The first act passed by the British Parliament on April 5, 1764 was The Sugar Act, also called Plantation Act, or Revenue Act, with the goal of raising 100,000 pounds, an amount equal to one-fifth of the military expenses in North America. This act was a modified version of the Molasses Act of 1733. The Sugar …show more content…
This act was aimed at raising revenue from all American colonies to help pay the costs of defending and protecting the American frontier near the Appalachian Mountains, where 10,000 troops were to be stationed on the American frontier for this purpose (Santayana, 2015). It required the coloniests to pay a tax stamps on every piece of printed paper they used, including licenses, newspaper, playing cards, legal documents, almanacs, and other publications. Failure to do this resulted in facing juryless trials in the vice-admiralty courts. The colonists viewed The Stamp Act as a direct attempt of Great Britain to raise money in the colonies without the approval of the colonial legislatures, and were afraid that it can bring more taxes in the future. Besides, they believed that they should not have to pay the taxes to Parliament because they did not elect any of its members. In response, the Prime Minister Grenville explained that all colonies were virtually represented in Parliament. The Stamp Act caused lots of resistance in the colonies and resulted in a proclamation of the Stamp Act Congress that wrote a petition to repeal the Stamp Act. The Stamp Act Congress declared that stamp taxes could not be collected without the people’s consent, …show more content…
The acts were a series of laws that imposed duties on glass, lead, paints, paper, and tea imported into the colonies. The purpose of the Townshend Acts was to raise revenue of 40,000 pounds sterling a year for the administration of the colonies, including paying the salaries of governors and judges so that they would remain loyal to Great Britain. Also, to create a more effective means of enforcing compliance with trade regulations, and to establish the precedent that the British Parliament had the right to tax the colonies. The Townshend Acts were met with powerfull resistance in the colonies and divided Great Britain and its American colonies. One of the effect of Townshend Act was the Nonimportation Agreements urging not to use British goods upon which duties had been paid.
“Several colonial towns (including initially Providence and Newport, Rhode Island, New York City, and later Boston) adopted new nonimportation agreement marily on luxury goods and drew up plands to encourage domestic industries” (Morton,