<P> To better secure their own plantation trade from considerable illegal indirect trade in enumerated products to Europe, by way of legal inter-colonial trade, the act instituted that customs duties and charges should be paid on departure from the colonies, if traveling without first obtaining the bond required to carry the goods to England . The purpose of the act was to stop the carrying of plantation goods to another plantation with their subsequent shipment to a foreign country on the grounds that the 1660 act's requirements had been fulfilled . This change was a considerable advance toward the systematic execution of the previous acts, and increased much needed royal revenue given the recent Stop of the Exchequer . To better collect the customs revenue the act established that these were now to be levied and collected by the Commissioners of Customs in England . Also, if a ship arrived with insufficient funds to pay the duties, customs official could accept an equivalent proportion of the goods as payment instead . </P> <P> The so - called Navigation Act 1696 (7 & 8 Will . 3 c. 22), long - titled An Act for preventing Frauds and regulating Abuses in the Plantation Trade, became effective over in the next few years, due to its far reaching provisions; the act is short - titled the Plantation Trade Act 1695 . It contains new restrictions on colonial trade, and several different administrative provisions to strengthen enforcement and consolidate the earlier acts . </P> <P> In tightening the wording of the 1660 act, and after noting the daily "great abuses (being) committed...by the artifice and cunning of ill disposed persons", this act now required that no goods or merchandise could be imported, exported, or carried between English possessions in Africa, Asia and America, or shipped to England, Wales, or Berwick upon Tweed, except in "what is or shall bee of the Built of England or of the Built of Ireland or the said Colonies or Plantations and wholly owned by the People thereof...and navigated with the Masters and Three Fourths of the Mariners of the said Places onely". To enforce this change, the act required the registration of all ships and owners, including an oath that they have no foreign owners, before the ship would be considered English - built . Exceptions were introduced for foreign - built ships taken as prize, or those employed by the navy for importing naval stores from the plantations . The deadline for the registration of ships was extended by the Registering of Ships Act 1697 (9 Will 3 c. 42) In a significant tightening of the navigation enforcement system, section 6 of the act establishes that violations are to be tried in any of His Majesties Courts att Westminster or (in the Kingdome of Ireland or in the Court of Admiralty held in His Majesties Plantations respectively where such Offence shall bee committed att the Pleasure of the Officer or Informer or in any other Plantation belonging to any Subject of England)... Revenue generated was to be split in thirds between the King, the Governor, and the one who informed and sued . </P> <P> Previously, most of the customs collection and enforcement in the colonies was performed by the governor or his appointees, commonly known as the "naval officer", but with evasion, corruption and indifference common . The 1696 act now required all current governors and officers to take an oath that all and every the clause contained in the act be "punctually and bona fide observed according to the true intent and meaning". Governors nominated in the future were required to take this oath before assuming office . To tighten compliance among colonial customs officials, the act required that all current and future officers give a security bond to the Commissioners of the Customs in England to undertake the "true and faithfull performance of their duty". Additionally, the act gave colonial customs officers the same power and authority as of customs officers in England; these included the ability to board and search ships and warehouses, load and unload cargoes, and seize those imported or exported goods prohibited or those for which duties should have been paid under the acts . Commissioners of the treasury and of the customs in England would now appoint the colonial customs officials . Due to colonial "doubts or misconstructions" concerning the bond required under the 1660 act, the 1696 act now mandated that no enumerated goods could be loaded of shipped until the required bond was obtained . The act was followed by a special instruction about the oaths and proprietary governors who weren't directly under royal control to post a bond to comply; this was considered by the Board of Trade and issued on 26 May 1697 . </P>

The english navigation acts mandated that all english imports and exports be