Although the Stamp Act was repealed on 18 March 1766, it was not long before the British Parliament began looking for new sources of revenue to support their activities in North America. A new group of taxes, collectively called The Townshend Acts passed during 1767 and 1768. These are named after the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Charles Townshend, who was instrumental in implementing the new tax programs. There are varying opinions as to exactly which acts should be included in Townshend, but these five acts are most often mentioned: The New York Restraining - adopted June 5, 1767 The Revenue Act - adopted June 26, 1767 The Indemnity Act - adopted June 29, 1767 The Commissioners of Customs Act - adopted June 29, 1767 The Vice Admiralty Court Act - adopted July 6, 1768 Most scholars agree that collectively these acts were intended to achieve four goals; to raise revenue to pay for governors, judges and other officers loyal to the crown, to support enforcement of existing trade regulations, to reaffirm the precedent that Parliament had the right to tax the colonies, and as retaliation for the failure to comply with earlier acts. Needless to say, just as with the Stamp Act, these forms of taxation - albeit indirect - were still met with resistance in the colonies. Many commodities were not yet produced in the colonies and needed to be imported; these included glass, lead, paint, paper, and tea - all of which the The Townshend Acts taxed via a form of import duties. Resistance solidified when John Dickenson, a Pennsylvania lawyer published his "Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania", a series of twelve essays which were reprinted throughout the colonies. In these, he succinctly argued that although Parliament did hold power over matters concerning the whole British Empire, the colonies maintained sovereignty in all internal affairs. He argued that Parliament's taxing of the colonies for the purpose of raising revenue, rather than regulating trade, was in fact unconstitutional. The people rallied around Dickenson's arguments. In Boston a group of sixty merchants and traders drew up a non-importation agreement. This document, signed on August 1, 1768 was a boycott upon British goods imported to the city of Boston. The merchants and traders in the town of Boston having taken into consideration the deplorable situation of the trade, and the many difficulties it at present labours under on account of the scarcity of money, which is daily increasing for want of the other remittances to discharge our debts in Great Britain, and the large sums collected by the officers of the customs for duties on goods imported; the heavy taxes levied to discharge the debts contracted by the government in the late war; the embarrassments and restrictions laid on trade by several late acts of parliament; together with the bad success of our cod fishery, by which our principal sources of remittance are like to be greatly diminished, and we thereby rendered unable to pay the debts we owe the merchants in Great Britain and to continue the importation of goods from thence; We, the subscribers, in order to relieve the trade under those discouragements, to promote industry, frugality, and economy, and to discourage luxury, and every kind of extravagance, do promise and engage to and with each other as follows: First, that we will not send for or import from Great Britain, either upon our own account or upon a commission, this fall, any other goods than what are already ordered for the fall supply. Secondly, that we will not send for or import any kind of goods or merchandise from Great Britain, either on our own account, or on commissions, or any otherwise, from the 1st of January 1769, to the 1st of January 1770, except salt, coals, fish hooks and lines, hemp, and duck bar lead and shot, wool- cards and card wire. Thirdly, that we will not purchase any factor, or others, any kind of goods imported from Great Britain, from January 1769 to January 1770. Fourthly, that we will not import, on our own account, or on commissions or purchase of any who shall import from any other colony in America, from January 1769 to January 1770, any tea, glass, paper, or other goods commonly imported from Great Britain. Fifthly, that we will not, from and after the 1st of January 1769, import into this province any tea, paper, glass, or painters colours, until the act imposing duties on those articles shall be repealed. In witness whereof, we have hereunto set our hands, this first day of August 1768. In the months that followed some 650 citizens of Boston, both men and women alike, signed the pledge to boycott all but the most essential British goods. New York and Philadelphia soon followed suit. By 1769 street protests were becoming more visible, with those shops selling British goods being increasingly vandalized. With more than 2,000 British troops in Boston, skirmishes between Patriot colonists and British soldiers became increasingly common. It would not however be until March of 1770 that most of the taxes from the Townshend Acts were finally repealed by Parliament... but by then the first blood of the Revolution had already been shed.
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Michael WoodHistorical milestones in our fight for liberty 1765-1783 Archives
February 2022
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Jnn13 [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)] |