Introduction of Tea Act
Since the beginning of the 18th century, tea was regularly imported to the American colonies; it was estimated that American colonists drank around 1.2 million pounds of tea each year. Britain saw an opportunity to make more money off the New World’s lucrative tea trade by imposing taxes on American colonies.
As a result, the cost of British tea soared so American colonists began an alternative lucrative trade by smuggling tea from the Dutch and other European markets. Britain saw that the smuggling was undercutting their lucrative tea trade and as such the British Parliament imposed an Indemnity Act in 1767 which made British tea the same price as the Dutch were supplying it for. This reduced the smuggling of tea into America.
However, in 1773, the Tea Act was passed which granted the British East India Company control on tea sales within the American colonies. The colonists became outraged over this tea tax and saw it as an abolishment of human rights by being taxed without representation. As a result the smuggling of tea became prolific again.
What happened next...?
The Boston Tea Party occurred on the evening of Thursday, 16 December 1773, and lasted approximately three hours. 116 people were estimated to have taken part, many disguised as Mohawk Indians to protect their identity.
340 chests of British East India Company tea were smashed open and dumped into the Boston harbour; according to modern estimates the amount of destroyed tea could have brewed 18,523,000 cups of tea! The destruction of this tea was an expensive blow to the British.
After the Boston Tea Party
The 92,000 pounds of tea that was dumped in the harbour caused it to smell; as a result the British shut down the harbour until the 340 chests of British tea was paid for. This incensed the American colonists even more and they responded with protests and resistance.
The impact of the Boston Tea Party was enormous and was said to have fuelled the eventual American Revolution which began in Massachusetts on 19 April, 1775.
The permanent impact of the Boston Tea Party was that many Americans came to consider tea drinking to be unpatriotic. Tea drinking declined during and after the American Revolution, which ultimately resulted in the lasting American preference for coffee.
