Merchant power behind the Navigation Acts

The Wars of the Three Kingdoms involved Ireland and Scotland as well as England, which makes the wider name more appropriate than English Civil War alone. One interpretation places control over state spending near the centre of the conflict. Merchants wanted a stronger voice in decisions affecting their trade and the forces protecting it. Their growing influence helped give British government an early concern with the economics of warfare. A comparison with later revolutions presents Britain's upheaval as an earlier, violent struggle over political authority and practical interests.