Key Terms And People: Effects Of The Royal Proclamation Of 1763

Many colonists were angered because of high taxes England chose to enforce on them. These taxes were a result of the British participation and victory in the French and Indian war. However, what made the colonists even more angry was the fact that they were being taxed without representation in England’s Parliament. The colonists thought that, in order to be taxed by the British, they should have representation in it. They saw it as unfair to be taxed by a government they had no say in. As Patrick Henry said in his speech made to the Virginia House of Burgesses, “We can under law be taxed only by our own representatives...The Stamp Act is against the law. We must not obey it…” (Doc. 1). Since many colonists thought this taxation broke the law, some of them chose to protest by going to the House of Burgesses, boycotting imports, or simply not paying it in response. This response is justified; if

These stamps were required on bills of sale for trade items, and on various types of commercial and legal documents, anything from playing cards to diplomas to marriage licenses. Grenville claimed that the Stamp act was needed in order to help defray the cost of keeping British troops stationed in the colonies in order to protect them. To the colonists this was an invalid answer, because the French were out of North America, and they no longer needed protection. Instead, this Act was viewed as a tax solely to make money for England: "A right to impose an internal tax on the colonies, without their consent for the single purpose of revenue, is denied..." (Document B). Also, anyone that disobeyed these laws was tried in the admiralty courts, were juries were not allows, and you were guilty until proven innocent. In response, the colonists formed the Stamp Act Congress, in which the members drew up a statement of the rights and grievances of the colonists to send to the king, however it was ignored by England. Instead, they started a steady boycott of British goods. It is after this that the colonists realized that they were being used by England, and began their cry of "no taxation without representation!" Parliament had thought that it was making easy money off of the colonies; instead it had started the fire of rebellion burning, and the Stamp Act was soon repealed.

In 1765 the Stamp Act was passed and colonists had various reactions to these acts. The Stamp Act was an act created by the British. This was to pay off the debt they had from the French and Indian War. Items that were taxed were newspapers, dice, legal documents, and playing cards. Basically all printed goods were taxed. Colonists that wrote

Simply by suggesting that Parliament had overstepped its implied boundaries, the colonists were considered to be boldly defiant. The Resolutions were sent to the king and Parliament, where they were met as warmly as the Stamp Act itself was in the colonies.

The Stamp Act was an important act introduced by the British Prime Minister George Grenville that was then passed in March 1765 by the British Parliament. The purpose was to raise money for national debt of Britain after the Seven Years War and Parliament needed means to help fund expensive costs of keeping troops inside the colonies. The act levied a tax on legal documents, almanacs, newspapers, and nearly every other form of paper used in the colonies. The British Government felt that the colonies were the primary reason of the military presence and should pay a portion of the expense. The American colonies did not take kindly to this matter.

The stamp act put a tax on paper transactions including marriage certificates, ship’s papers, legal documents, newspapers, and playing cards. The colonies reacted strongly even engaging in violence. The sons of liberty destroyed the stamps and burned the house of the lieutenant governor. The colonist were not justified in reacting in the way that they did. The taxes were already imposed on Britain based citizens, their trade was protected, and the British were paying off the colonists debt.

During the 7 Years War, the British were spending a lot of money to support their military, and they looked to fix this by adding more taxes for the colonists to pay. The colonists were already angry about their taxation situation, already dealing with the Sugar Act of 1764 and the Quartering Act of 1765. Then, Prime Minister George Grenville proposed the Stamp Tax in 1765 in order to raise revenue to support the military in their battle against the French. The Stamp Act mandated the use of stamped paper or the affixing of stamps certifying payment of tax. The majority of Americans became extremely agitated with this act as well as many others before and after the Stamp Act because they felt that their individual rights were being infringed

The Stamp Act was one of the initial problems brought in by the British rule to tax the colonies in an attempt to recoup monies that were lost during the Seven Years War. It was supposed to be a tax on paper goods and included such things as cards and dice. The law was opposed, often violently by the colonists from almost every colony. The colonists boycotted, rioted, and intimidated stamp distributors to avoid paying this tax.

Stamp Act: basically required the colonists to pay a tax on every single paper document or products made out of papers (for example, dice and paper cards). This Act was passed without colonists’ approval, which is why the issue of Taxation without Representation within British Parliament became a controversial issue.

When the Stamp Act of 1765 was passed in the Thirteen Colonies, the colonists were compelled to rethink their loyalty and standing with the British monarchy. The Stamp Act would be the first actual tax levied upon the colonists, which caused outrage in the Thirteen Colonies. The act would place a tax on any document and printed paper that they used: such as legal documents, newspapers, and licenses. All thirteen colonies did not agree that the tax was passed with legality and refused to acknowledge that such tax existed. They would all band together to ensure that the Stamp Act would be repealed and would become nonexistent.

The argument that was in the Stamp Act was that the colonist believed that they were entitled to the same rights as the citizens that were actually in Britain at that time. The colonist didn’t want to be taxed without representation. Since they were too far away to be represented, they wanted to just be taxed through their local representatives.

In 1763 many things affected the colonists everyday lives. The French and Indian War, or Seven Years War, had just come to an end and the British government decided it needed to gain more control over the American Colonies that were previously independent. Parliament wanted to have complete authority over the thirteen colonies, however this was hard for them to do due to the overwhelming amount of land they seized after defeating the French in the war and the amount of Native American revolts there were due to the English settling on this land. Thus, the Proclamation of 1763 was born.

American colonists were most upset by the misrepresentation of the colonies in parliament when the Stamp Act was imposed. In a public letter to Secretary Conway, it is mentioned that the colonists are mostly discontent by the manner in which the tax was imposed and that they feel that they have been violated of their birth right as Briton, the right to be taxed only in a parliament in which they are represented (Doc B). The Stamp Act only taxed printed goods like newspapers, but newspapers were expensive and not a necessity of life, so it only affected the rich. However, the rich were not the only ones angry about the tax therefore meaning it was not the tax itself that angered the colonists, but more how the tax was imposed without their representation.

The colonial view of the Stamp Act was hatred. They they were mad at parliament for taxing

Mercantilism is a political and economical system that continued on the 16th to late 18th century. It means that a country’s economic power is related to the maintenance of a positive balance of trade. That is, in order to remain economically and politically exist, a country most export more than it imports. Such a positive balance of trade, according to mercantilist thought, causes the gold to surplus in the country’s treasury. So as to achieve these, international trade must be done. Key ideas of mercantilism is that national wealth will came through the accumulation of gold or other precious metals such as silver. They can be acquired by export. Raw materials were imported and final products were exported to provide a positive balance of trade. Colonial possessions should serve as markets for exports and as suppliers of raw materials