Navigation Act in United Kingdom

Navigation Act, 1651

The members of the Rump (Parliment), still the nominal rulers of England, finding opportunity for profit in the sale of royalist lands and in the administration of finance, had exasperated Cromwell by their maladministration and neglect of the public welfare. The life of the Rump was temporarily prolonged, however, by the popularity of its legislation against the Dutch, at this time the rivals of England on the seas and in the colonies. In 1651 the Rump passed the first Navigation Act, forbidding the importation of goods from Asia, Africa, or America, except in English or colonial ships, and providing that commodities of European production should be imported only in vessels of England or of the producing country.

The framers of the Navigation Act intended thereby to exclude Dutch vessels from trading between England and other lands. The next year a commercial and naval war (1652-1654) broke out between England and Holland, leading to no decisive result, but, on the whole, increasing the prestige of the English navy. With renewed confidence the Rump (Parliament) contemplated perpetuating its narrow oligarchy, but Cromwell’s patience was exhausted, and in 1653 he turned Parliament out of doors, declaring, “Your hour is come, the Lord hath done with you!” Oliver Cromwell remained as military and religious dictator.