Deck 4: Gaining Independence

Question 1

Hughes and Cain (2011)suggest that an event or series of events occurring in 1763 doomed British policy.What happened?

A) A series of oppressive taxes
B) A tightening and more rigorous enforcement of the Navigation Acts
C) A proclamation which limited trans-Appalachian settlement to lands once granted to colonists by crown approval
D) An act that gave the Quebec province all the land west of the Ohio River

Answer 1

A proclamation which limited trans-Appalachian settlement to lands once granted to colonists by crown approval

Question 2

The Navigation Acts (1651 and later amendments)were intended to promote shipping and international commerce.

Answer 2

True

Question 3

The American colonies' estimated cost of membership in the British Empire was,according?to most economic historians,fairly large.

Answer 3

False

Question 4

Many colonists believed that export surpluses with England positively impacted colonial businesses through increased prices and profits.

Question 5

Which of the following revenue-raising options did the "colonial" government select to secure the resources needed to revolt?

A) Printing money and borrowing from other countries
B) Printing money and confiscating property
C) Taxing and borrowing from other countries
D) Taxing and reducing non-military government spending

Question 6

Shortly after the American Revolution,governmental involvement in market affairs was largely abandoned in the Confederate States and economic growth resulted.

Question 7

Southern plantation owners benefited from British policies on tobacco production in the United Kingdom.

Question 8

After the American Revolution concluded,what did the English do?

A) They withdrew all investments in colonial America.
B) They continued investing in colonial America.
C) They discouraged individuals in other countries from investing in colonial America.
D) They did none of the above.

Question 9

On the eve of the American Revolution,most colonials produced agricultural goods.The war boosted profits for many farmers.

Question 10

Some researchers argue that the American Revolution was probably inevitable.The most important factor,of those listed below,was/were

A) prohibitions against trade with nations other than England and severe exploitation of the colonists under the Navigation Acts, which kept the standard of living low in the colonies.
B) excessive taxation which for generations kept the after-tax incomes of the colonists below those in England.
C) a series of revenue-raising measures imposed on the colonists at the end of the French and Indian War for the purpose of making the colonies more self-supporting.
D) British prohibitions against the use of slaves in the lands west of the original thirteen colonies.

Question 11

During the period in which the Navigation Acts guided colonial trade,international trade was safe and many countries fairly engaged in commercial trade.

Question 12

English mercantilism recognized the law of comparative advantage,thus permitting individuals to specialize in producing those goods and services which they could produce at relatively low opportunity costs and trading those items for those which they could not.

Question 13

Tobacco could not be grown in England.It could only be produced in the colonial South.

Question 14

King James of England granted the Virginia Company all land "from sea to sea." The Proclamation Line of 1763 supported this grant.

Question 15

Under British rule,colonists were considered British subjects and had most of the same rights?of British citizens.

Question 16

With regard to colonial land settlement and the land beyond the Appalachians,

A) secure land titles had to come from established authority; land typically could not be claimed simply by "squatting" on it.
B) throughout most of the colonial period, authority over the land beyond the Appalachians was not easy to establish because both the English and the French laid claim to most of the Mississippi watershed.
C) the original grants of land to colonial settlers from the crown had been "from sea to sea."
D) all of the above are true.

Question 17

Davis and Huttenback (1982)find evidence to support the claim that the colonists were overtaxed by England.

Question 18

Under English law,the rights of colonists differed from those of the English.

Question 19

Under the list policies of England,primary production was encouraged while production in manufacturing was discouraged in colonial America.

Question 20

Inflation burdens those individuals living on fixed incomes.

Question 21

The Articles of Confederation (1777-1781)did all of the following except

A) Tax the colonists to finance the central government
B) Provide a formal means by which the colonists communicated and interacted
C) Granted significant power to the colonial states
D) Required negotiations for funding the War between the leaders of the American Revolution and each colonial state

Question 22

Explain how the notions of mercantilism and the classic colonial relationship of mother country providing manufactured goods to colonies for raw materials influenced British actions and laws in the areas of finance and trade with respect to the colonies.How did this cause problems for the colonies?

Question 23

Who does inflation benefit?

A) All businesses
B) The government
C) Individuals living on fixed incomes
D) Debtors

Question 24

In what ways did the British social structure and its attitudes help stimulate economic activity and growth in the colonies?

Question 25

Describe the costs and benefits of the British Empire to American economic growth and development.

Question 26

In answer to the question "How did Britain affect American economic growth?" Hughes and Cain (2011)reach what conclusion?

A) The colonies were launched with English institutions, and they were allowed to modify them to meet local needs. In exchange for their investment in the colonies, the British expected the American colonies to produce and grow rapidly.
B) British policies were adverse to the colonies because they interfered with efforts to recruit a labor force and maintain employment at something close to full employment.
C) British policies prevented the colonies from going through an Industrial Revolution, as was occurring in England.
D) British policies significantly held down income growth in the colonies because they aimed at increasing the proportion of "primary" output at the expense of commercial and manufacturing output.

Question 27

The evidence indicates that during the 1770s,the American colonists were

A) among the most heavily taxed people in the European world.
B) among the most lightly taxed people in the European world.
C) taxed at a rate that was similar to other people in the European world.
D) taxed at rates that can't be compared to other rates due to lack of data.

Question 28

Producers of goods and services suffered during the American War in which of the following sectors?

