the it remains in forest throughout the remainder of the decade. 1658 hismwell died in son richard was unable to consolidate power as a successor. a struggle ensued between the army and the parliament, which led to political maneuvering for the return of the monarchy. that happens in 1660. the restoration of the stewart's and the throne of england. so, all laws adopted between the execution of his restoration,s own , it wasthe interregnum deemed null and void. almost immediately knew tensions begin to develop between england and the united provinces over the status of charles the second's nephew. his rhetoric claims to the position of offices that his .ather had held was blocked after being named grand pension the faction. republicanmmitted and opponent of the return of the houses -- the house of orange to power. effectivelyoration reverses the ideological position of england and the netherlands that had prevailed during the first war. englishjunction, it was public and frustration at the sympathizers in the netherlands that prompted the first trade navigation. now we have ever stirred -- restored monarchy wanting to see them return to power. so, a complete change in the polarity of their positions. the republican faction within the states general is working to achieve his overthrow. charles took steps to aid his nephew william the third undermined control of the dutch government. one part of that program consisted of a new and more stringent navigation act which was passed in 1660. this navigation act required all ships be english owned, captain by an englishman and have crews that were three quarters english. such asd commodities tobacco, sugar and cotton and required ship captains post bond to ensure their compliance. it provided for the appointment of naval officers in each of the colonies. we have a customs officers appointed by the crown, through the nomination of governors who were regulating the trade of the empire. this system is going to further passed additional acts that further tie in the economic dimensions of this developing english empire. throughout the same decades, the crown did almost nothing to englishhe largely populations in america. from the hostile actions of european powers and native americans. we are seeing with english empire looks like. at least with respect to the main lands. it is very coastal in its character. in 1664, charles ordered aggressive actions be taken in africa and north america, in the conquest of new netherlands. these moves precipitated the outbreak of a second anglo dutch war. the famous admiral retaliated by -- and then crossed the atlantic and attacked barbados. other dutch naval forces burnt and 1673hips in 1667 during the third and final anglo dutch war. however no effort is made but england in this period to defend its place in north america. nor did they become involved inking philip's war. king philip's war in new england was fought almost entirely by settlers. the small contingent of 2000 soldiers sent to suppress bacon's rebellion in 1676 arrived in 1677 after the rebellion had been crushed. no real intrusion there. england's overseas settlements remained in a halfway house where the economic bonds were becoming ever stronger. but they still received little in the way of support to protect them from enemies. in the case of virginia the combined expense of building coastal fortifications to ,rotect against dutch assaults interior force to guard against the indians led to higher levels of taxation that paid a significant role transforming incursions by native americans into a full-blown civil war. they are off on their own. dominion like in many respects. chesapeake, to the the most economically valuable zone of english colonization, the key turning point in the development of this last piece of the empire, the defensive network that would tie them with the mother country occurred in in thetermath -- aftermath of the revolution which saw the catholic king james the second, who it come to the throne in 1685 overthrown by the invasion force led by his protestant son-in-law. the same young man that had fought to keep from coming to power in the netherlands, that charles had tried to help in terms of foreign policy now is the instrument of overthrowing the stewart's, at least james the second and issuing in this era of english politics but the glorious revolution. inherited orange had his offices after the execution by a mob in 1672. -- in thewas both netherlands when he came to alongd and would be named with his daughter mary. drawsm's is such that he england into the nine years war of 1688 to 1697. not only with the netherlands but in the war of the austrian succession, spanish succession, excuse me. this is a conflict between 70 and 1713. -- 1702 william is pushing english foreign policy operating now in conjunction rather than in opposition. during this prolonged warfare, england would expend significant resources to protect the american plantation. this is what is going to give rise to this imperial stage. talking aboutf this, i want to focus on the chesapeake. the most economically valuable possession in north america. we can see the effects of this structure on society. in doing so it captures the nature of this empire. what you see in this slide is capturing both tobacco output course of over the the 17th century. this line right here is prices. the price of tobacco. this is the farm gate price, the price of tobacco in the chesapeake. this is the changing in price that i would pay for. you can see we talked about earlier, you have this long-term downward change in prices with those intervening fluctuations. the other is the output of tobacco. the two red lines come in two red towers, these mark the warfare i was talking about. here that this incredible growth in output, by the time we get to this, it flattens out. a lot of historians have interpreted this as more or less a stagnation in the growth