There was some friction in the economic relationship between Britain and its American colonies. After the war, the British were left in a large debt. This caused them to strictly regulate trade and put taxes on commonly used goods, like playing cards and paper for the Stamp Act, as well as sugar importations for the Sugar Act. The colonists protested against these acts, leading them to begin a non-importation movement in which they would stop buying goods from Britain. The British were pressured into
The Townshend Acts In 1767 Charles Townshend who was the chancellor of the exchequer, created the Townshend Acts . The Townshend Acts were approved by British Parliament on June 26-June 2, 1767 and were repealed April 12, 1770. Charles Townshend proposed the program in order to raise 40,000 pounds a year so that the English parliament could cut the british land tax and this would also raise money to pay for the salaries of governors and judges. Some of the things that the Act taxed were paper, oil, lead, glass, and tea that went into American ports. Townshend knew that his program would be controversial in the colonies, but he argued that, "The superiority of the mother country can at no time be better exerted than now."
Gin DBQ Subsequently following the Glorious Revolution in 1688, the popularity of gin skyrocketed, and eventually its sales surpassed those of beer in England. However, a great dispute arose over the regulation of trade concerning the distillation of gin. In order to restrain the vastly expanding gin market, the government imposed the Gin Act of 1736, which created a high license fee for gin retailers and high per-gallon tax. These regulations did not last long because the fees and taxes were lowered after just a few years. As tensions grew, the government finally issued the Gin Act of 1751 that prohibited gin distillers from selling to unlicensed merchants, restricted retail licenses to substantial property holders, and charged high fees to those merchants eligible for retail licenses.
In addition the interest on the debt alone was £9 million per year. All of this made it clear to Pitt that something had to happen to try to escape from the mess the government was in. In the 18th century there was a serious problem with people smuggling goods such as tea and tobacco into the country. This was to avoid the duty tax on products, which gave them a huge profit margin. This profit margin made the risk worth taking for many, resulting in the government losing money due to be not paying duty tax.
During the beginning of colonial settlement, Britain did not enforce strict laws upon the colonies because it wanted them to prosper. Once war broke out between the French and the British in the French and Indian war, Britain began to enforce harsher laws and greater taxes on the colonies to draw revenue for the war. This in turn, angered the colonists and they began to think twice about having another country rule them. The colonists at the time also violated the same ideals of equality of rights and rule of law when they discriminated against the African Americans, Native Americans, and the poorer white settlers by forcing people into slavery with terrible conditions and taking land just because the colonist needed it. When the French and Indian War broke out between the British and the French, Britain hoped to use the colonies as an extra source of wealth to fight the war.
Despite China attempting to completely control trade with the west within its own boarders, the British maneuvered their way around this agreement by “sending their compradors inland with large stocks of opium that could be exchanged for upcountry tea or Soochow silk.” Around this time, the British were selling roughly 1,400 tons of opium to China per year, despite the sale and use of opium being illegal since 1731. This angered the Qing dynasty, because it was “proved beyond doubt that opium addiction in certain parts of the army had become so serious that the troops were incapable of combat.” By the 1830s the rapid growth of opium imports had reversed China’s balance of trade, producing an outflow of silver and severe currency problems.With their military becoming weaker by the day due to opium addicted soldiers, in 1838, the Emperor of China appointed a highly Confucian commissioner, Lin Zexu to control the opium trade at the port of Canton. His first decision as commissioner was to enforce the permanent halt of drug shipments to China. However, when the British refused, Lin blockaded the British traders in their factories and cut off their food supply. Outraged by the actions of the Chinese, the British sent a large
The Boston Tea Party happened in 1773. It all started when the British decided to start taxing the colonists in many ways, including a tea tax, as a way to get back their war costs. The colonists refused to pay some of these taxes and therefore England had to retract the taxes; all the taxes were taken back except for the tea tax. Parliament decided to get their tea from somewhere else rather than from where their tea was being taxed. This plan, however, backfired when the ships at the harbor were to have their tea goods sent to a warehouse where it was stored for three years.
One of the regulations that Parliament passed was the Stamp Act of 1765. This taxed all printed documents, including: wills, newspapers, and pamphlets. The colonists felt they were not fairly represented because they held no seat in Britain's parliament. The rallying cry for the colonists became "no taxation without representation." After years of boycotting and peaceful protest the American colonists could no longer stand the abuse from Great Britain and decided that they had had enough.
Many, many things caused the revolution. From the economic problems, to the discontent with autocratic rule. Also, the colonies were not allowed their own economy to flourish, not letting the colonials print legal tender money which also in turn, since any monies printed was not considered by the King, it made it much harder to pay royal taxes. After the Boston Tea Party, came the Coercive Acts, or the Intolerable Acts on Boston, which really upset them and made them want to take even more action, rather than just using effigies (dolls made to look like the redcoats and used to scare the redcoat's and boycotting. Between the settlement of Jamestown in 1607 and the French and Indian War the colonies have been isolated by the mother country due to the policy of salutary neglect in which the king argued that colonies should take care of their own affairs, as the British were busy fighting foreign wars.
He introduced this tax to the whole country and misused it by not using it for ship money. So people had to pay money to Charles when they barley had money for themselves. This caused argument because people in parliament didn’t pay and the case was taken to court but Charles’s tax was ruled legal. The most obvious reason for the civil war is power. Divine right also comes in to power.