Final answer:
The British colonists in North America were integrated into a mercantilist system under British economic control, experiencing both benefits and restrictions. While they enjoyed certain economic perks such as market security and protection by the Royal Navy, they were also limited in their trade and subject to increasing political control, which led to growing tensions and eventual rebellion.
Step-by-step explanation:
Relationship Between Colonists and British Economic Control
The relationship between the British colonists in North America and British economic control was complex and multifaceted during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
Under the mercantilist system, the British Empire sought to increase its wealth by utilizing the colonies for raw materials and simultaneously providing a market for the goods manufactured in the mother country. This relationship was structured through the Navigation Acts, which were laws designed to maximize Britain's commercial interests.
Through these acts, the colonies benefited from having a guaranteed market for their products, which were primarily raw materials like tobacco and indigo. In addition, they received rebates on goods imported from Britain and protection from piracy by the Royal Navy.
This arrangement allowed for a certain level of economic prosperity and increased standard of living for the colonists. However, it also tied the colonies tightly to the British economy, limiting their trading partners and creating a dependency on British goods and policy.
The economic relationship was not without its tensions. British attempts to extend greater political control and impose new taxes to pay for colonial defense and administration, as well as enforcing trade regulations, planted seeds of discontent and a desire for self-governance among the colonists.
This eventually led to increased resistance and the outbreak of revolutionary sentiments in the mid to late eighteenth century.