However, from the first chapter, the role of commercial interests intertwines with this struggle. Sometimes commercial connections are short term, such as the British merchants who, in their own interests, supported and lobbied for Parliament to repeal the Stamp Act. They about-faced shortly afterwards and rallied with nationalistic pride to punish the Americans who dared to parley as equals with Parliament and then defy the authority of the mother country. Eventually, passion and pride overruled the long-term benevolent British colonial policies that had enriched the mother country and the colonies for over a century and a half. The colonies also strengthened the British militarily and geographically as they sought to dominate Europe in the nineteenth century.
Draper describes the slow evolution to the eventual dissolution.
Pamphlets in the seventeenth century logically reasoned that colonies grow in population and trade so that eventually they desire independence. Finally tax and duty arguments dominated the scene, as many colonists stumbled into a revolution they were unsure they wanted. Several current events recall British policies that backfired. For the first century and a half, Parliament levied customs to regulate trade but refrained from taxing the colonists. It also interfered very little with local politics and administration.