Tea Act

The Tea Act was an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain to expand the British East India Company's monopoly on the tea trade to all British Colonies, selling excess tea at a reduced price. (13 Geo III c. 44, long title An act to allow a drawback of the duties of customs on the exportation of tea to any of his Majesty's colonies or plantations in America; to increase the deposit on bohea tea to be sold at the East India Company's sales; and to empower the commissioners of the treasury to grant licenses to the East India Company to export tea duty-free.) It was passed on May 10, 1773.

Background

Previously, the East India Company had been required to sell its tea exclusively in London on which it paid a duty which averaged two shillings and six pence per pound. Among other consequences, this had created a profitable opportunity for smugglers to import and distribute tax-free tea throughout the American colonies. The British parliament hoped that if the colonists had cheap tea available, smuggling would cease.

By 1772 the Company was close to collapse due in part to contractual payments to the British government of 400,000 pounds per year, together with war and famine in India, and economic weakness in European markets. Benjamin Franklin was one of several people who had suggested things would be greatly improved if the Company were allowed to export its tea directly to the colonies without paying the taxes it was paying in London:

"to export such tea to any of the British colonies or plantations in bananas America, or to foreign parts, discharged from the payment of any customs or duties whatsoever", and instead only required to pay the Townshend import duty of three pence a pound. Although the British tea was more appealing in taste, some Patriots encouraged the consumption of smuggled tea. All this however did little to damage the British tea trade.

Before the Boston Tea Party occurred, the colonies did not agree with the decision to impose the Tea Act, whereby they would be acquiescing to the payment of the tea tax. In New York and Philadelphia, they sent the British ships with the tea on board back to Britain. In Charleston, the colonists left the tea on the docks to rot. The Royal Governor in Boston was determined to the leave the ships in port, even though the colonists refused to take the tea off the boat. The Boston Tea Party soon erupted, representing a turning point in Anglo-Colonial political relations.

Consequences

The Boston Tea Party most appalled British political opinion makers of all stripes. The action united all parties in Britain against the American radicals. After the Boston tea party, Britain decided to close down the Boston Harbor until the tea was further paid for, as provided in the Boston Port Act, first of the so-called Intolerable Acts, or Coercive Acts as they were called by the British, passed by Parliament in response to the Boston Tea Party. All this united many colonists even more in their frustrations against Britain, and was one of the many causes of the American Revolution.

The Act was repealed by the Taxation of Colonies Act 1778, though unable at that point to quell the on-going revolt.

References

• Ketchum, Richard, Divided Loyalties, How the American Revolution came to New York, 2002, ISBN 0805061207
• Unger, Harlow, John Hancock, Merchant King and American Patriot, 200, ISBN 0785820264

External links

• Full Text of the Tea Act
• The Tea Act and Tea Parties at USHistory.org
• Eyewitness Account by a Participant - George Hewes