of the chesapeake colonies, which led to an economic depression in virginia and maryland. this represents the institution of a convoy and embargo regime. which is adopted by the english government to protect the major staple trade of the empire and transatlantic slave trade over these years of war. the way this system operated is , notave the whole purpose only to control trade of course, to keep the dutch from involvement in the imperial economy, but to build up the english merchant marine. done,ason this is merchant marines were the nursery of seamen. in times of war you can draw on those sailors to staff warships of your navy. now it is a time of warfare and ships. need to staff restrict theo number of sailors available for commerce. in this convoy and embargo regime each major overseas trade of the empire is allocated a certain number of sailors. the west indies gets its allotment. the african tray gets its allotment and so forth. this,bargo portion of when you want to protect these merchant ships as they move out to the open ocean, and subject to attacks from privateers, we are going to escort them. they're going to be escorted by warships. we have to consolidate them in one area. these ships consolidate and places like the downs where ships will depart on their voyages. you collect them. and embargo is placed on ships leading. when is it going to sail and so on? after the convoy leaves there is embargo and ships can come and go. these convoys had out across the atlantic, to africa, the caribbean of the chesapeake. in the case of the chesapeake they gather in hampton roads. that gray bay. the lower part of the chesapeake bay. one of the english investments is the assignment of men of war to guard the entrance to the chesapeake bay. huge, box of creeks and bays and rivers. there's only one way in and one way out. to guard the entrance to the bay, you don't need to build these coastal forts it has failed so miserably protecting the fleet in the anglo dutch wars. we have englishmen. the convoy arrives. it enters the bay accompanied by man-of-war. they reassembled down in the lower part of the bay. the same embargo is holding while they are doing that. eventually they had back across the atlantic to england. man-of-war where the profit is delivered. this is how the system works. this helps to explain this kind of stagnation. seeing is the effect of this convoy and embargo regime. when you have a tight control over the number of ships engaging in the trade during sailorsr years, 800 eventually to 1000, there's a finite number of ships that can be staffed. of course you will see a flattening out. then it begets -- then it begins to grow again. this, this is occurring at a time when politics within england as result of the glorious set of a stuart monarch with absolutist pretensions dictating what england is and is not going to do, you have parliament playing an active role and a monarchy accepting parliament as a key point in this. that would happen is the transformation of the lords of trade implantations. the gives way in 1696 to board of trade, a professional salaryed by and paid a that is supposed to be governing all aspects of prof. coombs: as part of this new consultative form of politics in england, this extends to matters of defense and imperial concerns, both in terms of customs duties and any regime.tion of the this is important because of the extent of this english effort. during the course of these wars , thehe intervening piece nine years war, and the war of the spanish succession, and this period of these, 40 guns are dispatched to the chesapeake. 16,000 sailors will spend time in the chesapeake over the war. this is a tremendous investment of resources by the english state, unprecedented. nothing like this had happened before. who will govern this? which ships should sale? as a result of this consultative form of politics, the men -- ace again, when you bring in legislative body as an equal player, this will make things subject to political pressure. only the crown making decisions and now we get the formation of pressure groups that will bring testimony, argue , submit petitions, and so on. this happens in terms of the management of this convoy and embargo regime with respect to the chesapeake. fall of 1691, 15 men who call themselves the principle merchants of this port of london in virginia and maryland led by three guys. here, you can read thomasn jeffries,, lane, top importers. yes? you have a question. indent: what are the names red mean? prof. coombs: these are the names of the guys whose names are on this petition. so, no different. it's probably a little bit hard to read for you guys. the names and red are the ones we know about, although they are just stand and's for a larger body of importing merchants. so these 15 men demanded that a number of ships that had been designated to go to chesapeake in the convoy of 1691, and therefore have been marked against the quota allocated to the chesapeake trade, they demanded they be disallowed. they are the ones who pay the most customs, most in customs duties. we see here in 1686, you have a .hort list of men importing these are all men importing more than 240,000 pounds of tobacco in 1686, so it is a fairly short list. overctively, they import 11 million pounds of tobacco, which constitutes 65% of all tobacco imported into london that year. these are the big players in other words, involved in the overseas tobacco trade. they say they know this trade. they pay the most customs, and there are a number of ships that have been allocated to the chesapeake and counted against its quota, which should not be there. and so they then turned to the connections they have with the secretary of lords of trade, and thisential member of developing imperial establishment who tells them to petition the queen and ask for relief. , the liste petition of men who engaged in it. after they talk to the