Economics of the Revolutionary War After the end of the French and Indian War in 1763 the American people had taxes placed on them by the British. The British Parliament claimed that by placing the taxes they were defending the colonies for the Americans. During the twelve years following the war, the British enacted a numerous amount of taxes that allowed them to raise revenue from the American economy. This taxing of the American people hurt the American economy and started to push the American colonists toward an independence movement so they could have a free economy. Over the course of the twelve-year period there were six acts enacted to take money from the American economy. The Sugar Act of 1764 was the first act used …show more content…
The trade of one item of commerce being stopped caused problems. A person who depended on it could no longer sell it after they imported it. This still happens in our economy today. An example of this today would be something like Pratt and Whitney closing down a plant; it hurts the rest of the community that once benefited from it. The biggest problem for America was trade with the French. The economy of fishermen started to suffer when "the French stopped permitting fish to be carried by foreigners to any of their islands unless it be bartered of exchanged for molasses" (King, Peter. Petition from the Massachusetts). Not being able to exchange fish for molasses caused the economy to suffer. The British stated that the colonies could only obtain molasses from British sources, which makes this suffering economy evident. The British not allowing fish to be traded with the colonies put the fishermen who depended on this as a livelihood out of business. This started to drive the colonists toward opposition against British involvement in North American affairs. The cause of this opposition was taxation, which was starting to hurt the economy. Another problem plaguing the economy of Britain was that the Americans continued to issue a large amount of paper bills. The British felt the effective way to halt the issuing of the bills was to put in place a Currency Act. They saw the paper money as "greatly depreciating
The American Revolutionary War (1775–1783), the American War of Independence, or simply the Revolutionary War in the United States, was the prosperous military revolt against Great Britain of Thirteen American Colonies which joined together as the United States of America in July 1776. Originally constrained to fighting in those colonies, after 1778 it additionally became a world war between Britain and France, Netherlands, Spain, and Mysore.
Huge debts were owed to Great Britain for supplying the colonists with military support and supplies. To pay the dues, there was the establishment of the Stamp Act, the taxation on domestic goods and services. A tax on domestic merchandise brought even more anger to the colonists. The Sugar Act, the Townshed Duties and the Tea Act were also all introduced with the same fundamentals: applying tax on goods whether it be directly or indirectly, domestic or international. “British commercial regulations imposed a paltry economic burden on Americans, who enjoyed a rapid economic growth and a standard of living higher than their European counterparts” (McGaughy). Each act resulted in irritated colonists. Some even retaliated by tarring and feathering certain English tax enforcers living in the colonies.
After the victory towards French in the Seven Years War, the political and social relationship of the colonists and Great Britain had shifted to a different direction. The colonists began to think of themselves as Americans. At that time, The British government felt that the colonies had become quite independence, and they wanted their colonies to start paying tax in order to help England pay the national debt. Not only were Americans forced to pay direct taxes, but they were also obliged to involve in strict regulatory acts such as Sugar Act and Currency Act. Sugar Act (1764) strongly affected American’s trading in which their oceanic vessels and cargos could be inspected by the British Navy and might be confiscated if the paper and the goods that being transported were in disagreement. Currency Act (1764) restricted colonial governments to print their own paper money. These two acts put some colonists in anger but they were not enough to result in civil disorder until the Stamp Act was passed. The reason that the colonists resisted government authority with the passage of the Stamp Act (1765) was because the Stamp Act collected taxes in all type of papers including newspapers, playing cards, licenses, and stamps. This outraged many colonists especially the educated and
Throughout the French and Indian War (1754-1763), the relationship between the British and the American colonies underwent many radical changes. This war drew the British into America to fight the French alongside of the American colonists. Once the fighting began, the vast economic, political, and ideological differences between the colonists and their mother country of Great Britain surfaced. The French and Indian War impacted the political correlation between Britain and the American colonies because the colonies desired a new democratic government in place of the former English monarchy. Additionally, the war altered the economic relations between the two because of the establishment of numerous British taxations to pay for the war
The American Revolutionary War in 1755 spouted from a conflict between the British government and British people living in the then 13 American colonies. The crown and his legislature passed tax measures, which the people of the thirteen American colonies fiercely opposed. American leaders took action against taxes because the government that created the laws offered no representation for those being taxed which is where taxation without any representation stems from. The crown only allowed upper-class men vote in England and most elections within American colonies, although the American voting class weren’t able to express on the ballots their views of the parliament.
