The Tea Act Revives the

Dispute

The Tea Act of 1773 was Parliament’s attempt to shore up the slumping fortunes of the East India Company (one of Britain's most important companies).

This would shatter the uneasy calm in British-colonial relations since the repeal of the Townshend duties in 1770.

The Tea Act was intended to simply to help the East India Company avoid bankruptcy by enabling it to dispose of part of 17 million pounds of surplus tea in America on unusually favorable terms.

A Rescue Operation: The Tea Act (May 10,

1773)

Before the Tea Act East India Company tea had only

been sold at public auction in London to merchants who then sold it to retailers in Britain or the colonies.

By enabling the East India Company to sell its tea directly to retailers [merchants] in the colonies, the Tea Act eliminated the costs involved with auctioning tea to British merchants.

The Tea Act attempted to make East India Company tea so cheap (even with the Townshend duty on tea) they could undersell all competitors in the colonies.

A Rescue Operation: The Tea Act (May 10,

1773)

Tea Act 1773

An act to allow a drawback of the Duties of customs

on the exportation of Tea to any of His Majesty’s Colonies or Plantation in America; to increase the Deposit on Tea to be sold at the India Company’s Sales, and to impower the Commissioners of the

Treasury to grant Licences to the East India Company to export Tea Duty-free.

Tea Act; May 10, 1773

Colonial Opposition to the

Tea Act

The Tea Act had an unexpected negative reception in the colonies, because it actually lowered the price of tea.

Colonial leaders interpreted the Tea Act as a clever way to trick Americans into paying the duty on tea and by doing so openly admitting Parliament’s right to tax the colonies.

A further concern especially among colonial merchants was the threat of monopoly.

If Parliament could give the East India Company a virtual monopoly on the colonial tea market, then it could do the same with any other product.

Colonial Opposition to the Tea Act

Colonial Opposition to the Tea Act

The Boston Tea Party

December 16, 1773

A group of colonists called the Sons of Liberty soon

organized in port cities to stop the East India Company tea from being unloaded.

They threatened ship captains carrying the tea and colonial tea merchants that would buy it.

No tea was unloaded in New York, Philadelphia, or other ports.

However in Boston, Governor Thomas Hutchinson decided to make sure that the tea would be unloaded.

When the first tea ships from Britain arrived, Hutchinson ordered the cargo to be unloaded.

The Boston Tea Party

The Boston Tea-Party, 1888. New York Public Library

For more than two weeks, feelings were tense in

Boston. Finally, on the night of December 16,1773, a

large crowd gathered in Boston harbor. A large group of Sons of Liberty disguised as

Native Americans boarded the tea ship. During the next three hours, they threw 342

cases of tea into the harbor. As the crowd cheered and shouted, the raiders

destroyed 90,000 pounds of tea worth thousands of dollars (worth around $1,000,000 today).

The Boston Tea Party

The Destruction of Tea at Boston Harbor

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By Nathaniel Currier