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3 - Governance Incentives: The Balanced Colonial Constitution

from Part I - Foundation: Contractual Imperialism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 April 2024

Sean Gailmard
Sean Gailmard
Affiliation:
University of California, Berkeley
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Summary

This chapter explores the terms of letters patent for internal colonial government. It observes that every patent to a private colonizer prescribed a balanced colonial constitution: Some type of independent legislature in the colony, separate from the colonial executive, was to consult on laws and taxes. The chapter presents a strategic model to explain why this served the crown’s interest: An independent colonial legislature could restrain excessive extraction from colonists by colonial executives, which the crown itself – given the distance and its limited capacity – could not do.

Keywords

checks and balancesseparation of powersassemblieslegislative independencecontractual imperialism
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Chapter
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Agents of Empire
English Imperial Governance and the Making of American Political Institutions
 , pp. 77 - 125
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

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