Instead, Parliament legislated Americans were colonial subjects just like Indians. Worse, Parliament insinuated that Americans were not British citizens. The Tea Act angered Americans because they were being taxed to pay for a private company’s military adventures. Instead of raising taxes on British voters, Parliament granted the East India Company a monopoly on tea sales to the colonies. Hence, John Company was losing money on its army.īy the 1770s, the East India Company had run out of money and asked Parliament for a bailout. In the 18th Century, mercenaries demanded payment in cash, which meant gold or silver. The East India Company conquered enormous areas of the subcontinent by recruiting a massive mercenary army. The Tea Act was Parliament’s effort to bail out the British East India Company. TeaĪ more direct act of British economic warfare against the colonies was the Tea Act of 1773. The resistance against the Stamp Act evolved into the Continental Congress, which formed America’s first national government and launched the Revolution.
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Resistance to the Stamp Act was so great parliament repealed it on 14 January 1766. By 1766, there were even street protests against the Stamp Act.
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The movement included the Stamp Act Congress and organizations such as the Sons of Liberty. The Stamp Act inspired a resistance movement in the Colonies. After the Seven Years’ War, Parliament moved to take direct control over the colonies. To explain, before the French and Indian War (Seven Years’ War), the British government ignored the 13 colonies. In particular, the precedent of Parliament passing taxes on Americans without American representation at Westminster.Ĭolonial leaders feared the British were trying to convert their semi-independent states into formal colonies ruled directly by the Crown and Parliament. Colonial leaders understood the Stamp Act’s implications. Hence, the Stamp Tax was an attempt by the British Parliament and the Crown to seize control of the colonial economy. Washington was a speculator in lands in Western Pennsylvania and Ohio. Prominent land speculators included George Washington. Real estate speculation was one of the principal economic activities in Colonial America. Hence, one reason for the Stamp Tax Act was to make it harder for colonists to speculate in lands west of the Alleghenies that the Crown had set aside for Native American nations. In addition, the Stamp Tax was an attempt to restrict real estate speculation by making it harder and more expensive to register land transaction.
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The Stamp Tax hurt ordinary people by increasing licensing fees and raising the price of newspapers and other publications. A Stamp Duty is a tax on legal documents. Instead, the Stamp Tax was a Stamp Duty on legal documents in the 13 Colonies. They did not invent postage stamps until 1840. Interestingly, the Stamp Tax was not about postage stamps. One event that triggered the American Revolution was the Stamp Tax Act of 1765. Here are some examples of that warfare.Ĭommodities that tore the British Empire apart include: Legal Documents: the Stamp Tax When colonial subjects fought back against British economic warfare, the Empire fell apart.
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That economic warfare created our modern world by giving rise to three great nations, the United States, the People’s Republic of China, and the Republic of India.īritish leaders sparked conflicts by not realizing that the targets of their economic warfare could retaliate. These conflicts occurred because British colonialism was economic warfare. Controversies over everyday substances split the British Empire and ultimately brought it down.īritish efforts to monopolize and monetize commodities sparked political conflicts that tore the empire apart. Incredibly, conflicts over humble commodities destroyed history’s greatest empire.