The correct answer to this question is B) a merchant in Maryland Colony unloads fur from a Spanish ship in exchange for corn.
According to the passage, the option that would have been illegal in the late 1600s was a merchant in Maryland Colony unloads fur from a Spanish ship in exchange for corn.
The passage refers to the Navigation Acts that were passed in 1651.
One of the rules of that act stated that "no goods are grown or manufactured in Africa, the Americas, or Asia could be brought into England except in English vessels." So in the case of this question, the ship was from Spain and that was prohibited. Later, by 1660, another prohibition was that it forbade importing goods into or exporting goods out of the British colonies unless British ships were used in the process.