Colonial economies and mercantilism

Grade 11 Social Studies Worksheet

Circle the best answer.

1. Read this first

   Use this

   Cards A to C on people and trade (the tables are exact; the summary is in our words). Card A, table: people in four colonies, 1770 (US Census Bureau, Historical Statistics, series Z 1-19). Massachusetts: 235,308 people in all, 4,754 Black people. Pennsylvania: 240,057 in all, 5,761 Black people. Virginia: 447,016 in all, 187,605 Black people. South Carolina: 124,244 in all, 75,178 Black people. Note: the Census series counts Black people as one group, and most of them were enslaved. Card B, table: trade with England, by region, 1773 (US Census Bureau, Historical Statistics, series Z 213-226; official values in pounds sterling, a rough guide to the size of the trade). New England sold £124,624 to England and bought £527,055. New York sold £76,246 and bought £289,214. Pennsylvania sold £36,652 and bought £426,448. Virginia and Maryland sold £589,803 and bought £428,904. Carolina sold £456,513 and bought £344,859. Georgia sold £85,391 and bought £62,932. All six regions together sold £1,369,229 and bought £2,079,412. Card C, "Who sold what". Who made it: historians and government agencies writing today. When: today. For whom: readers today. Why: to sum up what is known. Summary in our words, not a quotation: New England and the Middle colonies sold much of their fish, timber, ships and grain to the West Indies, where the sales helped pay for sugar and molasses. The Southern colonies sold tobacco, rice and indigo, much of it to England.

2. 1.

   Ari weighs why New England bought £527,055 from England but sold only £124,624. Which judgment do Cards B and C support?

   • New England sold little to England because it produced goods that nobody wanted, so the gap shows its exports had no value at the time
   • New England bought more because it was preparing to resist English trade laws by storing goods before 1776
   • New England fell permanently into debt to England, since it bought £527,055 and sold £124,624 in the year
   • Much of its fish, timber and ships sold in the West Indies, helping pay for English goods; card B shows only England
3. 2.

   A writer says Black people were a larger share of Virginia's people than of South Carolina's. How should Bo reply, using card A?

   • No: South Carolina's share was about 61 percent, which shows most of those Black people were enslaved there
   • Yes: Virginia had 187,605 Black people against 75,178, so Virginia's share was the larger of the two
   • Yes: Virginia's share was about 42 percent and South Carolina's about 31 percent, since 75,178 is a third of the people there
   • No: about 61 percent in South Carolina against about 42 percent in Virginia, even though Virginia had more Black people
4. 3.

   The six regions together sold £1,369,229 and bought £2,079,412. What do the totals show and not show Esme?

   • The colonies earned £710,183 from England, since the difference between the totals is the profit of the colonies
   • The colonies were £710,000 in debt overall, since the table shows everything that the colonies owed to others
   • The colonies bought about £3.4 million more than they sold, since the two totals are added to give the gap
   • The colonies bought about £710,000 more from England than they sold, but this is trade with England alone

5. Use this

   Cards A to D on three Acts of Parliament (the excerpt is exact, in old spelling; the summaries are in our words). Card A, "Staple Act of 1663: Parliament's own words". Who made it: Parliament of England. When: 1663. For whom: merchants and ship captains in England and its colonies. Why: to make England the center of the colonies' trade in European goods. Excerpt (An Act for the Encouragement of Trade (15 Car. II c. 7), 1663): "And in reguard His Majesties Plantations [colonies] beyond the Seas are inhabited and peopled by His Subjects of this His Kingdome of England, For the maintaining a greater correspondence and kindnesse betweene them and keepeing them in a firmer dependance [dependence] upon it, and rendring them yet more beneficiall and advantagious unto it in the farther Imployment and Encrease of English Shipping and Seamen, vent [sale] of English Woollen and other Manufactures and Commodities … and makeing this Kingdome a Staple [central market] not onely of the Commodities of those Plantations but alsoe of the Commodities of other Countryes and Places for the supplying of them…" Card B, "The Staple Act of 1663, in brief". Who made it: historians and government agencies writing today. When: today. For whom: readers today. Why: to sum up what is known. Summary in our words, not a quotation: European goods bound for the colonies had to be shipped from England, in English-built ships, from March 25, 1664. Parliament said it wanted the colonies in firmer dependence and England to be the central market, or staple, for goods sent to them. Card C, "The Plantation Duties Act of 1673". Who made it: historians and government agencies writing today. When: today. For whom: readers today. Why: to sum up what is known. Summary in our words, not a quotation: Parliament complained that colonists sent sugar, tobacco and the other listed goods from colony to colony and on to other countries, which cut English customs revenue. The act set a duty on those goods when loaded in a colony, unless the ship's owner promised to carry them to England. Card D, "For reference" (written for this sheet, in our words, not a quotation): The Navigation Act of 1660 had said that these listed goods, called enumerated goods, could be shipped only to England or an English colony.

