Salutary neglect

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The term salutary neglect describes the unofficial policy of the British government towards its colonies in North America in the first half of the 18th century, which was mainly characterized by non-interference and in fact enabled the colonies to have extensive autonomy . The term was only coined in retrospect by Edmund Burke ; In his speech to the House of Commons on March 22, 1775 on the relationship with the colonies, it says:

" That I know that the colonies in general owe little or nothing to any care of ours, and that they are not squeezed into this happy form by the constraints of watchful and suspicious government, but that, through a wise and salutary neglect, a generous nature has been suffered to take her own way to perfection; when I reflect upon these effects, when I see how profitable they have been to us, I feel all the pride of power sink, and all presumption in the wisdom of human contrivances melt, and die away within me. "

development

The British colonies in North America, which grew in importance in the Empire with their rapid population growth in the 18th century, were largely left to their own devices during the reign of Robert Walpole and beyond. Although trade was partly regulated by the Navigation Acts issued from 1651 , the colonists were largely spared direct taxes and contributions. One of the exceptions was the Molasses Act of 1733, which introduced a high import duty on foreign molasses , but on the one hand it was designed primarily as a protective duty and less on increasing the tariff income; In any case, it was so systematically evaded through corruption and smuggling that it soon seemed almost a matter of course.

To what extent these circumstances represented a negligent neglect of colonial affairs, as the name suggests, or a deliberate policy of the British government, is controversial among historians and also varies with the national perspective; While American historians, along with Burke, emphasize the “beneficial” effect of this policy on the economic and social development of the colonies, from a British-imperial perspective it represents a failure with grave consequences.

The end of the salutary neglect coincided with the end of the Seven Years' War when the British governments of Lord Bute (1762–1763) and George Grenville (1763–1765) began to regulate the politics and economics of the colonies more from London, at least to relieve the disastrous state finances. However, the first attempts to tax the colonists, namely the Sugar Act 1764 and the Stamp Act 1765, aroused fierce resistance in the colonies and marked the beginning of the American Revolution .

literature

  • James A. Henretta: Salutary Neglect: Colonial Administration under the Duke of Newcastle . Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey 1972. ISBN 0691051968
  • Alvin Rabushka: Taxation in Colonial America . Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey 2008. ISBN 9780691133454