A) Fishing, whaling, and shipping
B) Exports and imports
C) Manufacturing and agriculture
D) All of the above

Question 29

The emphasis upon export surpluses in mercantilist theory

A) is also called the "beggar-thy-neighbor policy" and a "favorable" balance of trade.
B) was thought to be a good thing by business people because it meant that more money was circulating and more money meant higher prices and brisk trade.
C) was thought to be a good thing by governments because it created brisk trade which yielded higher tax revenues than did slack trade.
D) is characterized by all of the above.

Question 30

The Navigation Acts (1651 and later amendments)

A) defined the British Empire within Europe and restricted shipping and trade between it and the external world.
B) had a major purpose of enlarging and protecting the King of England's income derived from trade through shipping and trade.
C) advanced free trade across the British Empire.
D) held true for all of the above.

Question 31

The First Continental Congress met in September and October of 1774 and listed several complaints against the British government,including

A) an objection not to the Navigation Acts but to the taxation without consent.
B) the argument that they were entitled to all the rights of British citizenship.
C) the demand that virtually all of the laws passed by Britain on the colonies since 1763 be repealed.
D) all of the above.

Question 32

With regards to money in the colonies,

A) the colonies did not produce enough of their own precious metals to coin money.
B) the British did not allow the export of their own coins to the colonies but did not object to foreign coins flowing into the colonies.
C) the British did not allow paper money created by the colonies to be declared legal tender, but this policy did not prohibit the colonists' use of it.
D) all of the above apply.

Question 33

What did the Proclamation of 1763 and the Quebec Act of 1774 represent?

A) A continuation of earlier British land policies, but these were no longer workable or acceptable to the colonists
B) A temporary change in British land policies, but the change was not workable or acceptable to the colonists
C) A permanent change of earlier British land policies that was not acceptable to the colonists, who wanted a continuation of the old policies
D) The Proclamation was more of a temporary change, but the Quebec Act represented a permanent change of earlier policy, neither of which was acceptable to the colonists

Question 34

One reason the colonials complained about the Navigation Acts was

A) the "shortage" of money; they believed the trade deficits of the colonies were bleeding them of coins.
B) the "surplus" of money that was causing inflation; they believed the trade deficits were flooding the colonies with coins.
C) the Acts' not allowing foreign coins, which created a "shortage" of foreign coins relative to British coins.
D) the Acts' requirement that only paper money would circulate in the colonies, without the backing of gold.

Question 35

The Navigation Acts (1651 and later amendments)were part of the contemporary European commercial policy theory called

A) laissez-faire.
B) mercantilism.
C) commercialism.
D) classical liberalism.

Question 36

With regard to the Navigation Acts (1651 and later amendments),all of the following answers are true except

A) No commodities originating from the Empire were to be shipped in any but British(including colonial) ships.
B) No commodities imported into the Empire were to be carried in any but British ships.
C) Only British subjects were allowed to be merchants in the colonies, and only British ships were to carry commodities from one English port to another.
D) There is no "except"; all of the above answers are true.

Question 37

Unlike the revolutionary colonials,England had

A) an organized army and navy.
B) an abundance of resources.
C) the means to finance the war.
D) all of the above.

Question 38

The type of commercial policy followed by England under the navigation laws

A) was followed throughout the 17th and 18th centuries but not by any governments today.
B) was followed throughout the 17th and 18th centuries and is still pursued, in one way or another, by all governments in the world today.
C) was followed throughout the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries but not by most governments today.
D) was followed throughout the 17th and 18th centuries and by European governments today, but not by the United States since the founding of the nation.

Question 39

Colonists supporting the American Revolution (1775-1781)

A) were well-prepared and well-organized.
B) comprised at least two-thirds of the total colonial population.
C) faced lower transportation and communication costs than the British during the war.
D) were able to tax the colonists to finance the war.

Question 40

With regard to British trade and commercial policies,all of the following are true except

A) British trade and commercial policies had been somewhat beneficial, from the colonials' point of view, but now (the 1770s) they had become intolerable.
B) These policies, unlike land, did not take away American rights so much as they attempted to tax the exercise of them.
C) After 1763 the English believed they were free to change their policies drastically to better accomplish the policy goals.
D) By the 1770s, like land, these policies had become insupportable after a long period of relative success.

Question 41

Summarize the Navigation Acts.Weigh the colonial benefits against the costs of operating ?under them.

Question 42

Describe the origins of regional class conflicts in the colonies.To what extent were these conflicts eliminated by the Revolution? To what extent did the Revolution create new class conflicts?

Question 43

How could the colonists finance the War of Independence against the British? How did they?

Question 44

Discuss the colonial benefits of the "Industrial Revolution" in England.Explain why the colonists did not necessarily have to incur the same "start up" costs and thus moved quickly into their own industrial phase of production.

Question 45

Comment on the following statement: "The events leading to revolution centered around a basic conflict between English mercantile policy on the one hand and the Northern colonial merchants' need for expansion on the other." How does one account for the substantial Southern support for the Revolution?

Question 46

Discuss the effects of the American Revolution on average prices,agricultural production and manufacturing.

Question 47

Was it in the colonists' best economic interest to remain British in the short run? In the long run?

Question 48

What is full employment? Explain why unemployment is costly.Use examples from colonial times?to explain why the English and colonists benefited mutually from colonial full employment.

Question 49

Discuss the role of export and import trade on the eve of the American Revolution.

Question 50

Describe the economic rationale behind the taxes imposed on the colonists after the British incurred?a long and costly war protecting the colonials from the French.

Question 51

Discuss the role of the Navigation Acts in the list of complaints the colonists registered against the British through the First Continental Congress.