queen, three days later, the council issues an order directing that these are the guys who would determine what ships should and should not be included in the convoy. they are the experts. it is part of this consultative form of politics. these guys know how the chesapeake tobacco trade runs. if you want to know how best to make this convoy work to make it function, the least possible disruption, these are the guys to ask. is done in the office of public good, and one of the things they are good at is getting their own private interests more or less aligned with what is for the public good. ok, so, now, why is that these guys are such big importers? as we talked about when we were discussing the development of the chesapeake economy, these are the men who are the receiving agents in the consignment trade and tobacco. with the wayinning tobacco is marketed, ships come over generally in the fall. they would make their way up the various rivers and creeks. che ofould have a cash of goods to sell. they would sell at a determined price depending on the size of the crop and so on. as early as the 16 40's and 16 50's, some of the larger planters in the chesapeake begin trading on their own account. there is always a price spread between the price of tobacco in the chesapeake colonies and the price it commands on the wholesale market in london, and so instead of just accepting the price that this random ship captain might have to offer me, i will instead send the tobacco to england on my own account and pay a commission to someone to market it there for me. this developing consignment trade ties the larger planters of virginia and maryland to these ingush merchants. most of them in london. and this is crucial. mar?uestion student: [inaudible] francis lee is a cousin of the lees of virginia but william willis is a virginia planter. just below this list is daniel park, also member of virginia council of state. but you do see these planters increasingly building ships. tofact, the largest ship lead the tobacco fleet during 1702, the ship relieving the english man-of-war had not arrived yet when the convoys depart, was the indian king, which along to daniel park. many of these planters are gaining the profits from freight as well as the price differential. yes? student: [inaudible] prof. coombs: many of the guys are doing this, if you think place between the southern bank -- the northern bank of the rappahannock river and the northern bank of the james, so the middle and lower peninsulas, and the lower half of the northern neck, this sweet zone of virginia. many of this leading planters are there. , so it is noten't exclusively sweet scented growers. most of the tobacco going over .rom virginia is sweet scented .reat question so what happens? as the supplies of tobacco in england become more scarce, the price given for tobacco in the chesapeake and the price given for tobacco in england grows ever larger. in see here how small it is the 16 60's, 16 70's, but then we get to the four years and it starts to grow. so this is important. who ever gets their corrupt to market in wartime stands to make a killing. this is important. very crucially important for a number of reasons. a couple of things happen as a result of this. a notable consolidation and growth in the number of large forms importing tobacco in the chesapeake. you see here that they account for 65% of the imported total into london in 1686. list was larger in 1697, but now they account for 77% of tobacco coming into england. even though this list has grown larger, most of that is coming from smaller importers being eliminated. is being consolidated on the english end, which given what i said about how this embargo regime works should make sense. these the guys who are deciding what ships are included in the convoy, what ships do think they're going to decide need to be included in the convoy? they will be evenhanded and let everybody, first come first serve? what do you think would happen? student: [inaudible] prof. coombs: their ships. that is right. those will be the ships they have the interest in. on the other end of the trade, they have those relationships with consigning planters, and the convoy is controlled on the chesapeake side largely by the virginia council of state. many of them are in that sweet scented zone that we talked about with respect to the chesapeake economy, so these are the guys deciding once these ships arrived in the chesapeake what happens to them. who gets tobacco on board? you think you will load everybody's tobacco first come first served? there tobacco will get on the first, and the tobacco they purchase from their neighbors. so you effectively have this leading merchants of london, the leading planters and chesapeake, who are controlling this trade for 20 years, which is crucial. it has a number of ramifications. let's skip ahead here. right, one of them was, well, one of them going back to that is this consolidation i talked about, large importing firms and how you get the growth. you move from the low 60's upwards of 77 to 80% of the tobacco i this well-defined group. another result is a significant advance in the fortunes of the leading chesapeake planters, particularly those in virginia, but also including well-connected marylanders, who consolidated their position atop the regions socioeconomic hierarchy and fill their pockets with the profits necessary to not only dramatically expand the labor forces, which they do in the early decades of the 18th century, but also construct these impressive mansions for which tidewater is renowned. this was built by robert king the 1720's. this is a party house, according to the architectural historian. this is not where he lived. it is a house they built to hang out, drink, and have fun. it is pretty impressive. inther one is rose well gloucester county. it burns only a couple of years after it is constructed, so it has been explored