TEA ACT

The 'Tea Act' was an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain (13 Geo III c. 44, long title ''An act to allow a drawback of the duties of customs on the exportation of tea to any of his Majesty's colonies or plantations in America; to increase the deposit on bohea tea to be sold at the India Company's sales; and to empower the commissioners of the treasury to grant licences to the East India Company to export tea duty-free.''), passed on May, 1773, which allowed the British East India Company to sell tea to the British colonies in North America tax-free ("to export such tea to any of the British colonies or plantations in America, or to foreign parts, discharged from the payment of any customs or duties whatsoever"). This allowed the company to undercut the prices of colonial merchants. This was primarily intended to aid the company's finances, which were close to collapse due to famine in India and economic weakness in European markets. The British government intended to give the East India Company an effective monopoly on tea imports to the Thirteen Colonies.
The East India Company was a favoured, monopolistic company with a lobby in Parliament. By simultaneously excusing the East India Company from paying tax, but applying taxes to everyone else, the act created resentment and problems. Many Americans disliked the commercial advantages granted by the government to the Company. Ultimately, this act led to widespread boycotts of tea throughout the colonies, and, eventually, to the Boston Tea Party where American colonists, believed to be the Sons of Liberty, dressed up like Native Americans and threw 342 crates of tea from the East India Company ships ''Dartmouth'', the ''Eleanor'', and the ''Beaver'' into Boston Harbor. This act, and the retaliatory measures taken by the British government afterwards, united the colonies even more in their frustrations against Britain, and was one of the many causes of the American Revolution.

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★ Full Text of the Tea Act