Taxation In The Revolutionary Era

During the 1700s, the British Parliament used their authority to make laws regarding tax collection. One of these was the Molasses Act of 1733, but it did not work well. This was because the tax was not collected and people refused to pay it. During King George the third rule the Sugar Act, which was passed on April 5, 1764, replaced the Molasses Act. The background, purpose, and effect of the Sugar Act must be explained to understand the economic impact on the American colonies.

The Seven Years’ War had been seriously costly. The national debt was so much by 1764. Gladly to pay the taxes, it was said that they should pay it since the taxes were being imposed by Parliament to make up the money that was spent on war. However, there is something that Parliament had overlooked. They overlooked the fact that the colonists gave a large amount of

Then, the British began levying taxes against the American colonists. The Seven Years’ War was very expensive. The American colonists payed lower taxes than mainland English residents. Money gained from taxing items was used to pay for military defense. Colonies weren’t represented in Parliament and to tax them without giving them that representation was liking taking away their rights.

Great Britain was the most powerful government in the world in the time of the American revolution, it had a reputable navy and army. Britain’s government style was a monarchy with a parliamentary system, which was implemented in the colonies. Following The seven years war British troops were stationed in the U.S. colonies war this and the war combined put Britain in a great amount of debt. In order to pay debts parliament needed to create revenue, so Grenville who was the prime minister and the British government introduced the sugar and currency act, along with these acts it created more taxes including, the Stamp act, Coercive acts, and Townshend acts. These all angered the colonists because they were not being properly represented in

But they couldn’t impose the taxes to pay for all of those things. Paying federal taxes was voluntary for the states at this time under the Articles of Confederation. In order to pay for the revolutionary war, the United States had borrowed money from European investors and nations. But with no power to tax, The United States couldn’t pay back any of those debts and this created a huge economic disaster by 1787. The central government couldn’t do much to protect peace at home without any funds and with very limited power.

Britain tried to tax the American settlers with the Stamp Act of 1970s and the Sugar Act of 1764 which ultimately drove the Americans into war because it was taxation without representation. As a result of winning the war against the British, American soon came up with the creation of the The Articles of the Constitution and soon after that the Bill of

“Taxation Without Representation”         American colonists thought that Britain was taxing them unfairly for the expenses caused during the French and Indian war or that Parliament had the right to tax them since there weren’t any American colonies represented in Parliament. Since the American colonists drank a lot of tea, Britain decided to impose taxes on the American colonies. Because the taxes increased, the American colonists started to smuggle tea from the Dutch and other European countries. The Boston Tea Party was the first significant act of defiance by American colonists and was one of the things that lead to the start of the American Revolution, which began in Massachusetts on April 19, 1775.        

After the French and Indian War King George III figured there was way too much money spent for the upkeep and supplies of his army. Realizing this King George III wanted to raise the taxes to help replenish the money that was lost during time and this is why the reason for the American Revolutionary War ultimately came down to money. Although the patriots wanted to gain freedom and independence, the

Between 1763 and 1775, there were three ‘Imperial Crises’ which occurred between the British and the American colonists. The conflict that was produced during this period arose through an undefined balance of political and economic power between the two parties. In 1763, Britain had just concluded the French and Indian war and was left with an immense and almost crippling debt of around 140 million pounds sterling (“Turning Point In American History”). In Britain’s eyes, the most effective way to reduce this debt was increased taxes. Unfortunately, the people of England were already massively overtaxed, which meant the last option for the British was to tax the American colonists.

“The history of present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations [unlawful seizures], all having in direct object the establishments of an absolute Tyranny over these States. ”(Document E). The British taxed just about anything they could; like tea, paper, legal documents, and stamps “Committees are appointed into the characters and conduct of every tradesman, to prevent them selling tea or buying British manufactures. ”(Document I) The British were taxing the American colonists to pay what Britain lost in the French and Indian war.

The French and Indian War left England with a debt of £130,000,000. To help pay off the debt Britain set up taxes, to collect money, on frequently used products by the colonists. The Molasses Act put a six pence tax on every gallon of molasses. The colonists thought this was a lot of money to pay so they did everything to avoid it. This act was not really enforced and the colonists did not really obey this act.

In result, economic changes would come to the colonies. Parliament met in 1763 and came to the conclusion that they were not receiving the profit they needed from the colonies (Document F). As a result, many taxes were passed by British Parliament upon the colonies, including the Sugar Act, the Stamp Act (Document H) and the Tea Act. The American colonies were not happy, to say the least. Americans protested, saying that these taxes were unnecessary and unfair.

The Britain felt that it was only natural that the American colony would pay the mother country more for their protection after the Seven Years War with France. England was trying to relieve some tax burdens by increasing the tax on the colonies (xix). “that the main purpose of country’s overseas possessions were to serve the business interest of British merchants and manufacturers and to provide the mother country with raw materials” (xvii). However, such increase in demand, and pressure seemed unfair to the American colony despite the fact that they had been paying less tax compared to an English

The French and Indian War was important to the American Revolution because the debt from the war was the reason that Parliament started taxing the colonists. Also, the French and Indian War made Britain very weak, making the colonists’ actions work a whole lot better. Since France was not happy with the outcome of their war with Britain this was a main reasons for France’s interest in helping the now Americans throughout the Revolutionary War, which was very important to the colonies’ victory. ​The reason why Britain started to tax the colonists was because of the debt resulting from the French and Indian War. The first tax was the the tax on sugar, which was put on the colonists to help pay off the war debt.

The war with Great Britain was meant to end these taxations. Great Britain was trying to make us believe that we were paying for the debts, but really, they were taking our money and spending it while we were just getting poor. "We contended with Great Britain—some said for a three-penny duty on tea, but it was not that. It was because they claimed a right to tax us and bind us in all cases whatever. "We started a war with Great Britain because we wanted to end this taxation, and now that we are a lone country, the Constitution will tax us