A Study On Navigation Act Of1651in England

The Navigation Act of1651was the first act that protected the England localmaritime trade, which was passed by the England Parliament of the Republic underthe leadership of Oliver Cromwell. It was from a generalized point to clarify theEngland commercial policy, granting power to local merchant shipping on monopolyimport trade of England, and it also excluded the Dutch from the colonial transporttrade with Africa and the Americas. The Navigation Act of1651was under theinfluence of the mercantilism, and it was the promotion of the rapid development inthe maritime industry and Commerce. But due to the formulation of the NavigationAct of1651was against the Dutch, so it had also led to the first Anglo-Dutch war. Notonly that, the act also limits the economic development of the British colonies,eventually became one of the background of United States war for independence.The Navigation Act of1651in this article is based on this legal document, thispaper conducted a total study in the background, content and effect of the NavigationAct of1651. The paper consists of three parts. In the first part, the author wouldexplain the relative research summarization, the methods and the article structure.The second part was the main section of this article, which contains threechapters.The first chapter main introduced the background of the Navigation Act of1651.It contained both interior and external factors. The external background mainly meantthe conflict between England and Dutch in the area of oversea trade. The maincompetitor of England Overseas is the Dutch in the17th century. Dutch had a largenumber of merchant fleet, which made it become the leading trade intermediarycountry. If the England wanted to expand overseas trade, it must be make the Dutchrank out of the England trade along the coast as well as the United Kingdom tradewith its colonies. The national background of the Navigation Act of1651was therequest by the merchants and the United Kingdom. After the middle of the16th century, The England began to expand the trade in the context of the world; themerchants were becoming increasingly aware the importance of government tradeprotection with the development of its oversea trade. Therefore, the merchants usedthe special dependency between them and the King, advising the England to enact theNavigation Act for their profit.The second chapter researched the content of the Navigation Act of1651. Itincludes three aspects, which were monopolization of the foreign carrying trade,centralization of the trade routes and protection of the fishing rights. monopolizationof the foreign carrying trade was against the Dutch, its purpose was to make Englandmerchant ships get privileges to monopoly the import and export trade of England;and centralization of the trade routes was to ensure the colonial can service to England,and better to implement the policy of monopolization on the foreign carrying trade;The protection of the fishing rights is to limit Dutch people in England coastal fishing,protecting the fishing right of the England fishermen, so it was in favor of Englandfisheries to expand overseas tradeThe third chapter analyzed the effect of the Navigation Act of1651. The authorbelieves that the aim of the Navigation Act of1651was to promote the Englandmaritime and shipbuilding industry’s development, expand the England overseas trade,thereby promoting the England economic prosperity and development of capitalism.However, the act limited the independent development of the colonial economy,brought economic losses to the colony. Not only that, due to the act was mainlytargeted at Dutch, which was in re-export trade, so it also led directly to the firstAnglo-Dutch war by enacting the act.The third part was the epilogue of the paper, in which summarized and outline themain arguments of the paper.