The Colonists Response To The Acts: Case Study

Parliament decided that the colonies should help pay towards the cost of the recent war debt and for future defense. The first step towards this was the Revenue Act of 1764, generally referred to as the Sugar Act. The Sugar Act was also known as “an Act with Teeth,”(Mass Historical Society) symbolizing that it was an act with depth or of importance. The Act itself was divided into two sections. First, it was intended to raise money from trade between the British colonies in America. It levied import duties on a list of raw materials including: sugar, coffee, indigo, wine, rum, lumber, and various cloths. The Sugar Act made the Molasses Act of 1733 perpetual. Although it cut the tax on molasses in half, from sixpence to threepence per gallon, to discourage smuggling and to make the tax attractive. Second, the Act revamped and reinvigorated the customs service, which managed the collection of these import duties. For the first time, colonists argued that Parliament was depriving them of a fundamental constitutional right to have these goods duty free.

In 1761 the British began to reinforce writs of assistance, laws that granted customs officials the authority to conduct random searches of property to seek out goods on which required duties had not been paid, not only in public establishments but in private homes. The next step was the Sugar Act of 1764, and it quickly became apparent that the purpose of the act was to extract revenue from America.  The Molasses Act of 1733 had placed a tax of six pence per gallon on sugar and molasses imported into the colonies.  In 1764 the British lowered the tax to three pence but now eventually decided to enforce it.  In addition, taxes were to be placed on other items such as wines, coffee, and textile products, and other restrictions were applied, this upset the colonists.  Madaras L, SoRelle J (2011) & Wood S. G. (2003)

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 Peace of Paris, 1763, the British, after fifty years, felt at peace after several years of wars. However, they were also left with a tremendous amount of debts, which led them to enforce several policies, taxes and acts in the colonies, wrecking the colonial and the British relationship. The prime minister to George III, George Grenville, introduced a series of Acts to the colonists that issued a tax on certain supplies. After the proclamation of 1763 that restricted the colonist from traveling westward of the Appalachian Mountains. This angered the colonists greatly and they resisted by continuing to move westward, making the proclamation ineffective. Under Grenville’s program, the very first taxation on sugar was passed under the Sugar Act of 1764. It raised taxes on sugar and reduced taxes on molasses. This only affected few of the merchants,

The sugar act also known as the revenue act was proclaimed in 1764 by parliament. After the first act was to expire this act was a tax on molasses also. It taxed people six pence per gallon of the imported substance. The goal of the act was to raise revenue to help pay for military costs.

In 1776, the original thirteen colonies officially declared their independence from Great Britain after the American revolution. This fight for freedom was not an easy one however and was brought on by a chain of events following the French and Indian War in 1754. After fighting in the French and Indian War, Great Britain had greatly over-extended itself, causing a period of severe debt. To cope with this debt, Parliament started trying to generate revenue for the country; one way this was done was though the passing of acts. In 1764, under the order of George Grenville, Chancellor of the Exchequer at the time, the Sugar Act and the Currency Act were implemented. These two acts were consumption taxes on sugar and printing currency, respectively. Not too long after these acts were passed, the Stamp Act of 1765 occurred, requiring colonists to pay for an official seal to have their mail sent. After this act was passed, colonists were becoming angry that they were being taxed on nearly everything. This anger led to the

England passed a series tax laws and demanded the colonists pay back the debt. In 1764, the Sugar Act was passed by the Parliament of Great Britain, reducing smuggling yet increasing the cost of imported goods in the American colonies and decreasing exportation to non-British markets. The Currency Act of 1764 did not forbid colonies from releasing paper money, yet it did ban paper money from being used to pay of private or public debts. In 1765, the Stamp Act was established in order to raise revenue from the American colonies by taxing stamps which were required on all legal or commercial documents, newspapers, licenses, and diplomas. Great Britain benefited from the passing of the Stamp Act which enriched their economy. The colonists, however, believed that the Act was taxation without representation and the power to tax is the power to destroy. In 1767, a series of laws known as the Townshend Acts placed taxes on tea, glass, paper and other materials. This again benefited Great Britain and upsetted the colonists because of the high payments enforced on these

After the war, the British Empire had a dark, giant, debt-filled cloud that loomed over it for years. In effort to relieve this they ended salutary neglect and began taxation in the colonies. For example the Molasses Act, Sugar Act, Stamp Act, Quartering Act, and Townshend Duties were created to generate revenue from the colonies.

