The Boston Tea Party P1

Massachusetts, having its legislature dissolved by the king and its citizens shot down in the Boston Massacre, closed its ports to British trade ships. The British Parliament responded by repealing portions of the Townshend Acts, eventually repealing all the taxes except that on tea, one of the most popular drinks in America. The Americans continued to object to being taxed without their input, so they simply refused to buy any tea upon which the tax had been placed.

As tea sales plummeted, tea piled up in the warehouses in England. Tea merchants asked the British government to intervene. Without opposition, Parliament voted to subsidize (that is underwrite) the cost of the tea by lowering its price and making it cheaper than any tea that Americans could purchase elsewhere, even through smuggling. Although the Tea Act slashed the price, Great Britain still kept the previous tax on the tea, believing the colonists would surely buy it (and thus pay the tax) if it were cheaper than the other alternatives.

Benjamin Franklin knew better. He pointed out that the Americans objected to the principle of unjust taxation, not the price of the tea; so even if the tea were cheaper but still had the tax, the Americans would stand by their principles and not buy it. He was right: Americans refused to purchase even the inexpensive tea.

Content Sourced From The American Story: The Beginnings by David Barton and Tim Barton.