This allowed it to be sold in the colonies for cheaper, making it more competitive against smuggled Dutch tea that was much less expensive and quite detrimental to English trade. ![]() The Indemnity Act of 1767 lowered the taxes that the British East India Company had to pay to import tea to England. It also gave local officials more power to deal with smugglers and those attempting to evade paying royal taxes - all designed to help improve the profitability of the colonies to the Crown, and also more firmly establish the rule of (British) law in America. The Townshend Revenue Act of 1767 placed import duties on items such as glass, lead, paint, and paper. The New York Restraining Act was never implemented because the New York Assembly acted in time. The colony chose to comply and got its right to self-rule back, but it also stirred up people’s anger towards the Crown more than ever. This law was meant to be a punishment for New York’s insolence, and it worked. New York and the other colonies did not believe British soldiers were any longer necessary in the colonies, since the French and Indian War had come to an end. The New York Restraining Act of 1767 prevented New York’s colonial government from passing new laws until it complied with the Quartering Act of 1765, which said that colonists had to provide and pay for the lodging of British soldiers stationed in the colonies. In total, there were five separate laws that made up the Townshend Acts: The New York Restraining Act of 1767 The Townshend Acts were a series of laws passed in 1767 by British Parliament that restructured the administration of the American colonies and placed duties on certain goods being imported into them. It was the second time in the history of the colonies that a tax had been levied solely for the purpose of raising revenue. Patriots like Samuel Adams and Patrick Henry spoke out against the act believing that it violated the principles of the Magna Carta.Ī year after the repeal of the Stamp Act and less than two months before Parliament passes the new Townshend Revenue Acts, a sense of what is to come is conveyed by Member of Parliament Thomas Whately as he hints to his correspondent (who will become a new customs commissioner) that “you will have much to do.” This time the tax will come in the form of a duty on imports into the colonies, and the collection of those duties will be fully enforced. Because the act was copied almost verbatim from the Irish Declaratory Act, many colonists believed that more taxes and harsher treatment were on the horizon. After the repeal of the stamp act, the Declaratory Act proclaimed that Parliament’s power was absolute. The Stamp Act also broached questions about the British Parliament’s authority in the Colonies. The issue would become a major point of contention the following year with the passage of the widely unpopular Stamp Act of 1765. It was also the first time that American colonists raised the issue of no taxation without representation. The Sugar Act of 1764 was the first direct tax on the Colonies for the sole purpose of raising revenue. Why Were They Called the Townshend Acts?.Why Did Parliament Pass the Townshend Acts?.The Commissioners of Customs Act of 1767.However, what began as a tactical move to control his colonies quickly turned into a catalyst for protest and change, setting in motion a chain of events that ended in the American Revolutionary War and the independence of the United States of America. This decision led to a series of new laws, known collectively as the Townshend Acts or the Townshend Duties, designed to improve the administration of the colonies and improve their ability to generate revenue for the Crown. Unhappy with this situation, King George III did as all good British kings do: he ordered Parliament to fix it. Trade had been severely deregulated for many years, taxes were not collected with consistency, and local colonial governments had been left largely alone to tend to the affairs of individual settlements.Īll of this meant too much money, and power, was staying in the colonies, instead of making its way back where it “belonged,” across the pond in the Crown’s coffers. ![]() His colonies in North America - all thirteen of them - were terribly inefficient at lining his pockets. In 1767, the king of England, George III, found himself with a situation on his hands.
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