Navigation Act of 1660

Timeline

1. 1660Palace of Westminster · EnglandAfter the Restoration of Charles II, the English Parliament passed a new Navigation Act in 1660 (An Act for the Encourageing and Increasing of Shipping and Navigation), expanding and strengthening Cromwell's Navigation Act of 1651, explicitly listing colonial staples such as tobacco, sugar, cotton and indigo as "enumerated goods" that had to pass through England and could not be exported directly to foreign countries.
2. 1660–1670British North American colonies (Virginia, Barbados, etc.) · British coloniesAfter the Navigation Act took effect, British customs strictly enforced it at colonial ports, requiring ships to prove British registry and British crews. Virginia tobacco planters and Barbados sugar producers were tightly restricted, and Dutch merchant ships were driven out of colonial trade. England subsequently added supplementary legislation such as the Staple Act (1663), together forming the legal skeleton of the British Empire's mercantilist system.