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The Boston Tea Party
The British hate losing their tea, particularly if it’s worth £18,000
The British Empire was a greedy and powerful enterprise. Driven by a belief in racial superiority and the desire for excessive capital, the British spread their influence across the globe in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Challenging British imperialism was a dangerous thing to do. Yet there was one group of men who attacked the empire by targeting one of its most lucrative commodities:
The tea tax
In 1773, the British Parliament introduced the Tea Act. This gave the East India Company the exclusive right to transport tea to British colonies. The British Parliament immediately shipped 5,000 chests of tea to the colonies and demanded the importers paid a heavy tax when the cargo landed.
Unfortunately, this latest piece of legislation led to a significant backlash. Those who worked in the trade were furious at the new tax. Plenty resigned in cities such as New York, Philadelphia, and Charleston.
In Boston, the governor Thomas Hutchinson wanted to uphold the new law and allowed three ships — the Dartmouth, the Eleanor, and the Beaver — to deposit their cargoes in accordance with the law.
