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In 1675, King Charles II organized the Lords of Trade, a small group of advisers who were charged with overseeing British trade. Best winter vacations US In 1696, the Board of Trade, which replaced the Lords of Trade, was created by King William III. Its function was to enforce the Navigation Acts. Many colonial merchants, however, found the acts too restrictive and unfair, and they ignored them whenever possible. Consequently, smuggling importing or exporting goods illegally was common.
While these limits on trade frustrated some colonial businessmen, they went a long way toward boosting the colonial shipbuilding industry. The increase in colonial ship acquisition led to an increase in colonial trade. In the last part of the seventeenth century, colonial merchants developed a series of trade routes known as the triangular trade. Triangular trade (not literally triangular in shape) was responsible for the transporting of slaves, goods, and ideas found in books and newspapers. Most of these routes fell within the guidelines of mercantilism, but some did not.
From the early 1600s, British colonialism in North Country was based on trade, as depicted in this engraving of the West Indies by Theodore de Bry. The aim of the mercantile system was to enrich the mother country with supplies of sugar, tobacco, indigo, cotton, and other raw materials. (Library of Congress/Bridgeman Art Library)