6. 4.

   Kira weighs why Parliament passed the Staple Act. Which judgment do Cards A and B support?

   • Parliament wanted to stop colonists from seeking independence in 1776, so it passed the Act in 1663 to prevent it from ever happening
   • Parliament's own words give several aims at once, dependence, English shipping and sales of English goods, with none named chief
   • Raising money from customs duties was the sole aim, since the Act was about goods passing through England
   • Parliament wanted to keep colonists from buying English goods, so it required that goods go through other countries
7. 5.

   Cards B, C and D describe Acts of 1660, 1663 and 1673. How does Luz describe the pattern?

   • The three Acts did the same thing, since each one told colonists where they could send their sugar and tobacco
   • Each step loosened the system: the Act of 1673 allowed colonists to ship listed goods to other countries without duty
   • The Acts were passed in 1660, 1663 and 1673, so they came about thirteen years apart from first to last
   • Each step closed a gap: listed goods to England (1660), imports through England (1663), a duty on colony-to-colony shipping (1673)
8. 6.

   Compare the aims in the Staple Act excerpt (card A) with the complaint in card C. What differs, as Milo sees it?

   • They state the same aim, since each one says the colonies should send their goods through England before elsewhere
   • The Staple Act's aims concern trade and control; the 1673 act adds a revenue complaint about lost customs
   • The 1673 card is the colonists' view, since it describes how colonists shipped goods from colony to colony
   • The 1673 card should be ignored, since a summary in our words cannot be compared with Parliament's own words
9. 7.

   A classmate says the Act of 1663 forbade colonists to buy European goods. How should Noah reply, using card B?

   • No: it required European goods to be shipped from England in English-built ships, so they still came, through England
   • No: it required colonial goods to be shipped to Europe first, so that European buyers could look them over
   • Yes: it forbade purchases of European goods, since it called England the central market for colonial trade with Europe
   • No: it let colonists import European goods in ships from any country after March 25, 1664, by a simple permit from a local official

10. Use this

    Cards A to C on sugar and a trade route (all three are in our words, not quotations). Card A, "Sugar and slavery on Barbados". Who made it: historians and government agencies writing today. When: today. For whom: readers today. Why: to sum up what is known. Summary in our words, not a quotation: Barbados was a tiny island, but its plantations were worked by enslaved people. By 1680 the sugar it sold abroad was worth more than everything the mainland colonies sold abroad, added together. Enslaved people resisted in many ways; officials found plots to rebel on Barbados and in Virginia from the 1640s on. Card B, "A triangular route" (written for this sheet, in our words, not a quotation): Some voyages followed a triangle: New England ships carried rum and other goods to West Africa, ships then carried enslaved people, forced to cross the Atlantic, to the Caribbean, and ships brought molasses and sugar back to New England. Card C, "A note on the route" (written for this sheet, in our words, not a quotation): Many New England ships also sailed straight to the Caribbean with fish, timber and farm goods, and came back with sugar and molasses.

11. 8.

    Barbados's sugar sold abroad was worth more than all the mainland colonies' sales by 1680. What does Pia conclude from card A?

    • Barbados became the model for later colonies because it was the first to sell sugar, as later history shows
    • A tiny island could outweigh the mainland in trade, because sugar worked by enslaved people was worth so much
    • The mainland colonies sold almost nothing abroad, since Barbados sold more than the whole mainland put together, by a wide margin
    • Barbados's size explains its wealth, since a small island can ship goods faster than a large mainland can
12. 9.

    A classmate says Barbados mattered little to the colonial economy because it was tiny. What does Tala answer using card A?

    • Barbados sold fish and timber like New England, so the island's sales were smaller than the mainland's in those years
    • Its sugar sold abroad was worth more than all mainland exports combined by 1680, so size did not measure its weight
    • Barbados's plantations were worked by enslaved people, and that was true of many colonies in the period
    • The classmate is right, since an island's size sets how much its farms can grow and sell abroad
13. 10.

    Card A says officials found plots to rebel on Barbados and in Virginia from the 1640s on. What does that show Zee?

    • Resistance began just after the Navigation Acts of 1660, since the Acts made life harder for the enslaved in the colonies
    • Officials found plots on Barbados and in Virginia, two places that were both British colonies in the 1600s
    • The plots succeeded in the end, since officials found plots on both Barbados and Virginia from the 1640s
    • Resistance by enslaved people appears on an island and the mainland over decades, so it was a continuing feature