The act was to set to try to stop the smuggling of goods so they required captains of colonial ships to post a bond that they would deliver enumerated goods to England or pay the "plantation duty" that would be owned in England. Similar to this Act was the Woolens Act of 1699, that Forbade export of woolen cloth made in the colonies, to prevent competition with English producers. In response, they wore their own products and refused to buy from British. Become desperate they even pass the Hat Act of 1732, which prohibited exports of colonial hats. This shows how well the colonies are to adapt to the changes. There is more like the Molasses Act of 1733, which was quite simply a tax on sugar from foreign sources. Their ideology was simple to tax and regulate what they can to maximize profit and minimize the influences the colonies had to other foreign countries. By taking away their rights to sell who they want to and what they could sell. The King and Parliament believed they had the right to tax the colonies. They decided to require several kinds of taxes from the colonists to help pay for the French and Indian War. These taxes included the Stamp Act, passed in 1765, which required the use of special paper bearing an embossed tax stamp for all legal documents. Other laws, such as the Townshend Acts, passed in 1767, required the colonists to pay taxes on imported goods like tea. Similar to a monopoly. British begin the main company and the colonies the company affected by

In 1763 the British were among the most heavily taxed people in the world, where as the colonies in the Americas were prospering, Greenville, the British finance minister asked, “Why shouldn’t these colonists begin to pay some of the costs of their own government and defense?” The British then passed the sugar and quartering acts as well as the stamp act which all basically were designed to bring in more income from the colonies.

Following its war with France, Britain decided that to generate income to pay off its war debt, it would levy taxes on the American Colonies. To raise revenue for the crown many taxes were imposed on the American colonies. The Sugar, Stamp, and the Townshend Acts, were imposed on the colonies in 1763. These taxes or Tariffs would contribute greatly to the American Revolution.

The year is 1764 and the French and Indian War has ended. There is a staggering war debt held by the crown. George Grenville the British Prime Minister at the time decided to explore the option of taxing the colonies to make the debt more manageable. According to (Roark et al., 2014) the sugar act was a British law that decreased the duty on French molasses, making it more attractive for shippers to obey the law, and at the same time raised the penalties for smuggling. The sugar act regulated trade but was also intended to raise revenue much in the same tradition of the Navigation acts. Grenville’s hope for the Sugar Act did not materialize, however the next year he escalated his revenue program with the Stamp Act. In the words of (Roark et al., 2014) The Stamp Act was a 1765 British law imposing a tax on all paper used

To pay for soldiers, which cost about 320,000 pounds a year. They imposed the Sugar Act in the colonies in 1764, to collect taxes on imported molasses. In fact, the Sugar Act lowered the tax on imported sugar from six pence a gallon to three pence. However, the taxes were actually being collected as opposed to when they were not under salutary neglect, which upset the colonists. To get out of paying the taxes, colonists began to smuggle the sugar. And in response to the smuggling, the British gave its Navy more power to capture merchant vessels. To supply the Navy with even more power, the British also passed the Stamp Act. The Stamp Act required that all legal documents in the colonies bear a tax stamp that could only be purchased from official tax collectors. The colonists were furious, however England was open to new ideas and solutions. Prime Minister George Grenville, the author of the Stamp Act said, “I am not set upon this tax, If the Americans dislike it and prefer any other method of raising the money themselves and if they choose any other mode I shall be satisfied, provided the money be raised.” England was more than happy to change the tax, as long as the colonists could come up with another way to pay revenue. After all the taxes were the colonists responsibility as colonies and for their part in the war debts.

The frustrations amongst colonists did not stop with the Proclamation Line. In 1764 the Revenue Act, more commonly known as the Sugar Act was passed cutting the duty on molasses in half. Though the reduction in duty was favorable, the act also meant that ships carrying cargo were very closely monitored and those who breached laws regarding duty were tried in juryless admiralty courts. Following the Revenue Act was the Currency act of 1764, which prohibited colonies from producing their own currency; the reasoning was to restrict colonists from paying off debt with currency that was worth less than face value.

Between 1763 and 1765, the crown imposed a number of acts on the American colonist designed to recoup funds lost during the French and Indian War. One of the first acts imposed was the Sugar Act. This act was a modified version of a previous act the British had imposed in 1733 called the Sugar and Molasses act, which was about to expire. Under the old act, colonial merchants had been required to pay a tax of six pence per gallon on any importation of foreign molasses. The colonist undercut the market by instead buying molasses from the French West Indies instead of the British West Indies. The colonist used the molasses purchased cheaper from the French to produce rum. Because of this practice, Lord Grenville, the first lord of the Treasury increased the presence of British naval ships and instructed them to become more stringent in their enforcement of customs.