History of the United States I / Unit 5 USH1 0627 short lesson, about 20 seconds
The Tea Act Was Not a Punishment
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The idea
Parliament passed the Tea Act of seventeen seventy-three as economic protection for the financially struggling East India Company, letting it export directly without duties or middlemen.
In practice
A measure that would have undercut smuggled Dutch tea on price.
Where people slip
Colonial merchants objected because the monopoly destroyed both their legal profits and their smuggling revenue, and the Townshend duty remained.
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