his book examines the pivotal role that silver and gold money played in the formation and working out of England’s Amer-ican colonial proj ect in the seventeenth century. The book argues, first, that money was the primum mobile, or prime mover, of En glish imperial action and overseas activity, including the impulse for colonization, the regulation of colonial trade, and the introduction of certain fundamental changes in impe-rial colonial administration. Second, the book argues that money was also a chief catalyst for colonial re sis tance to that same mercantilist order, an order that many colonists believed prejudiced or wrongly subordinated their econ-omies to imperial or London interests. This colonial re sis tance, propelled in large mea sure by money- related matters, grew stronger and more virulent as the century proceeded, until much of it dissipated with the onset of a new imperial age after the 1690s.By analyzing the close relation between money, trade, and po liti cal power, this book seeks a more comprehensive explanation for the many tensions that prevailed in the seventeenth century between empire and colony.