Extract from the Tea Act was passed by the British parliament in May 1773 to help the East India Company which faced financial difficulties due to unsold tea. It gave the company a monopoly on tea trade with the American colonies . Catalogue ref: C65/942, (Geo III, c 44)
The Act meant that the East India Company could sell their tea directly to the colonies. It also gave the company the monopoly and so was able control all aspects of the tea trade and could undercut local traders in the colonies and elsewhere. The Tea Act freed the East India Company from paying export tax and was given a ‘drawback’ or refund on duties owed on surplus tea supplies. It followed the earlier sources of colonial grievance: 1765 Stamp Act and the 1767 Townshend Acts which increased taxation in colonies without representation in parliament. In Philadelphia and New York colonists made the tea ships return to Britain. In Charleston the cargo was left to rot on the docks. In Boston colonists refused to let them to unload and instigated what is now known as the Boston Tea Party.
Glossary
A duty drawback* is a refund in payments that were initially collected upon importation of goods; these payments could have been for customs duties, sales taxes, or other fees.
Bohea tea* was the largest tea import in colonial times. This blend of tea originated from China in the trade with the British and Dutch East India Companies. It was a smoky tasting tea, rather like lapsang souchong and very popular. In the Boston Tea Party, 342 chests of Bohea tea were destroyed.
Transcript
An act to allow a drawback* of the duties of customs on the exportation of tea to any of his Majesty’s colonies or plantations in America; to increase the deposit on bohea* 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.
- How was the Tea Act an attempt to assert British control and generate revenue from the colonies?
- Can you suggest the impact of this Act on the colonists and the business of local traders?