The following table enumerates the economic benefits derived by Great Britain from its various colonies, which sent a wide variety of goods to Britain and also served as markets for British exports.
| English/British Imports and Exports (annual averages in pounds sterling) | ||||
| England* | Britain* | |||
| 1700–01 | 1750–51 | 1772–73 | 1789–90 | |
| Imports from Asia, Africa, and America | ||||
| North America | 372,000 | 877,000 | 1,997,000 | 1,351,000 |
| The Fisheries** | 0 | 7,000 | 27,000 | 188,000 |
| West Indies | 785,000 | 1,484,000 | 3,222,000 | 4,045,000 |
| Africa | 24,000 | 43,000 | 80,000 | 87,000 |
| East Indies | 775,000 | 1,101,000 | 2,203,000 | 3,256,000 |
| Total | 1,956,000 | 3,512,000 | 7,529,000 | 8,927,000 |
| Exports to America, Asia, and Africa | ||||
| North America | 362,000 | 1,355,000 | 3,254,000 | 3,763,000 |
| West Indies | 336,000 | 589,000 | 1,402,000 | 1,892,000 |
| Africa | 145,000 | 188,000 | 777,000 | 799,000 |
| East India | 125,000 | 653,000 | 893,000 | 2,173,000 |
| Total | 968,000 | 2,785,000 | 6,326,000 | 8,627,000 |
|
*The “England” column shows data for England and Wales; “Britain” includes Scotland as well. **Includes Massachusetts Bay, Maine, and Newfoundland; by the 1760s more than £500,000 worth of fish was being sent annually to the West Indies and southern Europe. Source: Adapted from The Oxford History of the British Empire, vol. 2, ed. P. J. Marshall (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998), 101. |
||||
QUESTIONS FOR ANALYSIS