Final answer:
The collective name for the legislation controlling colonial trade is the Navigation Acts, designed to uphold mercantilist policy by regulating trade in favor of the British Empire and enforcing trade exclusively through English or colonial ships.
Step-by-step explanation:
The collective name for the parliamentary legislation designed according to mercantilist theory for the purpose of controlling colonial trade is the Navigation Acts. These acts were instituted during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries to bolster the economic interests of England through mercantilism and to ensure that trade benefited the mother country, Great Britain, and her colonies. The Navigation Acts required that goods traded to and from the American colonies be transported on English or colonial ships, which ultimately increased Britain's power over European rivals by boosting the crown's tax revenue and fostering dependency of the colonies on British goods.
The most notable acts included the Navigation Act of 1660, which restricted shipping to English and colonial vessels and listed enumerated articles that could only be traded within the empire, such as sugar and tobacco. Also significant was the Staple Act of 1663, requiring foreign goods to pass through an English port before reaching the colonies, further increasing their dependency on England. The Plantation Duty Act of 1673 aimed to reduce smuggling by collecting customs duties in colonial ports, marking the appointment of the first British customs collectors in the colonies.Trade Acts like these were meant to ensure the colonies' role in a commercial empire that supplied raw materials to Britain while consuming British-manufactured goods. Despite intended economic benefits, including protection under the Royal Navy, the implementation of the Navigation Acts and restrictions on trade also sowed seeds of discontent that would contribute to colonial resistance later in the 18th century.