The Tea Act, ratified on May 10th, 1773, restored the East India Company’s full refund on the duty for shipping tea into Britain, and also authorized the company to ship tea to the colonies on its own account. Instead of selling to middlemen, the company now delegated colonial merchants to receive the tea on consignment. In July 1773, tea consignees were named in New York, Philadelphia, Boston, and Charleston. The act also kept the three pence Townshend duty on tea shipped to the thirteen colonies. Some Parliament members wanted to eliminate this tax, arguing that there was no reason to strike another possible colonial controversy. Former Chancellor of the Exchequer, William Dowdeswell, for warned Lord North that the Americans would not accept
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Americans eventually caught up and learned about all the details of the Tea Act while the ships were on the route to these colonies and people began to get furious. The Sons of Liberty began a movement to raise cognizance and to convince or compel the consignees to resign. The movement that climaxed with the Boston Tea Party was not a disagreement about high taxes. In fact, the price of legally transported tea was actually reduced by the Tea Act of 1773. The protestors were scared with the “No taxation without representation" argument, along with the belief that the Parliament had too much power. Samuel Adams contemplated the British tea monopoly to be “Equal to a tax" and to raise the same representation issue whether a tax was applied to it or not. Colonial merchants, some of them smugglers, played a major part in the …show more content…
British law required the Dartmouth to pay for all of the tea within twenty days or officials would take actions to confiscate the cargo. Governor Hutchinson refused to give approval for the Dartmouth to leave without paying their dues. Two more ships, the Eleanor and the Beaver, entered Boston Harbor soon after and the colonists began to demand that the tea would be returned to England. On December 16, the last day of the Dartmouth's deadline to pay its dues, approximately 7,000 individuals gathered around the Old South Meeting House. After gaining intel that Governor Hutchinson had again refused to let the ships leave, Adams told everybody that "This meeting can do nothing further to save the country.” At this time, many people began to become extremely belligerent, looking for ways to take action into their own hands. Eventually, protestors dressed as indians and began to board the three ships. After, they proceeded to dump an unfathomable 342 chests of tea into the harbor. After three hours, the colonists successfully dumped all chests into the harbor. The chests held more than 90,000 pounds of tea, which would be valued at about $1,700,000 dollars today. After this event occurred, the Parliament was furious by the destruction of the British
Americans eventually caught up and learned about all the details of the Tea Act while the ships were on the route to these colonies and people began to get furious. The Sons of Liberty began a movement to raise cognizance and to convince or compel the consignees to resign. The movement that climaxed with the Boston Tea Party was not a disagreement about high taxes. In fact, the price of legally transported tea was actually reduced by the Tea Act of 1773. The protestors were scared with the “No taxation without representation" argument, along with the belief that the Parliament had too much power. Samuel Adams contemplated the British tea monopoly to be “Equal to a tax" and to raise the same representation issue whether a tax was applied to it or not. Colonial merchants, some of them smugglers, played a major part in the …show more content…
British law required the Dartmouth to pay for all of the tea within twenty days or officials would take actions to confiscate the cargo. Governor Hutchinson refused to give approval for the Dartmouth to leave without paying their dues. Two more ships, the Eleanor and the Beaver, entered Boston Harbor soon after and the colonists began to demand that the tea would be returned to England. On December 16, the last day of the Dartmouth's deadline to pay its dues, approximately 7,000 individuals gathered around the Old South Meeting House. After gaining intel that Governor Hutchinson had again refused to let the ships leave, Adams told everybody that "This meeting can do nothing further to save the country.” At this time, many people began to become extremely belligerent, looking for ways to take action into their own hands. Eventually, protestors dressed as indians and began to board the three ships. After, they proceeded to dump an unfathomable 342 chests of tea into the harbor. After three hours, the colonists successfully dumped all chests into the harbor. The chests held more than 90,000 pounds of tea, which would be valued at about $1,700,000 dollars today. After this event occurred, the Parliament was furious by the destruction of the British