3 - 1688 to 1763: Regional relations, colonial competition and impending independence

Summary

This chapter covers a period of seventy-five years, nearly thirty years longer than the period covered by the previous chapter. There are other important respects in which this chapter differs from the last. Unlike the previous chapter, which involved more than four decades of turmoil, the present chapter involves a couple of decades of turmoil, a period of relative calm followed by two further decades of turmoil. Further, whereas the last chapter was underlined by internal disputes within England, due to religious differences and the power struggle between the Crown and the Parliament, the period covered by this chapter is, after the settling of the monarchy under William III, relatively calm within England. This shows in the direct tax system in England, which goes through a period of development during the first decade and then settles in a manner that would last for nearly a century.

In the colonies there is also development throughout the first two decades covered by this chapter. As in England, this is particularly so in the 1690s. This decade was somewhat of a watershed in the development of the colonies. Not only did the types of tax laws used develop substantially but the form in which the laws were passed, their publication and reporting back to England also matured. Before the Glorious Revolution the form of laws differed between colonies and also between the colonies and England to a substantial extent.