I can already see everyone looking at this like okay everyone knows about the Boston Tea Party.
Boston Tea Party = Taxes got higher + Angry American Colonists = Hello Start of Independence from Britain on December 16, 1773
Well, if you're nodding your head there, allow me to pop that bubble for you:
The Boston Tea Party did not start because of an increase in taxes. It started because of a tax cut.
If you're sitting there like hold up all I know is wrong. Welcome to my world a few weeks ago as I was reading A Colony In A Nation.
Now, let's begin this Crash Course:
Britain fought in a war against France (called the Seven Years' War) because France wanted control of North America. The result? Britain was basically like that's cute - Britain in the end controlled France & Canada as well as part of Florida.
As a result of fighting the war with France - Britain was in debt. This is where new taxes came in. There were new taxes on glass, lead, paints, paper and tea.
During this time American Colonists were only allowed to trade with Britain. So what did this 'taxing' do? Well, it's more known as the Stamp Act.
Basically:
Stuff imported = you have to pay more money for it to get the special stamp that all imports now had to have
That money would go to the person you're getting the stuff from - Britain.
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If you're sitting there like hold up - didn't you say the Boston Tea Party started from a tax cut? Yes, yes I did. Keep Reading.
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At this time, there was a lot of people that smuggled goods into the Colonies from other countries - like the Netherlands. As a colony, America was only allowed to do trade with Britain. American colonists weren't too chill with that - which is why a lot of smuggling of tea, rum etc. happened. During this smuggling - the British Officers assigned to the Colony would more or less turn the other way since they themselves were in on it.
But now times were different. Britain was in debt. That gave British Officers the authority to go into boats/homes and search for illegally brought in goods and take them.
Colonist chill level was below zero level at this point.
That's when the Stamp Act was squashed and then re-birthed to only include tax on Tea - known as the Tea Act.
Now, only British East India Company Tea can be brought into the American colonies. To give some background information on British East India Company - they basically made a lot of tea and no one was buying it. This meant they had a lot of tea and nothing to do with it.
I mentioned earlier - there were smugglers who brought in tea from the Netherlands. So, what's so great about Dutch Tea? Well, it was cheaper than the taxed tea Britain was trying to make everyone buy. About 90% of Tea in colonies was brought in from smugglers- no one was buying British East India Company tea because Dutch Tea was cheaper.
The solution Britain thought of?
Make the British East India Company tea tax lower so that it can compete with the smuggled in Dutch Tea.
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A HA <- most likely you when you realized this is what I meant by a tax cut.
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They cut the taxes on British East India Company Tea - the response?
Well, the American merchants (people in charge of selling) relied on the nicely priced Dutch Tea and people buying said smuggled in tea. If the smuggled tea was the same price as the British East India Company Tea (thanks to the tax cut on tea) then the merchants might as well close up shop because the British are coming to take over their tea-life.
How does this end?
The British East India Company Tea was dumped into the Boston Harbor as protest =
Hello Boston Tea Party birth.
Translate that to dollars: $23,197. 26
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And there you have it - it was caused by a tax cut not a tax increase. I was actually so surprised when I read this in A Colony In A Nation - mainly because in school I was taught that the Boston Tea Party began from a tax increase. I then wrote this tweet here - only mentioning the book title not the author- and it just so happened the author was checking on the reviews of the book and long story short my notifications were all over the place for a couple days.
One last thing on my mind though - That Dutch tea must've been pretty amazing. Has anyone tried Dutch Tea?
Watch I start making crash courses on different teas & where they originated from. Actually - that sounds fun. Expect a tea series in the future because I really love learning and writing it down helps me remember everything.
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