Tea Act Research Paper

In May 1773, Parliament passed out the Tea Act. This act was designed to save the East India Company from bankruptcy.

The East India Company enjoyed the exclusive legal right – a privilege granted by the British government – to import products from the Far East into Britain. Chinese tea, which was said to be more valuable than gold, was the company’s most lucrative commodity, accounting for over 90 percent of its commercial profits.

After importing tea into Britain, the East India Company was required to auction it off to other merchants, some of whom then exported the tea to the American colonies. By law, this was virtually the only tea permitted in the colonies.

Of course, to pass a law is one thing, but to enforce it is another. Americans

Four ships were sent to Boston, one to New York, one to Philadelphia, and one to Charleston. When Americans learned that East India Company tea was en route, they feared that a dangerous precedent was about to be established, and they suspected that this was a major motive behind the passage of the Tea Act. A Londoner sympathetic to America wrote to a friend in New York:

Being a great schemer, Lord North struck out the plan of the East India Company’s sending tea to America, hoping thereby to outwit us, and to establish the Townshend Act effectually, which will forever after be pleaded as a precedent for every imposition the Parliament of Great Britain shall think proper to saddle us with. It is much to be wished that the Americans will convince Lord North that they are not yet ready to have the yoke of slavery riveted about their necks, and send back the tea whence it came.

This letter, which was reprinted in newspapers throughout America, articulated the chief objection to East India Company tea, but Americans feared the company for another reason. It ruled parts of India with a cruel hand, causing widespread famine and death. In a widely circulated pamphlet, John Dickinson recounted the crimes of this monopoly

They have levied war, excited rebellions, dethroned princes, and sacrificed millions for the sake of gain. The revenue of mighty kingdoms has centered in their coffers. And these not being sufficient to glut their avarice, they have, by the most unparalleled barbarities, extortions, and monopolies stripped the miserable inhabitants of their property and reduced whole provinces to indigence and ruin. Fifteen hundred thousand perished by famine in one year, not because the earth denied its fruits, but this company and its servants engrossed all the necessities of life, and set them at so high a rate, that the poor could not purchase them. Thus having drained the sources of that immense wealth, they now, it seems, cast their eyes to America, as a new threat, whereupon to exercise their talents of rapine, oppression, and cruelty. The monopoly of tea is, I dare say, but a small part of the plan they have formed to strip us of our property.

What tactic could prevent the sale of East India Company tea in America? Perhaps Americans could refuse to purchase the tea – but this option promised little success. Officially, Americans had been boycotting English tea for years, but in fact, many Americans had resumed drinking English tea after the partial repeal of the Townshend duties in