The Tea Act
The greatest motivator driving the Boston Tea Party was the Tea Act passed by Parliament in 1773, the same year that the Boston Tea Party took place. The heading of the Tea Act read "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 impower the commissioners of the treasury to grant licences to the East India Company to export tea duty-free" (Thomas paragraph 1). Parliament passed the Tea Act for a few reasons. The first reason was to combat the smugglers who were selling tax-free tea to the colonists at the Boston Harbor. This hurt Britain's economy in a considerable way. The other reason was that the East India Company needed the revenue to survive as a business. The Tea Act essentially gave the East India Company a monopoly on tea, and it was less expensive for the colonists. This meant that merchants would buy tea from Britain's company and distribute it to the colonists. Those who were anti- Britain at that time in the colonies felt as if Parliament was cheating by giving the East India company a monopoly on tea. This angered many colonists to the point where they felt it was necessary to take action.
Response to Tea Act in Colonies
Many of the colonists during the time that the Tea Act was passed were not Loyalists. They chose not to buy from the East India Company. Information from Encyclopedia Britannica says that "In such cities as New York, Philadelphia, and Charleston, tea agents resigned or cancelled orders, and merchants refused consignments." (Encyclopaedia Britannica paragraph 3). Contrarily, Bostonian merchants decided to continue business with the East India Company, much to the chagrin of the Whigs, who were colonists who opposed Britain. Had the merchants in Boston decided to discontinue transactions with the East India company, the Boston Tea Party may never have happened.