A History of Taxation, Part Eight: Tax and The Boston Tea Party
W. Marc Gilfillan, CPA, NC, individual and business CPA and Tax expert, shares about the history of taxes…
Ah…. now we have a historical event obviously concerning oppressive taxes. Was the Boston Tea Party a protest against the British tax on tea, as we were all taught? No, not at all. The colonies had continuously been boycotting English tea for five years before to the Boston Tea Party! Instead, they smuggled in Dutch tea and were doing quite well. There was tea for anyone who wanted it and no British tea tax paid. Obviously, the British didn't like the boycott. So, the British bypassed the duties at home. The Parliament allowed British tea merchants to avoid the import tax of shipping the tea to England and then transfer the money saved along to the colonies as they sent the tea over and then sold British tea at a price lower than the Dutch smuggled tea. If you're feeling the pressure with today's taxes, call a CPA for Tax Preparation in Raleigh, NC for all your tax-related needs!
But what people would sell this British tea?
They sold it through loyal British merchants in the colonies. But will the colonists buy the cheaper British tea even though it included a tax? Yes. So much so that the result was loyal British merchants were getting all the business and a tax was still be given to England. However, the colonists didn’t mind the tax very much; they ended up getting cheaper tea. However, the non-British MERCHANTS did not enjoy this process. The British merchants, with the assistance of England, had basically created a monopoly on tea sales. The colony merchants feared it would only be a matter of time before many British enterprises would be established with an identical mechanism and they would be forced out of business. Go here if you want help with a modern-day Tax Return in Raleigh, NC.
So, a collection of MERCHANTS who appeared to be Natives, walked on a vessel containing British tea and dumped it into the harbor. Was this a shining peak in American tax protest? Nope. The Boston Tea Party was looked at as the meaningless desecration of private property at a time when private property was highly regarded. This event was extremely looked down upon and did not sit well with the colonies. Ben Franklin was abhorred and demanded that full repayment would be paid at once to the owners of the tea. However, it escalated into war.
However, the colonies would soon realize that masses of warships, battalions of redcoats, and cannons were much more terrifying than a few tax collectors. The ironic thing is, America won the war, mostly due to the fact that England realized it was too expensive to wage war so far from home. BUT after the war, America had huge debts and taxes, and even with representation they were enormous.
Keep an eye out for W. Marc Gilfillan's next chapter in his History of Taxes series: Taxes and Slavery and the Civil War.
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