The Townshend Acts of 1767 were a series of laws which set new import taxes on British goods including paint, paper, lead, glass & tea with the intent of using revenues accrued to maintain British troops in America and to pay the salaries of some Royal officials who were appointed to work in the American colonies. The Townshend Acts of 1767 were a series of laws which set new import taxes on British goods including paint, paper, lead, glass & tea using revenues to maintain British troops in America and to pay the salaries of some Royal officials who were appointed to work in the American colonies. The Townshend Acts of 1767 were: The Revenue Act of 1767; The Indemnity Act of 1767; The Commissioners of Customs Act of 1767; The Vice Admiralty Court Act of 1767; & The New York Restraining Act of 1768.
The Townshend Acts continued to divide Great Britain & its colonies in America. Unlike the Stamp Act of 1765, the laws were not a direct tax, but a tax on imports. The Stamp Act had been repealed due to the opposition in the colonies which include the boycott of British goods. The boycott of British goods resulted in British merchants applying pressure on the government to repeal the Stamp Act. The reaction of the merchants together with the violent reaction of many American colonists, which verged on revolution, resulted in the repeal of the hated stamp tax. Colonists were strongly opposed to taxes imposed by the British parliament, complaining bitterly "No Taxation without representation!" As the colonists celebrated their political victory, the British parliament passed the Declaratory Act, which provided the British with a broad mandate to impose laws, & taxes, on the American colonies. Within a year of the passing of the Declaratory Act new new taxes, were introduced by the Townshend Acts of 1767.
The first of the Townshend Acts, sometimes simply known as the Townshend Act, was the Revenue Act of 1767, a new approach for generating tax revenue in the American colonies after the repeal of the Stamp Act in 1766. The leaders of the British government had cleverly latched onto an idea which would be perfect for them, if it would sell in the colonies. They circulated the theory that because the colonists had objected to the Stamp Act on the grounds that it was a direct (or "internal") tax, colonists would therefore accept indirect (or "external") taxes, such as taxes on imports.
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The Townshend Acts of 1767 were the idea of Charles Townshend 1725-1767 who was one of the ministers of William Pitt (the Elder), Earl of Chatham 1708-1778. Townshend, as Chancellor of the Exchequer, had the difficult role in the British government of managing finances, as British land tax income dwindled. Townshend was careful not to impose direct taxes on the British American colonies. He also chose to tax commodities that would not hurt the British trade but still raise enough revenue from the colonies. With this in mind, Townshend devised a plan which placed new duties on paper, paint, glass, & tea imported into the colonies. These were items that were not produced in North America, & that the colonists were only allowed to buy from Britain, although Dutch tea was being smuggled into the British American colonies by this time.
The British government's belief that the colonists would accept "external" taxes resulted from a convenient misunderstanding or intentionally manipulative interpretation of the colonial objection to the Stamp Act. Unfortunately for the leaders in William Pitt's cabinet, the colonists' objection to "internal" taxes did not mean that they would accept "external" taxes; the American colonial position was that any tax laid by Parliament for the purpose of raising revenue for London was unconstitutional.
The Revenue Act was passed in conjunction with the Indemnity Act of 1767, which was intended to make the tea of the British East India Company more competitive with smuggled Dutch tea. The Indemnity Act repealed taxes on tea imported to England, allowing it to be re-exported more cheaply to the colonies. The hope was that this tax cut in England would be mostly offset by the new Revenue Act taxes on tea imported into the colonies. The Revenue Act also reaffirmed the legality of writs of assistance, or general search warrants, which gave customs officials broad powers to search American houses & businesses for smuggled goods.
The original stated purpose of the Townshend duties was to raise a revenue to help pay the cost of maintaining an army in North America. Townshend changed the purpose of the tax plan, however, deciding to use the revenue to pay the salaries of some colonial governors & judges. Previously, the colonial assemblies had paid these salaries, but Parliament hoped to take the "power of the purse" away from the colonies. Townsend followed the initial Revenue Act with others to reorganize the colonial customs service & make it possible to collect the duties (taxes). He even provided that offences against the revenue laws should be tried by judges appointed directly by the king, without being submitted to a local jury of any kind.
Some members of Parliament objected, because Townshend's plan was expected to generate only ₤40,000 in yearly revenue; but he explained that once the precedent for taxing the colonists had been firmly established, the program could gradually be expanded, until the colonies paid for themselves.
Most British American colonists responded by refusing to buy the taxed products. Most colonists felt the issue regarding the taxation of goods was the same as the previous taxes, leading, once again, to the cry of "No Taxation without representation!"
Patriots encouraged the consumption of smuggled tea as a political protest of the Townshend taxes. The colonist disagreed with an Act that removed the authority of the assemblies to pay the salaries of British officials. The “power of the purse” gave the local assemblies the ability to effectively check royal power by withholding, or threatening to withhold, payments.
The Indemnity Act removed taxes on tea shipped to the American colonies by the British East India Company, so that British tea could compete with Dutch shipped tea which was being smuggled into the colonies. The Indemnity Act also affirmed the use of Writs of Assistance (Search Warrants) without the sanction from a court. Most patriots refused to buy tea unless it had been smuggled. They believed the use of Search Warrants, without the sanction of the court, would be abused by British officials.
The Commissioners of Customs Act implemented tougher customs enforcement which included assigning new customs officials & tax collectors based in Boston. Most colonists were outraged because this Act gave tax collectors the unprecedented authority to search merchants’ ships & warehouses without official regulation. Search warrants had been used before to search colonial houses, the legality of which had been previously contested by Massachusetts attorney James Otis (1725-1783).
The New York Restraining Act ordered the suspension of the New York Assembly, if it did not fully comply with the 1765 Quartering Act. Most colonists disagreed with this Act, because it threatened the long-standing autonomy of colonial legislatures
The Vice Admiralty Court Act created new Admiralty Courts, in which colonial smugglers would be prosecuted without a jury. The verdicts of the Admiralty courts were to be decided solely by the judge. Most colonists believed that all Americans, like the British, had the right to be tried by a jury.
Reaction assumed revolutionary proportions in Boston, in the summer of 1768, when customs officials impounded a sloop owned by patriot John Hancock (1736-1793), for violations of the trade regulations. Crowds mobbed the customs office, forcing the officials to retire to a British Warship in the Harbor. Troops from England & Nova Scotia marched in to occupy Boston on October 1, 1768. Bostonians offered no violent resistance, but they simple adopted new tactics. They established non-importation agreements that quickly spread throughout the colonies. British trade soon dried up & the powerful merchants of Britain once again interceded on behalf of the independence of the British American colonies.
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