The united states is still a british colony

[allodial]

Let us also recall that colonies were private holdings of either the Crown or Parliament.

Colonies were established for purposes of commerce amongst other reasons.

Not necessarily so. The charters might have been PRIVATE between the Crown and the other side of the coin, but they were not necessarily private holdings of the Crown exclusively. The Mayflower Compact, for example, the folks getting on the boat were taking the primary risk and the deal was AFAIK cut for them to have control with the Crown getting a kickback.

Might seem unrelated, Star Trek is rather telling. The ship is called "The Enterprise"... NCC stands for "Naval Construction Contract". Easy to get the gist.



Ya just gotta get it that there isn't much different between sending a spaceship halfway across a galaxy and sending a boat across an ocean jurisprudentially speaking. You get a construction contract, bid/performance/payment bonds, obligor, obligee, insurance/bottomory type issues might still apply.



Can you say "surety"? There is a reason vessels (even merchant marines) are militarized => oath of allegiance (i.e. contract) enforceable in ADMIRALTY. Do you just put $50 BN or whatever worth of machinery in someone's hands without some kind of guaranty or bond? Ah that is what admiralty is for. Admiralty is the only primary 'venue' for enforcing contracts across oceans. The Colonial Charters..Mayflower Compact or the like might conceivably ride on the original ship charters or agreements (ala East India Company).