Acts of the British Parliament on the Colonists Taxes Leading to the American Revolutionary War

Royal Proclamation of 1763 The end of the French and Indian War in 1763 was a cause for great celebration in the colonies Expand to the great western frontier It had opened to them when the French ceded that contested territory to the British. The Royal Proclamation of 1763 did much to dampen that celebration. The proclamation, in effect, closed off the frontier to colonial expansion. The King wanted to calm the fears of the Indians Felt that the colonists would drive them from their Many in the colonies felt that the object was to pen them in along the Atlantic seaboard where they would be easier to regulate. All lands west of the heads of all rivers which flowed into the Atlantic Ocean from the west or northwest were off-limits to the colonists. Establishing and manning posts along the length of this boundary was a very costly undertaking. The British ministry would argue that these outposts were for colonial defense, and as such should be paid for by the colonies. From the American perspective this amounted to a tax on the colonies to pay for a matter of that the colonists were opposed to.

The Currency Act 1764 The colonies suffered a constant shortage of currency with which to conduct trade. There were no gold or silver mines and currency could only be obtained through trade as regulated by Great Britain. The Currency Act of 1764 prohibited all American colonies from issuing paper currency, thereby creating severe monetary problems.

The Quartering Act 1765 The Quartering Act of 1765 was intended to help the British defray the cost of maintaining troops in America. The Act required that the colonists had to supply British troops with food, munitions and barracks. The Act was bitterly resented by the Americans, particularly because the troops were used to enforce Parliament’s new tax policies in the colonies; the negative effect this had on American sentiment

The Stamp Act 1765 The objective of the Stamp Act was to reduce the burden of administering the colonies by taxing trade and certain other products. Taxes collected under the provisions of the Stamp Act were to be applied exclusively to treasuries in America, and used only for the administration of the colonies. The act provided that a revenue stamp be applied to a long list of items, including newspapers, books, pamphlets, legal documents, licenses, diplomas, and playing cards. Colonists viewed the Stamp Act crisis as a violation of their rights and privileges as British subjects .

The Tea Act 1773 The Tea Act was the final spark to the revolutionary movement in Boston. The act imposed no new taxes. It was designed to prop up the East India Company which was floundering financially and burdened with eighteen million pounds of unsold tea. This tea was to be shipped directly to the colonies, and sold at a bargain price. The direct sale of tea, via British agents, would also have undercut the business of local merchants. Colonists in Philadelphia and New York turned the tea ships back to Britain. In Boston the Royal Governor was stubborn & held the ships in port, where the colonists would not allow them to unload. Cargoes of tea filled the harbor. This situation lead to the Boston Tea Party.

The Intolerable Acts 1774 The “Intolerable Acts” of 1774, known to the British as the Coercive Acts, were four exceedingly severe Acts passed expressly to punish the colonists for the Boston Tea Party. The most important of these, the Boston Port Act, closed Boston’s port to all commerce except for food and fuel—and provisions for the Royal army. The Act stipulated that the port could not be re-opened until the colonists had paid for the tea that had been destroyed in the Boston Tea Party. Boston town meetings could not be convened without the governor’s prior consent. Thomas Jefferson’s wrote of this Act that “the cowards who would suffer a countryman to be torn from the bowels of their society, in order to be thus offered a sacrifice to parliamentary tyranny, would merit that everlasting infamy now fixed on the authors of the act!”

Prohibitory Act 1775 It was Great Britain's way of retaliating against an American revolt. This act was enacted as one of the precursors to the American Revolutionary War. Basically, it was to destroy the American economy by making it incapable of operating. The British Navy created a blockade surrounding the colonies so that they could not trade with any country It declared “all manner of (the American colonies’) trade and commerce is and shall be prohibited;” Any ships found trading “shall be forfeited to his Majesty As if the same were the ships and effects of open enemies His Majesty shall have the sole interest and property of all ships, vessels, goods and merchandise, which they shall seize and take” This fateful Act declared all Americans to be outlaws beyond the king’s protection The American Prohibitory Act ended any chance for reconciliation—indeed, this Act marked the point of fracture in an increasingly dramatic exchange between the Americans and the British Crown and Parliament. Four months before the Act was issued, the drama had begun to escalate in August of 1775 when the king issued a proclamation declaring the colonies to be in a state of “open rebellion”—this was the first official recognition of the rebellion in America.

Other Acts Placed on the Colonists The Hat Act enacted in 1732 To control hat production by the Americans in the Thirteen Colonies. It specifically placed limits on the manufacture, sale, and exportation of American-made hats. The act also restricted hiring practices by limiting the number of workers that hat makers could employ, and placed limits on apprenticeships by only allowing two apprentices. The law's effect was that Americans in the colonies were forced to buy British-made goods, and this artificial trade restraint meant that Americans paid four times as much for hats and cloth imported from Britain than for local goods.