Board of Trade

(noun)

A committee of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom, first established as a temporary committee of inquiry in the 17th century that evolved gradually into a government department with a diverse range of functions.

Related Terms

Examples of Board of Trade in the following topics:

  • English Administration of the Colonies

    • Beginning late in the 17th century, the administration of all British colonies was overseen by the Board of Trade, a committee of the Privy Council.
    • Laws could be examined by the Board of Trade, which also held veto power of legislation.
    • Over time, many of the provincial assemblies sought to expand their powers and limit those of the governor and crown.
    • This person or family was given the title of Lords Proprietor.
    • Depending on the success of the colony, each investor would receive some of the profits in proportion to the number of shares he bought.

  • Governors and Assemblies

    • The colonial assemblies had a variety of titles, such as House of Delegates, House of Burgesses, or Assembly of Freemen.
    • Laws could be examined by the Board of Trade, which also held veto power over legislation.
    • The Board of Trade (originally known as the Lords of Trade or Lords of Trade and Plantations) was a committee of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom, first established as a temporary committee of inquiry in the 17th century that evolved gradually into a government department with a diverse range of functions.
    • The House of Burgesses was the first assembly of elected representatives of English colonists in North America.
    • Jennings House was the residence of the governors of Maryland from 1777 until 1870.

  • Economic Controls

    • Three of them, the Office of Price Administration (OPA; est. 1941), the Office of Administrator of Export Control (est. 1940; its functions later transferred to the Economic Defense Board and in 1943 to the Office of Economic Warfare) and the War Production Board (WPB; est. 1943) were among the federal agencies in charge of controlling the economy so that the United States was able to meet the demands of World War II.
    • The Financial Reporting Division was transferred to the Federal Trade Commission.
    • Roosevelt, replacing the Supply Priorities and Allocation Board and the Office of Production Management.
    • Only a year later, its functions were transferred to the Economic Defense Board (later changed to the Board of Economic Warfare).
    • Describe the role of the Office of Price Administration, the Office of Administrator of Export Control, and the War Production Board in controlling the U.S. economy during WWII.

  • Resistance to Business Reform

    • It outlined guidelines for the creation of the so-called "codes of fair competition" (rules according to which industries were supposed to operate), guaranteed trade union rights, and permitted the regulation of working standards.
    • Even the National Recovery Review Board, established by Roosevelt in March 1934 in response to the growing criticism to review the performance of the NRA, concluded that the codes of fair competition gave disproportional power to each industry's already biggest and most powerful actors.
    • As NIRA included no provisions on how to dissolve labor disputes, the National Labor Board was established under the auspices of the NRA to handle conflicts between labor and employers.  
    • NLRA provided basic rights of private sector employees to organize into trade unions, engage in collective bargaining for better terms and conditions at work, and take collective action, including strike.
    • The act also created the National Labor Relations Board (not to confuse with the National Labor Board created under NRA!)

  • Empires in Conflict

    • The Anglo-Dutch Wars (1652-1674) were a series of conflicts fought largely at sea over Britain's power to restrict trade to the colonies.
    • The Spanish became suspicious that British ships were overreaching, and began boarding and seizing British ships.
    • The war gained its colorful name from a Spanish threat against British captain Robert Jenkins, whose ear was severed when his ship was boarded; he was told to show his ear to Parliament and tell the king that the Spanish would do the same to him.
    • The Battle of Fontenoy was an engagement in the larger War of the Austrian Succession, which involved most of the powers of Europe.
    • A New & Correct Map of the Trading Part of the West Indies Including the Seat of War Between Gr.

  • Origins of the War of 1812

    • The origins of the War of 1812, often called the "Second War of American Independence," are found in the unresolved issues between the United States and Great Britain.
    • The British then boarded the ship and took four sailors.
    • He initiated a sweeping ban on trade, known as the Embargo Act of 1807.
    • Opposition to the war came from Federalists, especially those in the Northeast, who knew war would disrupt the maritime trade on which they depended.
    • The Leopard-Chesapeake Affair of 1807 heightened British-American tensions when the HMS Leopard fired on and boarded the American warship, USS Chesapeake.

  • Wilsonian Progressivism

    • Included among these were the Federal Reserve Act, Federal Trade Commission Act, the Clayton Antitrust Act, and the Federal Farm Loan Act.
    • Congress rejected proposals for a tariff board to scientifically fix rates, but did set up a study commission to monitor them.
    • The compromise, based on the Aldrich Plan but sponsored by Democratic congressmen Carter Glass and Robert Owen, allowed the private banks to control twelve regional Federal Reserve Banks and placed controlling interest in a central board to be appointed by the president with Senate approval.
    • Wilson deviated from his presidential predecessors, who relied on lawsuits to break trusts and monopolies, by founding a new trustbusting approach through encouraging competition through the Federal Trade Commission.
    • The Federal Trade Commission effectively restricted unfair trade practices and enforced the 1914 Clayton Antitrust Act.

  • Industrial Recovery

    • First, trade and industrial associations were permitted to seek presidential approval of "codes of fair competition."
    • The codes would contain production, labor, and trade guidelines for each industry in order to limit competition and encourage cooperation.
    • In his June 16, 1933 "Statement on the National Industrial Recovery Act," President Roosevelt noted, "On this idea, the first part of the NIRA proposes to our industry a great spontaneous cooperation to put millions of men back in their regular jobs this summer. " He further stated, "But if all employers in each trade now band themselves faithfully in these modern guilds, without exception, and agree to act together and at once, none will be hurt and millions of workers-- so long deprived of the right to earn their bread in the sweat of their labor-- can raise their heads again.
    • Between 4,000 and 5,000 business practices were prohibited, some 3,000 administrative orders running to over 10,000 pages promulgated, and thousands of opinions and guides from national, regional, and local code boards interpreted and enforced the Act.
    • Te NLRA enabled private sector workers to organize into trade unions, engage in collective bargaining to negotiate the terms and conditions of their employment without being marginalized or coerced, and take collective action if necessary.

  • Clintonomics

    • Clinton ran on the economic platform of balancing the budget, lowering inflation, lowering unemployment, and continuing the traditionally conservative policies of free trade.
    • Economist Alan Greenspan served as the Chair of the Federal Reserve's board of governors throughout Clinton's presidency.
    • Some point to this as a partial cause of the financial meltdown of 2008.
    • Additionally, through the implementation of spending restraints, it mandated the budget be balanced over a number of years.
    • Clinton also strongly supported ratification of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), a treaty that eliminated tariffs and trade restrictions among the United States, Canada, and Mexico.

  • The Tariff

    • Underwood of Alabama guided the Revenue Act of 1913 through the House (where it passed, 281 to 139) and the Senate (where it passed, 44 to 37).
    • Most schedules were put on an ad valorem basis (that is, X% of the dollar value of the item).
    • Congress rejected proposals for a tariff board to scientifically fix rates, but did set up a study commission to monitor them.
    • The Act also provided for the re-institution of a federal income tax as a means of compensating for anticipated lost revenue due to the reduction of tariff duties.
    • ...the net income of a taxable person shall include gains, profits, and income derived from salaries, wages, or compensation for personal service of whatever kind and in whatever form paid, or from professions, vocations, businesses, trade, commerce, or sales, or dealings in property, whether real or personal, growing out of the ownership or use of or interest in real or personal property, also from interest, rent, dividends, securities, or the transaction of any lawful business carried on for gain or profit, or gains or profits and income derived from any source whatever