ABSTRACT
George Grenville, the new Prime Minister, tried to reform the British financial system (the National Debt had risen to £140 million as a result of the war) and, more particularly, provide for strong garrisons in the colonies as a safeguard against French revenge. In 1764 he considerably extended the list of 'enumerated articles'. He also tried to enforce more strictly existing legislation which his predecessor, the Duke of Newcastle (1756-62), had allowed to become a dead letter. The trade between the Thirteen Colonies and the French West Indies was a particular case in point. The Molasses Act of 1733 had tried to kill such trade by imposing prohibitive duties on French-produced rum, molasses and sugar but it had been virtually ignored until the Seven Years War. Grenville now replaced it with the Sugar Act, with lower duties, meant to raise revenue. In 1764 Boston merchants resolved not to import ('embargo') British manufactures until their grievances were redressed. Merchants from New York and Philadelphia supported them. The Stamp Act. This extended to the colonies the requirement that certain legal documents be validated by the attachment of an official stamp. It was expected to raise £60,000 towards the annual cost of £350,000 to maintain 10,000 regular troops in North America. It was rejected by the colonists on the grounds that it was a direct revenue tax, voted by a House of Commons in which they had no members. The cry 'No taxation without representation' was born. Riots followed. The Stamp Act was repealed by the Rockingham administration, which had come into office in July 1765, but it also passed the Declaratory Act, asserting the British government's right in principle to tax the colonies. Townshend Duties. Charles Townshend, as Chancellor of the Exchequer, proposed to impose new duties on glass, lead, paper and tea (expected to raise about £40,000 per annum), arguing that these were traditional customs duties. Protests and threats of more embargoes against British goods resulted. 'Boston massacre'. Massachusetts was the centre of resistance and more British troops were sent there. A sentry was set upon, his comrades fired and five people were killed. Lord North became Prime Minister. All the Townshend Duties, except that on tea, were repealed. Boston Tea Party. The East India Company complained that the Americans were buying all their tea from smugglers. North's government permitted the Company to ship its tea
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direct to America, thus undercutting the smugglers' prices. New York and Philadelphia refused to allow the tea to be landed. In Boston a party, disguised as Indians, boarded the tea ships and threw 342 chests of tea into the harbour.
