The photograph shows the Tea Act passed by the British parliament in May 1773. It supported the East India Company in financial difficulties due to unsold merchandise. The Act gave the company a monopoly on the tea trade with the American colonies. Catalogue ref: C65/942 (Geo III, c 44).
The Tea Act followed earlier sources of grievance in the British American Colonies including the 1765 Stamp Act and the 1767 Townshend Acts passed by the British Crown. These laws increased taxation in the colonies and were considered unfair without their representation in the British parliament. After the Tea Act, in Philadelphia and New York colonists made the tea ships return to Britain. In Charleston the cargo was left to unopened on the docks to waste. In Boston colonists refused to let the ships to be unloaded , the catalyst for the Boston Tea Party.
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