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In God We Don't Trust  /  Chapter 14: Navigation Restraints and Expensive Molasses  /  Discussion Questions
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Question 4
When Parliament in 1663 required European goods to be shipped through England/Wales first (unloaded, inspected, taxed, reloaded), Bercot frames it as “payback” in international trade wars rather than pure exploitation; how does that explanation affect the moral evaluation of the Staple Act, and how would early Christians—who lived under empires and trade systems they didn’t control—likely have responded to such “politics of nations”?
Another way to ask: If the 1663 rule was mainly “payback” in a trade war, not just greed, how does that change how we judge the Staple Act? How might early Christians living under empires have reacted to this kind of national politics?

Direct Answer Bercot’s “trade war payback” framing shifts the Staple Act from being merely greedy oppression to being part of national retaliation and protectionism in a competitive world system. The transcript doesn’t directly describe early Christian reactions, but it does portray such measures as normal “politics,” which believers would have had to endure rather than romanticize.

Support from Transcript:

  • He quotes a critic claiming the act was “a blatant attempt… to exploit America… served no purpose other than… enrichment.”
  • Bercot counters: “Contrary to what that writer has said, the reason… was the trade wars between England and the other European powers.”
  • Other countries restricted England’s commerce with their colonies, so the Staple Act was “basically a payback.”
  • Mechanism: goods had to go through England/Wales to be “unloaded, inspected, taxed, and reloaded,” then shipped in “English ships (which again included colonial ships).”
  • Later he generalizes about such realities: “welcome to the world of politics… trade protectionism has probably always been around.”
Discussion Follow-ups If some injustice is just “how nations act,” does that make it morally right? How should Christians respond when we’re caught inside systems we didn’t design?

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