By the end of the seventeenth century, commerce was the foundation of empire and the leading cause of competition between european empires. explain how the north americans colonies were directly linked to atlantic commerce by laws and trade.

The North American colonies, including what are now Canada, the US and Mexico were closely linked in trade and commerce to the European empires including the British, and Spanish empires especially and to a lesser extent the French colonies like Quebec and Louisiana. For example, the New Spain colony of what is now Mexico had to give the Royal Fifth of all the riches from gold and silver plundered from the Aztecs and subsequently mined to the king in Spain. In Canada, furs traded with the indigenous people were much sought after by the rich and the royalty in Britain. The 13 colonies provided such things as timber, ships, grain and tobacco to Great Britain., 

The natural habitat around them