It was mercantilism. In the 18th c., England wanted her colonies to supply raw materials - like wool, tobacco, iron, timber, indigo, and rice- that would benefit English crafts and industries . Tobacco didn't grow in England like in Virginia, and large, tall pine trees suitable for ship masts had become very scarce. At the same time, England did not want the colonies to set up their own manufacturing , to make goods that would compete with English ones. So, they passed some restrictive laws.

But the laws made little difference. In the early 18th c. a few Virginians would report

For want of Towns, markets and Money, there is but little encouragement for Tradesmen and Artificers, and therefore little Choice of the, and their Labor very dear in the Country. A Tradesman having no opportunity of a market where he can buy Meat, Milk, Corn and all other things, ....Then a great deal of the Tradesman's Time being necessarily spent in going and coming to and from his Work, in dispersed Country Plantations, and his Pay generally in straggling Parcels of Tobacco, the Collection whereof costs about 10 per cent, and the best of thisPay coming but once a Year, so that he cannot turn his hand frequently with a small Stock....all this occasions the Dearth of Tradesmen's Labour, and likewise the Discouragement , Scarcity and Insufficiency of Tradesmen"

Henry Hartwell, James Blair and Edward Chilton, The Present State of Virginia an the College, from Carl Bridenbaugh The Colonial Craftsman

For most of the colonial period, the colonies had an extremely sparse population, and a very rural character. Without a market town, it was hard to scrape up enough of a customer base to regularly support someone making pottery or casting brass or pewter full time. Even when those towns appeared, the market was generally small. It could be hard for a colonial craftsman to compete with the English ones. Labor in the colonies was more expensive, and supplies for a craftsman could be expensive to import. Skilled labor in England was cheaper, and it was far easier to get supplies. And because the markets in England were bigger, craftsmen could specialize, and specialization was an important way that craftsmen could lower their labor per piece and lower their prices. Craftsmen in the colonies, seeking customers, often had to be more varied, especially in the earlier years. The Gettys in Williamsburg would cast brass, make swords and knives, work on guns...and that was just what they advertised they would do. Probably if anyone presented them with something to do involving metal, they would do it.

That changed somewhat over time, mostly in the north and in New England, where the population density was bigger and there were more roads. As towns popped up, so did more artisans. The higher wages possible in the colonies drew craftsmen from England and Europe. But as more tradesmen arrived and more goods were made in the colonies, there still did not seem to be any great notice paid to the mercantilist laws. Tradesmen had little trouble importing their supplies. For example, most of the rifles made in the colonies ( that have survived) have imported gunlocks. Much of the reason for this lack of enforcement must have been that, even by the Revolutionary War, manufacturing in the Colonies, even in New England, had not approached the level in England, and did not represent a threat.

Even trades that actually might compete with English ones did not seem to be effected, though. Beaver pelts were an immensely important export from the New World to the Old World. Beaver fur produced the perfect strong, thin felt for hats. England passed a law in 1739 against any hat making in the colonies, realizing that hatters in Boston could probably easily compete with English ones. Even here, though, it does not seem to have been enforced: numerous hatters freely made hats and even advertised them, in Boston, and Rhode Island. Like other crafts, the bottom line was that colonial craftsmen were still relatively few and not really hindering their English counterparts very much, and so England never seems to have bothered to try to shut them down. .

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