Exam 16: Absolutism, Constitutionalism, and the Search for Order, 1640-1700

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Answer would ideally include the following. Colonial subjects in the Americas, especially those subject to French and English rule, increasingly came under the control of mercantilist economies in the late sixteenth century. In France, Jean-Baptiste Colbert's reforms created high tariffs and forbade colonial businesses from manufacturing goods produced in France, retarding economic growth. In 1663, he also took over the French trading company that had established New France. The same held true with the English after the 1651 Navigation Act. To allow for cultivation of lucrative sugarcane, slaves were imported in increasing numbers first to the Caribbean, then elsewhere where expensive products could be grown. As a result, European governments codified slavery largely based on race in this period. For instance, Barbados in 1661 instituted a slave code that stripped all Africans of rights under English law. Louis XIV promulgated a "black code" in 1685 to regulate the legal status of slaves in the French colonies and to prevent non-Catholics from owning slaves. Especially in British North America, even as Black people were increasingly being subjugated, white people increased their political authority. Left largely to their own political devices by London authorities provided they nominally paid heed to mercantilist codes, white British Americans developed localized representative governments through their colonial legislatures. African slavery led to increasingly consolidated landholdings in some areas, though the plentiful availability of land for ordinary immigrants mitigated social tensions.