The Navigation Acts only benefited England. The Acts added costs to all the items that the colonies had wanted to import. Manufactured goods from the colonies could not compete with manufactured goods produced in England. First England could charge tariffs on the manufactured goods from the colonies.

Key Takeaways: The Navigation Acts The Acts increased colonial revenue by taxing the goods going to and from British colonies. The Navigation Acts (particularly their effect on trade in the colonies) were one of the direct economic causes of the American Revolution.

In general, the colonists obeyed the Trade and Navigation Acts when they benefitted them and they ignored them when they ran contrary to colonial interests. In general, the colonists obeyed the Trade and Navigation Acts when they benefitted them and they ignored them when they ran contrary to colonial interests.

The Navigation Acts and the American Revolution This effectively prevented the colonies from trading with other European countries. The act was followed by several others that imposed additional limitations on colonial trade and increased customs duties.

By reducing the rate by half and increasing measures to enforce the tax, the British hoped that the tax would actually be collected. These incidents increased the colonists’ concerns about the intent of the British Parliament and helped the growing movement that became the American Revolution.

The Sugar Act: The colonists believed the Sugar Act was a restriction of their justice and their trading. With the taxes in place colonial merchants had been required to pay a tax of six pence per gallon on the importation of molasses from countries other than Britain.

The Tea Act was a tax on all imported tea from Britain. Cause: The colonists boycott against British goods had hurt their trade, so the British repealed the Townshend Acts after the Boston Massacre. Effect: The Sons of Liberty organized a protest against the Tea Act known as the Boston Tea Party.