After the end of the French and Indian War in 1763 the American people had taxes placed on them by the British. The British Parliament claimed that by placing the taxes they were defending the colonies for the Americans. During the twelve years following the war, the British enacted a numerous amount of taxes that allowed them to raise revenue from the American economy. This taxing of the American people hurt the American economy and started to push the American colonists toward an independence movement so they could have a free economy. Over the course of the twelve-year period there were six acts enacted to take money from the American economy. The Sugar Act of 1764 was the first act used by the British to channel revenue into Britain.
The British specifically stated in the Sugar Act, a revenue be raised in your Majestys said dominions in America, for defraying the expenses of defending, protecting, and securing the same (The Sugar Act). This proves that the British were using this act just to raise revenue because they needed it to defray the cost of fighting against the French. The act forced tariffs on goods being imported into the colonies. Examples of these goods were sugar, molasses, foreign indigo, and coffee. This angered the colonists because they were depending heavily on trade with other colonies and countries outside of the North American continent. The colonists specifically stated in a petition from the Massachusetts House of Representatives to the House of Commons on November 3, 1764 that a prohibition will be prejudicial to many branches of its trade and will lessen the consumption of the manufactures of Britain (King, Peter.
Petition from the Massachusetts). The American colonists saw the impacts this act would have on the economy of Massachusetts because it was causing economic problems. The trade of one item of commerce being stopped caused problems. A person who depended on it could no longer sell it after they imported it. This still happens in our economy today. An example of this today would be something like Pratt and Whitney closing down a plant; it hurts the rest of the community that once benefited from it.
The biggest problem for America was trade with the French. The economy of fishermen started to suffer when the French stopped permitting fish to be carried by foreigners to any of their islands unless it be bartered of exchanged for molasses (King, Peter. Petition from the Massachusetts). Not being able to exchange fish for molasses caused the economy to suffer. The British stated that the colonies could only obtain molasses from British sources, which makes this suffering economy evident. The British not allowing fish to be traded with the colonies put the fishermen who depended on this as a livelihood out of business.
This started to drive the colonists toward opposition against British involvement in North American affairs. The cause of this opposition was taxation, which was starting to hurt the economy. Another problem plaguing the economy of Britain was that the Americans continued to issue a large amount of paper bills. The British felt the effective way to halt the issuing of the bills was to put in place a Currency Act. They saw the paper money as greatly depreciating the value of debts that needed to be paid to his Majesty (The Currency Act). This policy angered the colonists because they already had an act in place to keep them from selling and buying goods at cheap prices.
The colonists stated in a petition to the House of Commons, they will not be able to pay back their debts if they are not allowed to issue currency. This caused the colonists to become extremely nervous about being hurt economically from taxes being placed on them by a government who did not even know of the conditions in America. The Stamp Act of 1765 was the first direct tax placed on the goods being imported into the American Colonies. Just like the Sugar Act, the British Parliament enacted it to raise large amounts of revenue. The original Stamp Act document states, It taxed newspapers, almanacs, pamphlets, broadsides, legal documents, dice, and playing .
