Navigation Acts

The 1651 Act barred foreign ships from carrying goods into England from Asia, Africa and America, and limited European imports to English ships or ships of the producing country. The 1660 Act added crew nationality rules and listed enumerated colonial goods, such as sugar and tobacco, that could be shipped only to England or its colonies, and the 1663 Staple Act routed most European goods for the colonies through England. Violations meant forfeiture of ship and cargo. The acts were repealed in 1849, with coastal trade opened in 1854.

The Navigation Acts are the classic example of cabotage and flag protection, ideas still alive in the US Jones Act and other national shipping laws. Restricting cargo to national ships raised freight costs and reshaped trade routes, much as modern port fees and cabotage limits do. For example, US port fees on Chinese-built ships and EU limits on cabotage by foreign trucks follow the same logic of protecting domestic transport through regulation. This history helps explain why such rules persist and how they feed into landed cost.

• English East India Company1600–1874 · A chartered company trades with Asia, then rules India
• Atlantic Triangular Trade16th to 19th century · Goods, enslaved people and sugar circle the Atlantic

• Merchant Marine Act of 1920 (Jones Act)1920 · US-built, US-crewed ships only between US ports
• Repeal of the Corn Laws1846 · 1846 UK repeal of grain tariffs that began free trade
• USTR Port Fees on Chinese-Built Ships2025, suspended November 2025 · Section 301 fees on China-linked vessels at US ports

1. Navigation Acts, Britannica britannica.com
2. Navigation Acts, Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org