It is commonly accepted that 30,000 convicts (women, men and children) may have been transported to the British American colonies, with some estimates going as high as 50,000.

Other sections of the Act imposed stricter measures against fencing stolen goods, making them fourteen-year sentences instead of mere accessories to theft;[4] imposed a seven-year transportation sentence for those imprisoned for, or breaking, the long-time prohibition on exporting wool in violation of the Acts of Trade.

[8] The reasons for passing the Act, as stated in the preamble, include the insufficiently effective sentencing, recidivism, the fact that many offenders previously extended this mercy had not transported themselves, "and whereas in many of his Majesty's colonies and plantations in America, there is great want of servants, who by their hard labour and industry might be the means of improving and making the said colonies and plantations more useful to this nation."

The passage also derived from the convergence of a number of events at the time, including fears over rising crime and disorder, following the discharge of soldiers after the end of the War of the Spanish Succession in 1714, a contested Hanoverian accession to the British throne, inappropriate punishments for lesser felonies (misdemeanours), concern over crowd behaviour at public punishments, and a new determination by parliament to push through the legislation despite colonial opposition.

1. c. 23)[14] amended the previous Act, authorized payments by the state to the merchants who contracted to take the convicts to America,[15][16] and broadened the types of crimes subject to transportation.

The Transportation Act, with the system that developed in North America, are generally considered a success; it became a popular method for criminal punishment, as well as for dealing with the poorer and younger elements of British urban society at the time.

One reason for the success of this Act was that it obviated the financially costly voyage itself; the existing system of sponsorship by merchants had not worked effectively and needed improvement.

As thus developed, the established system for transporting convicts to the British American colonies continued until 1776 when its use was temporarily suspended by the Criminal Law Act 1776 (16 Geo.

[25] This situation would continue without any resolution until orders in council on 6 December 1785 which mandated the establishment of a penal colony in New South Wales.

[26][27] In 1787 British transportation of criminals resumed with the departure of the First Fleet to colonies being established in Australia; its usage would be greatly reduced in the 1850s, but continue until the last arrived in 1868.