Tea Act 1773

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On May 10, 1773, Parliament passed the Tea Act, the primary objective of which was to save the British East India Company from bankruptcy. It also eliminated all tea tax except the three pence Townshend tax. A third goal of the Tea Act was to offer Americans tea at a lower price than that of the colonial smugglers [1]. However what happened was the average American colonist became angry with this latest act in a long line of unpopular policies, laws, and taxes imposed on him by Britain [2]. A group of colonists in Massachusetts known as the Sons of Liberty decided to respond to this new tax act. Therefore, on December 16, 1773, some of this group disguised themselves as Mohawk Indians and boarded the vessels of the East Indian Company docked in the Boston Harbor. Without damaging the vessel or any other cargo, the group dumped all the tea that was on …show more content…

However, Parliment saw a need to help out the British East India Company, who at the time had the largest surplus of tea on hand and needed help selling it. Parliment did not view this as a punishment to their fellow countrymen in America but as a way increasing revenue to help the British East India Company which in turn would have been beneficial to all involved [3]. Another reason colonists did not approve of the Tea Act is that the Townshend Revenue Act tea tax remained in place. This tax was one of the taxes that insulted the colonists. Since the new Tea Act began the sale of tea by representatives of the British East India Company directly to the American colonies, colonial merchants felt the act illegally granted a monopoly to the British East India Company. Combining this monopoly with the Townshend Revenue Act and it appeared that the Tea Act was a tactic to gain colonial support for the tax already