Free Port Act 1766
| Act of Parliament | |
 | |
| Long title | An Act for opening and establishing certain Ports in the Islands of Jamaica and Dominica, for the more free Importation and Exportation of certain Goods and Merchandizes; for granting certain Duties, to defray the Expenses of opening, maintaining, securing, and improving, much Ports; for ascertaining the Duties to be paid upon the Importation of Goods from the Said Island of Dominica into this Kingdom; and for securing the Duties upon Goods imported from the Said Island into any other British Colony. |
|---|---|
| Citation | 6 Geo. 3. c. 49 |
| Dates | |
| Royal assent | 6 June 1766 |
| Repealed | 15 July 1867 |
| Other legislation | |
| Repealed by | Statute Law Revision Act 1867 |
Status: Repealed | |
The English Free Port Act opened six British ports in the West Indies to foreign merchants, and enabled English colonists to conduct trade with French and Spanish colonies.[1]
It was passed in 1766 following the Seven Years’ War and prior to the American Revolution. The Act was a modified version of one in use by the French and Dutch.[2]
Background
[edit]Prior to 1766, the Navigation Acts of 1651 and 1660 regulated British trade, restricting colonial trade to England and limiting foreign imports to promote the interests of the British Empire.[3]
As English colonists continued to settle in the Americas, the British West Indies became unable to produce sufficient quantities of commodities needed in other parts of the Atlantic.[4] This included products such as sugar, raw cotton, and molasses.[5] To address these shortages, the Free Port Act enabled foreign supplies to enter the British system. Four ports were approved in Jamaica, along with two ports in Dominica.[6]
References
[edit]- ^ John E. Crowley. "Common-place: Object Lessons". Historycooperative.org. Retrieved 15 February 2011.
- ^ Parry, John H (1954). "Reviewed work: The Free Port System in the British West Indies, F. Armytage". Revista de Historia de América (37/38): 364–367. JSTOR 20136860.
- ^ "Navigation Acts | Definition, Purpose, Effects, & Facts | Britannica". www.britannica.com.
- ^ Library, Clements (22 July 2019). "An Empire of Free Ports".
- ^ Marshall, P. J. (2019). "The Making of the Free Ports Act". Edmund Burke and the British Empire in the West Indies: Wealth, Power, and Slavery. Oxford: Oxford Academic. doi:10.1093/oso/9780198841203.003.0007.
- ^ Kleiser, R. Grant (26 April 2021). "An Empire of Free Ports: British Commercial Imperialism in the 1766 Free Port Act". Journal of British Studies. 60 (2): 334–361. doi:10.1017/jbr.2020.250 – via Cambridge University Press.