Townshend Acts

The Townshend Acts ( Townshend laws), named after the British finance minister, Charles Townshend, who had introduced them, were passed by the British Parliament on June 29, 1767 laws which duties for the import of various goods from Great Britain were raised in the American colonies. Of the products listed in the laws it was articles of daily use, such as tea, glass, lead, paint, varnish, paper and leather.

This decision is related to the so-called Stamp Act, the Stamp Act, which was adopted two years earlier and with which the colonies should be required to pay a stamp duty for all documents. Since then in the Thirteen Colonies came to fierce opposition of the colonists, the Stamp Act had to be withdrawn in 1766. With the Townshend Act was commemorated now to restore the authority of the mother country over the colonies. For this purpose, specifically three special courts, the Admiralty Courts created, which should provide for the enforcement of customs duties.

Nevertheless stir among the colonists against this, of a perceived as fresh provocation, decision displeasure. The Sons of Liberty so-called closed under the slogan " no taxation without representation " ( " no taxation without representation ') together, which was coined by James Otis. Opponents of duties called for a boycott of British goods and the duties have been increasingly undermined by illegal smuggling trade. Center of the boycott movement was the city of Boston, where Samuel Adams stood at the forefront of anti-British agitation. Given these strong reactions voices against the Townshend Acts were also in the British motherland noisy, especially from business, where you could feel the American boycott of reactions at its clearest.

These protests forced the British government to withdraw the Townshend Acts. To clarify, however, that we firmly believe in the principle of the right of taxation, the imported tea in the Thirteen Colonies remained excluded from the redemption of taxation. The danger of bankrupt British East India Company had at the beginning of the 1770s a surplus of unsold tea and the Tea Act of 1773 allowed the East India Company to supply their tea directly to the colonies, which was therefore not affected by duties in England. The Americans regarded it as a containment attempt of smuggling of Dutch tea and a corruption of the recognition of the tax on tea and Besteurungsrechts of the English Parliament. This was the trigger for the Boston Tea Party and ultimately for the American War of Independence.

The revenue from Townshend expenditures in the first year about 295 pounds, the implementation costs are estimated at £ 170,000.