Repeal of Navigation Acts before the American Revolution

Does anyone know whether the repeal of the Navigation Acts would have been plausible pre-ARW? What effects would it have had? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navigation_Acts

OTL they were repealed in 1849, so pushing it forward this far seems like a stretch, but I honestly don't know how prevalent mercantilism was immediately before the ARW. The Navigation Acts distorted the Colonial economies a lot and inhibited (or prohibited) industry, even if the per capita tax burden wasn't that high. I really can't figure out how much they benefited (or were perceived to benefit) Britain at this time, though.

My thinking is that the repeal of the Navigation Acts would have been so painful to merchants in Britain that it would have been impossible to repeal, keeping the mother country/colony dynamic ingrained. However, I'm hoping someone can show me something to the contrary.

I don't see a good thread on this - economics is so boring compared to granting political representation.
 
The Navigation Acts were a nontrivial source of revenue for the Crown and, while often ignored, were not the main source of anger for the colonists. They existed for over a century before the WoI without controversy. In the Colonial view, Westminster had the right to tax external commerce without representation, but not internal commerce(ie the Stamp Act), which required representation in Parliament of those taxed.

You'd need to see a repeal of the Intolerable Acts(of which the Navigation Acts were not a part), have Parliament not disband NY's legislature in the 1760s, and Parliament not passing the Declaratory Act and admitting that they cannot tax those not represented in Westminster. I just don't see that happening, Westminster had good reasons to do what they did and the Colonials had good reasons to not like it.
 
I remember reading a quote from 1774 or 1775 where one of the American revolutionary leaders (Adams I think?) rejected making repeal of the Navigation Acts one of their demands, saying "it would turn the entire British Nation" against them.

I'd have to find the exact quote. Anyway, it was just way, way too early. Mercantilism was the dominate trade theory of the time and was only just being questioned, even if in reality trade was already starting to loosen up a little internationally.
 
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