How Tea Started a Revolution
The Boston Tea Party was a key event leading up to the American Revolution. It was a protest by British American colonists in Massachusetts against the British parliament, which insisted it had the power to tax the colonists and who enacted the Tea Act of 1773 to enshrine that right in law. It levied a three pence levy on each pound of tea imported. Other colonies had refused to accept the taxed tea, relying instead on the cheaper untaxed tea that could be smuggled in from Holland. However, there was a politically weak Royal Governor in Boston, Thomas Hutchinson, who decided to accept the tea and refused to return it to Britain as part of a protest against the Tea Act. So, on 16 December 1773, a group of colonists took the law into their own hands and overrun the ships, destroying the tea by throwing it into Boston Harbour.
The politics and economics of the time need to be understood in order to get a full picture of events and to understand the basis for the American War of Independence. The political arguments were part of a long standing dispute between Britain and the colonists. British parliament insisted that it had a right to levy taxes on the colonists. The colonists argued that the British parliament had no legitimacy to levy taxes in this way, since the colonists had no elected representatives within the British parliament.
British parliament felt it essential that the taxes were levied because of the financial state their successive policies had on the East India Company, which was the sole legal importer of tea to Britain . They had been given this right at the end of the seventeenth century. As tea was becoming very popular both in Europe and the colonies, in 1721, in an anti-competitive move, Britain legislated that the colonies must import their tea solely from Great Britain. Companies in Britain would have to buy the tea from the East India Company and then export them to the colonies, mostly along the east coast of America.
The British Government derived its revenue by taxing the East India Company on the tea it imported. It had complete control of the import and export of tea by this time and had a monopoly market in the colonies. It levied a 25% tax on tea import. However, by 1767, it was clear that the effect on price of the tax was that people were not buying tea legally, but were instead buying illegally smuggled Dutch tea that was a fraction of the price. This was particularly true of the American colonies. So, to help bolster the ailing finances of the East India Company, the Government changed the law to refund the 25% tax to the company on all tea that was exported to the colonies. However, to claw back some of the lost revenue, Parliament levied new taxes on the colonies, including on tea. This inflamed the colonies and reignited the argument over the British right to tax the colonies.
Over the next six years, the controversy continued and each side was becoming more entrenched in their position. Legislation was passed to strengthen Britain's tax raising rights in the colony and a number of protests were held against these. Some more successful than others. But then came the Tea Act of 1773.
In 1772, the tax refund had shrunk to 15% and so the East India Company was paying 10% tax on tea it exported. The three pence levy to the colonies remained. These two combined to raise the price of tea, a then key commodity, to levels which the market wouldn't stand. The colonies went back to buying tea illegally from the Dutch and the domestic market crashed. The East India Company faced a financial crisis. The government was desperate to ensure the company did not fail, and so introduced the Tea Act in early 1773. This reinstated the full 25% refund to the company for the exported tea, but the three pence tax on exports to the colonies remained.
This incensed the colonies, both because of the tax and because they still believed that Britain had no right to tax without representation. In October 1773, the tea being imported became a matter of great debate and in all but Massachusetts, the tea was turned away. The officials there refused to turn the tea away, and this is what led to protestors boarding the ship and destroying the tea. This turned out to be one of the key events that garnered support for those who went on to fight for Independence from Britain. Hence the Boston Tea Party, as it came to be known, went down in history.
The politics and economics of the time need to be understood in order to get a full picture of events and to understand the basis for the American War of Independence. The political arguments were part of a long standing dispute between Britain and the colonists. British parliament insisted that it had a right to levy taxes on the colonists. The colonists argued that the British parliament had no legitimacy to levy taxes in this way, since the colonists had no elected representatives within the British parliament.
British parliament felt it essential that the taxes were levied because of the financial state their successive policies had on the East India Company, which was the sole legal importer of tea to Britain . They had been given this right at the end of the seventeenth century. As tea was becoming very popular both in Europe and the colonies, in 1721, in an anti-competitive move, Britain legislated that the colonies must import their tea solely from Great Britain. Companies in Britain would have to buy the tea from the East India Company and then export them to the colonies, mostly along the east coast of America.
The British Government derived its revenue by taxing the East India Company on the tea it imported. It had complete control of the import and export of tea by this time and had a monopoly market in the colonies. It levied a 25% tax on tea import. However, by 1767, it was clear that the effect on price of the tax was that people were not buying tea legally, but were instead buying illegally smuggled Dutch tea that was a fraction of the price. This was particularly true of the American colonies. So, to help bolster the ailing finances of the East India Company, the Government changed the law to refund the 25% tax to the company on all tea that was exported to the colonies. However, to claw back some of the lost revenue, Parliament levied new taxes on the colonies, including on tea. This inflamed the colonies and reignited the argument over the British right to tax the colonies.
Over the next six years, the controversy continued and each side was becoming more entrenched in their position. Legislation was passed to strengthen Britain's tax raising rights in the colony and a number of protests were held against these. Some more successful than others. But then came the Tea Act of 1773.
In 1772, the tax refund had shrunk to 15% and so the East India Company was paying 10% tax on tea it exported. The three pence levy to the colonies remained. These two combined to raise the price of tea, a then key commodity, to levels which the market wouldn't stand. The colonies went back to buying tea illegally from the Dutch and the domestic market crashed. The East India Company faced a financial crisis. The government was desperate to ensure the company did not fail, and so introduced the Tea Act in early 1773. This reinstated the full 25% refund to the company for the exported tea, but the three pence tax on exports to the colonies remained.
This incensed the colonies, both because of the tax and because they still believed that Britain had no right to tax without representation. In October 1773, the tea being imported became a matter of great debate and in all but Massachusetts, the tea was turned away. The officials there refused to turn the tea away, and this is what led to protestors boarding the ship and destroying the tea. This turned out to be one of the key events that garnered support for those who went on to fight for Independence from Britain. Hence the Boston Tea Party, as it came to be known, went down in history.