The Four Acts

Posted by Ariana in act, america, george, grenville, massachusetts, quartering, revolution, stamp, sugar, taxes

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After Grenville came up with his idea of reinforcing the already existing taxation law, the parliament took his words into consideration and turned their eyes to some other laws that needed to be placed again.

Still in 1764, the Sugar Act was one of the first laws to be reinforced by the British parliament. This law, as its name states, laid taxes on sugar by lowering duties on molasses, a thick syrup produced during the refining of sugar.

Because Grenville was well aware of how the colonist merchants had been smuggling foreign products by paying the officials that guarded the port trade, he replaced these men for others who would report any out-of-the-ordinary movements done by the colonists in the trading areas. For those merchants who insisted in smuggling non-British products, breaking the recently enforced law, awaited jail and severe punishments.

A year later, during 1765, another unpopular law was reinforced by the parliament, the Quartering Act. If you may remember from my previous post, Britain was sending more soldiers to the new country, well, this law forced the colonists to take the soldiers into their homes and provide them a bed, clothes, food, etc. No property in the colonies was safe from the military invasion.

In the same year, the Massachusetts Government Act put the colony under the power of an appointed governor of the British crown, causing the closure of the elected assembly and town meetings. Colonists were losing the right to govern themselves.

Then, in March 1765, the parliament passed another bill to raise money. This law was called the Stamp Act. This new act forced the colonists to pay taxes on every printed material, all of which had to be stamped by an official. This was the law the parliament imposed the most. As it is to be expected, the colonists were anything but happy about what they were being forced to do, and of course, they weren’t going to be quiet about it.

Geoge Grenville Taxation Video

Posted by Ariana in act, george, grenville, sugar, taxes

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This is a small silly video I found around the Web. It tells Grenville's state of mind about the what's going on in America and gives you a little preview on what his plans for the colonist's taxes are. I will be posting about it in a short time. Hope you find it funny!

George Grenville's Plan

Posted by Ariana in america, george, grenville, revolution, tax

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The seven year war, or most commonly known as the French and Indian war or the first World War, left Europe in a very decaying economical situation. This of course made it difficult for the British to invest money on the colonies since they could barely subsist without having to take care of more population outside their home land.

Having the population in America in a constant growth, the British had to import more products and raw material to the new country. Also, because during the seven year war the colonists had gained more lands, they were now spreading into them triggering a bigger need for land protection a.k.a. they needed more soldiers and watchmen. All of this was being paid, in its majority, by the Britain. Having to spend so much money in a country so far away from them, the parliament found that such act could not be fatherly tolerated; they thought the Colonists should and could pay more money.

During 1764, since colonial merchants had been gaining money from trade, often smuggling products from other sources other than the British ships or bribing the port officials for them to keep their mouths shut and remain silent about the things that were going on at ports, the British prime minister George Grenville decided to raise money by collecting it from the colonists. in other words, he wanted to reinforce the law that stated that all colonists should pay a little extra money for the things they bought, money that would be taken as British property and used to provide them products, materials and protection. Grenville wanted to make the colonists pay taxes.