The American Revolution modeled the path taken by a social and economic movement in many more aspects than that of a political and intellectual movement. Even though political reasons existed for the cause the Revolution, the revolution should be considered an economic movement based on the idea of “no taxation without representation.” The colonists believed that the British rule in the colonies was extremely unfair, but these intellectual causes are greatly outnumbered by economic causes such as taxes and trade.
The British tried to shoulder some of the financial responsibilities onto the Americas in the form of various taxes during 1763.
Between 1754 and 1763, Britain and French were involved in the French and Indian War, which was a territorial dispute between Britain and France. With the help of the British-American colonists, Britain was able to maintain and increase its borders in America, but the funds needed to support the war caused Britain to go into debt (“French and Indian War/Seven Years' War 1754-1763” 1). Not willing to tax its own citizens any further, Britain decided to tax the American colonies more in order to generate revenue. Before the war, American colonists were paying a fraction of the taxes than those living in Britain, and even after the imposed taxes, the average American would pay less taxes than the average Englishman (“British Acts on Colonial America” 1).
The French and Indian war caused debts among the British. The British realized that during the war the income from the colonies was insufficient (document F). After the war, the British needed certain ways in which to gain revenue. They imposed taxes on the Colonists. These taxes, in turn, caused a stir among Americans. The Stamp Act was a tax imposed on the colonists without representation (document H). Their liberties as English citizens were being denied. Radical Whigs would go as far to say it
The American revolutionary war brought about a myriad of costs to both the British and the newly independent Americans. Some of the political, economical, and social consequesnces were felt immediately while others such as slavery and women’s rights would have lingering impacts into the future. The revolutionary war left Americans with significant financial debt, a new government that had to figure out how to pay the debt and strengthen commercial trading with other countries. The British also spent a significant amount of money fighting the war, which left their country with a high national debt, and eventually lead to some political reforms.
1763, the end of the Seven Years War and the start of taxation without representation. The British, believing that the American colonists deserved to pay for their protection from the French and Indians, began to tax everything that the colonists loved, from Tea to Stamps. The taxing would only stop when the Revolution started, and when independence was declared. The ideas of the independence changed drastically throughout 1763 to 1783. The colonists believed liberty was achieved when the Stamp Act was repealed, however they still remained under direct British control. The colonists realized their freedom was limited when the continuous barrage of taxes enforced upon the colonists began to rain down. Many colonists understood that the only
The Revolutionary War started on April 19, 1775 at Lexington and Concord. America was very much unprepared with no central government or army. The congress stepped up as the government and began to organize an army. The Revolutionary War did not end until September 3, 1783 with the signing of the final peace treaty between America and Great Britain. The victory in the Revolution War led to the birth of a new independent nation.
The American and French Revolutions were profoundly motivated by economics. Prior to the Revolution, British colonies in America were thriving. Colonists paid fairly few taxes and were permitted to participate in domestic economic activity, granted they adhere to the Navigation Act, an act requiring, “that all trade within the empire be conducted on ships which were constructed, owned and largely manned by British citizens. Certain enumerated goods whether exported or imported by the colonies had to be shipped through England regardless of the final port of destination.” (Baack) Its mother country however, was not analogous. England’s debt had nearly doubled due to their victory over France during the 7 Year War and was frantically
During the beginning of Colonial America, there were many people who migrated from Europe to settle the new founded American Continent. They traveled from Europe to escape the laws, taxes, demands, and nobility brought upon them at the hands of King George III and Parliament. They wanted to be free from the tyranny of King George III. When the colonist arrived on the American Continent they felt freedoms that they had never before felt. After, feeling the freedom of being on this newly found continent King George once again started putting his demands on the Colonist. Eventually, the colonist saw their rights being taken away by the acts that were passed, the taxes that were implemented, and the Proclamation of 1763. The Tyranny of King
The American revolutionary era began in 1763, after a series of victories by British forces at the conclusion of the French and Indian War (also, Seven Years War) ended the French military threat to British North American colonies. Adopting the policy that the colonies should pay a larger proportion of the costs associated with keeping them in the Empire, Britain imposed a series of direct taxes (later known as the "Stamp Act"), followed by other laws intended to demonstrate