The crown’s pivot to regulatory imperialism accepted colonial institutions as they existed, and attempted to direct them more vigorously in the English state’s interest. This chapter explores the economic side of that regulation through the Navigation Acts, in particular a strategic perspective on their administration. It shows that the administrative structure of the acts evolved with a sophisticated understanding of the incentive problems of agents charged with their enforcement. The imperial customs bureaucracy in the New World and a crown court system were erected to deal with these problems. At the same time, the chapter explains how the acts were rarely administered so well in practice, which undermined their effectiveness.

Chapter 4 discusses the circle that formed around the intelligencer Samuel Hartlib (1600–1662). Its overarching argument is that utilitarian science offered guidance in finding the simplicity of the unum necessarium (Luke 10:42), a common theme exalted by contemporary Millenarianism of the Protestant cause. In practical terms, knowledge about necessities became the means to achieving that goal of faith. The scepticism of the period and its obvious corrupting effects on morality and devotion led to inventiveness in pursuit of substitutes for the classical moral principle of the light of reason. The Reformers worked towards a political and theological project of a utilitarian science as a means by which to reach God and reproduce Paradise on earth. Scientific knowledge about trade became central and was expressed, significantly, in the momentous Navigation Acts of 1651.

Chapter 7 scrutinizes Burke’s economic insights in Observations on a Late State of the Nation, his speech defending the commercial policy of the Rockingham party, of which Burke was a prominent member in Parliament. The speech tends to be neglected in the study of Burke, but it contains many early clues about his emerging conception of political economy that I shed light on, such as his views that balance-of-trade theory is misguided; free trade promotes collective prosperity; and arbitrary systems of revenue undermine commercial progress. This section also supplies an examination of Burke’s remarks on commerce and the Navigation Acts in his two famous speeches on Anglo-American relations, Speech on American Taxation and Speech on Conciliation with America. The thrust of both speeches is that Britain should reestablish its theoretical imperial authority over the American colonies, but it should also allow American industry to flourish free from excessive government entanglements. Burke also provided a qualified defense of the Navigation Acts in the speeches, arguing that the Acts were partially responsible for the collective commercial enrichment of England and America in the eighteenth century.