Navigation Acts

British  

plural noun

1. a series of acts of Parliament, the first of which was passed in 1381, that attempted to restrict to English ships the right to carry goods to and from England and its colonies. The attempt to enforce the acts helped cause the War of American Independence

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Example Sentences

The Navigation Acts were particularly important to colonists who participated directly in international trade, especially the merchants who bought and sold the colonies’ principal products, and the planters and farmers who supplied them.

From Textbooks • Jan. 18, 2018

The broad outlines of English mercantile policy appeared in a series of basic laws called the Navigation Acts, successively adopted by Parliament between 1650 and 1698.

From Textbooks • Jan. 18, 2018

The duties imposed by the Navigation Acts were quite valuable to the Crown, and produced as much as £140,000 per year as early as 1670.

From Textbooks • Jan. 18, 2018

It regulated the colonies’ trade with the Navigation Acts, but could it govern their internal affairs?

From Textbooks • Jan. 18, 2018

Despite the obviously ruinous effects of the Navigation Acts upon Virginia, Mr. Beer makes the assertion that there was no very serious and general opposition to them in Virginia.

From The Planters of Colonial Virginia by Wertenbaker, Thomas Jefferson