AMERICA COMPARED |  |
Britain’s Atlantic and Asian Empires
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 |
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*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. |
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QUESTIONS FOR ANALYSIS
Question
Compare Britain’s colonies in their roles as producers of British imports to their roles as consumers of British exports. Why are the mainland colonies of North America a distant third as producers of imports, but ranked first as consumers of exports?
Question
How did the American Revolution (1776–1783) impact the economic relationship between Great Britain and its mainland colonies? Is it reasonable to conclude that political independence did not bring economic independence?