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While the Tea Act passed by Parliament in May, 1773 was one of the major events leading to war with Great Britain, it was not designed to tax the colonies but to bail out the East India Tea Company, a private commercial trading company that was involved in trade with Asia. The company carried out many governmental and military functions in Asia for the Crown. As a reward, it was granted a monopoly of the trade in India. In 1773 the company was on the verge of bankruptcy as a result of mismanagement. It also had 17 million pounds of tea in London warehouses with no prospect of selling the tea. The British government agreed to allow the company exclusive right to sell the tea in the American colonies. The tea would be cheaper than the Dutch tea the Americans had been smuggling in since the Townshend Acts. Prime Minister North did away with all taxes on the tea except the Townshend levy, which was very small. Sam Adams and the Americans who wanted to uphold the principle, "no taxation without representation," knew that the tea would be purchased by colonial consumers if it were permitted to enter the harbors, be unloaded, and distributed to the stores. If colonists bought the tea, the argument about taxation and representation might begin to weaken. The result was the famous Boston Tea Party. or this answer To bail out the East India Company

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16y ago

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