archaeology. will also burn, but not until later. we actually have pictures of what this looked like. this is built by man page the first and gloucester. john pages the founder of the family and arrived in the 17th century and built an impressive house at middle plantation, now williamsburg, in 1662, so this built great-grandson, this, begins this construction and 1725. -- in 1725. this is cutting edge architecture, even for england. it has this nice spot appear, a glass enclosure with this balcony where you can hang out and drink and look over your domain, so to speak. yes:? student: [inaudible] this coombs: no, it has arcade it portico. there is a brick lined tunnel. it is very elaborate. so if we are looking at the point in chesapeake history when these leading elites consolidate their position and become the leading families of virginia and maryland, they are already there before the war begins. that is why they are in position andake advantage of wartime the embargo regime provide, but as a result of this, they really cement their places atop the society. other results gave rise to the so-called virginia lobby, which was effectively a political alliance between the leading merchants and their partners on the other. at the end of the 16 90's, taking advantage of that consultative politics that developed up to the glorious revolution, this alliance would talk up impressive successes, which included a long-sought after ban on loser bulk tobacco. used to have ships that would go to england. sailors would take bundles of tobacco and stuff them between the hogsheads in the hold of the ship, and when they arrived in england, they could slip them overa but it retards the price of the tobacco market, so leading planters in the chesapeake had been seeking to number ofobacco for a years, at least since 1680. they were able to achieve that and get that legislation passed by parliament at the end of the 16 90's. successful in removing governor francis nicholson from office and operating in cooperation with west indian and other interests and succeeded in bringing about the in of monopoly control over hhe englis whichtlantic slave trade, led to an expansion of the slave trade in the early decades of the 18th century. group, thatas the one of nicholson's successors would contend in 1718 that "it is well-known for these 30 years past that no governor had long escaped being vilified in his first year and misrepresented at home then he began to discover the intrigues and politics of this political party." this combination of chesapeake planters and london merchants. they are the first imperial pressure groups to push an the 16 90's, they really succeeded. eventually this will fall apart. we will talk about that later. empiret, the british after 1707, emerging around the turn of the 18th century, it worked quite well for men of means and influence on both sides of the atlantic, who were corridorsrk the cor of politics. you can see here how small, this is 1700, still how coastal these english possessions in north america are. worked they were governing islands that would prove woefully inadequate as mainland economies grew in an astonishing way, and amazing rate, and in the process underwent transformation from islands in a sea of wilderness to a leviathan pushing further into the interior of the continent. we will pick that up next week. very good. thanks. [applause] announcer: join us every saturday evening at 8:00 p.m. and midnight eastern as we join students and college classrooms to hear lectures on topics ranging from the american revolution to 9/11. lectures and history are also available as podcasts. c-span.orgebsite, /history/podcasts or download them from itunes. announcer: democratic congressman represents california's silicon valley, and monday night on the communicators, he will describe the issues that matter most to the regions tech companies, their frustration with washington, and his gold create more jobs through the companies in his district, which include apple, google, and tesla among others. he is interviewed by david mccabe. what itve to figure out would look like for the jobs that are available. not everything will require a four-year degree. i'm not concerned about the folks getting for your degree's or phd's, but what he doing after high school that will get you a job? and i think the federal government should be looking at credentials that actually lead to employment and then funding those apprenticeship programs. announcer: watch the communicators monday night at 8:00 p.m. eastern on c-span2. announcer: next on american history tv, law professor and author marcia zug discusses how 19th-century gold rush planters encourage women to move west and married the states bachelors, with promises of protecting women's rights. however marcia zug argues that when brides came from asia, america's acceptance of mail order marriages evaporated. the presentation focuses on the new book, buying a bride: an engaging history of mail-order matches. it explores the legacy of california's immigration history. event is hosted by the california historical society in san francisco. g teaches family cutsand often family law into immigration, migration. she also focuses on indian law, and one of the reasons i impassioned about this book as i listened to a hot cast and heard marcia

Related Keywords

Chesapeake Bay , Maryland , United States , Washington , Williamsburg , Virginia , California , Austria , London , City Of , United Kingdom , San Francisco , Rappahannock River , Hampton , Chesapeake , Netherlands , Massachusetts , Ireland , Barbados , Spain , Marylanders , Americans , America , Englishman , Spanish , Englishmen , British , Dutch , Austrian , American , Catholic King James , John Jeffries , Oliver Cromwell , Robert King Carter , King Philip , Indian King , John Pam , William Willis , Marcia Zug , Francis Lee , Mary Stuart , Francis Nicholson , David Mccabe ,