English Seventeenth Century Colonial Expansion as a Form of Rent-Seeking

The central purpose of this book is to apply a rent-seeking analysis to seventeenth century colonial policies in England. This work contrasts a new perspective with historians' traditional view of mercantilism. England's colonial policies in the seventeenth century were actually intended to maximize revenues through the regulation of markets. The book also shows that while the colonial policies were designed to capture rents from regulated markets, opportunistic behavior on the part of groups of agents within the regulated markets (as well as within the government) caused the dissipation of contrived rents. The evolution of policies to correct the enforcement problems and allow the crown to capture a greater share of the available rents is also analyzed. The work should be useful to economic historians with an interest in colonial policy or rent-seeking theory.