The role of ideals and self-interest in the history of America Throughout history, starting from the arrival of the colonists in America, every event that took place has become part of American history. Ideals, as described by Dr. Margolies, professor of history at Virginia Wesleyan College, are “noble and motivating goals.” Some of these ideals, which shaped American history, included life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness protected by the Constitution. Self-interest, a second influential factor in American history, manifests itself through obtaining benefits for oneself. While it is debatable which of these two influential factors has been more dominant in American history, the possibility exists that they coincide with each other, as revealed by many documented events. Self-interest can be seen in many writings throughout American history. The mercantile system, as demonstrated by the English in the colonies, was an extremely hedonistic approach to obtaining wealth for oneself. Mercantilism, as established by the Navigation Acts, imposed strict and extremely descriptive laws that would limit and exploit trade in the colonies, allowing Britain to control the wealth and profit of materials and goods in America. These acts were used to prevent America from trading with other countries. As stated in the Navigation Act of 1660, "no goods or merchandise whatsoever shall be imported or exported from any land" belonging to His Majesty "in any other ship or ships... for they truly and without fraud belong to the people of England alone or of Ireland” (Restoration 98). Great Britain knew that by controlling the colonies in this way it could extract the raw materials and resell the finished products, and by doing so it would make great profits. This mercantile system exemplifies the arrogant minds of the English as America was developing. This system would soon become a failure due to the people's demands for representation along with taxation and their desire to separate from England as a free and independent state It was the self-interest of the greedy planters and hypocritical farmers of the South that slavery was widely used. At that time they needed all the labor they could get, and the cheapest way to get it was through the purchase of slaves. Some slavery was downplayed by calling it indentured servitude, where servants were essentially slaves for a limited number of years.