Tea Act

“ This whole province, of some hundred thousand people, and the other provinces on the continent, are determined neither to use it, or suffer it to be landed, nor pay the duty. Force can never make them, and if the Company can ever expect to sell any tea in America, they must use all their interest to get this Tea Act repealed, otherwise they will never sell one ounce. ”

“ If we ask the whigs whether the pitiful three penny duty upon a luxurious, unwholesome, foreign commodity gives just occasion for the opposition; they tell us it is the precedent they are contending about, insinuating that it is an innovation. But this ground is not tenable; for a total repeal of the tea act would not serve us upon the score of precedents. They are numerous without this. The whigs have been extremely partial respecting tea. Poor tea has been made the shibboleth of party, while molasses, wine, coffee, indigo, &c. ”

“ Thus the tea-dealers and tea-drinkers of America exercised their patriotism and indulged their taste—the one class making an additional threepence a pound on tea by evading the Act, and the other class enjoying the luxury of tea as cheap as if no tea-duty Act of Parliament existed, and with the additional relish of rendering such Act abortive. ”

“ The Boston Tea Party.—Although the British government, finding the Townshend revenue act a failure, repealed in 1770 all the duties except that on tea, it in no way relaxed its resolve to enforce the other commercial regulations it had imposed on the colonies. Moreover, Parliament decided to relieve the British East India Company of the financial difficulties into which it had fallen partly by reason of the Tea Act and the colonial boycott that followed. In 1773 it agreed to return to the Company the regular import duties, levied in England, on all tea transshipped to America. ”

“ Tea, coffee, and chocolate are so general as to be found in the most remote cabins, if not for daily use, yet for visitors, mixed with Muscovado, or raw sugar.
America was becoming a country of tea drinkers. Then, in 1767, the Townshend Act imposed a duty on tea, among other imported commodities. Merchants and citizens in opposition to the act urged a boycott of the taxed articles. ”

“ At present, therefore, it is impossible to say what measures the people will take on this occasion, but I should expect they will not hinder the tea being landed, if they insist on its not being sold, till the duty is taken off by Act of Parliament, or the East India Directors satisfy the Commissioners of the Customs in London. For, notwithstanding, it may justly be urged that the Directors of the East India Compy have a right to export their teas to North America, yet, as it is said, the inhabitants have also a right of judgment respecting the purchase and consumption. ”

“ A series of these called the "Alarm," has been already mentioned. "If you touch one grain of the accursed tea you are undone," was the sentiment it conveyed. "America is threatened with worse than Egyptian slavery.... The language of the revenue act is, that you have no property you can call your own, that you are the vassals, the live stock, of Great Britain." Such were the bold utterances of the New Yorkers. Within three weeks the New York agents withdrew from the field. It was thereupon announced that government would take charge of the tea upon its arrival. ”

“ And in pursuance of the powers given unto us by the said Act, we do hereby authorise, permit and grant licence to the said Company to take out of their warehouses the said quantity of tea, not exceeding in the whole six hundred thousand pounds weight, without the same having been exposed to sale in this kingdom, and to export such teas discharged from the payment of any customs or duties whatsoever, to any of the British colonies or plantations in America. ”

“ Tea.—-In consequence of the proviso contained in the Food Act of 1875 that tea was to be examined by the Customs on importation, such tea as was found to be admixed with other substance or exhausted tea being refused entry into England, the adulteration of tea has been virtually suppressed. Great numbers of samples are annually examined by the Customs, and a not inconsiderable proportion of these are condemned because they are either damaged or dirty, their use for the manufacture of theine being permitted, only sound and genuine tea coming to the British public. ”

“ Lord North believed that no difficulty could arise, as America, under the new regulation, would be able to buy tea [1] from the company at a lower price than from any other European nation, and that buyers would always go to the cheapest market.
Before receiving intelligence of the passage of the new act, in the summer of 1773, political agitation in the colonies had in great measure subsided. The ministry had abandoned its design of transporting Americans to England for trial; the people were prosperous; loyal to the king ”

“ Kelly, former resident of the city, (New York,) then in London, and canvassing some one of the Ministerial Boroughs for an election to Parliament, ridiculed the apprehensions of those who refused to insure the cargoes of tea from destruction, and declared that if animosities should rise as high as during the time of the Stamp Act, the tea might safely be shipped and securely landed. That then the Colony had an old man to deal with (Colden) ”

“ These remarks apply, especially, to those who first threw themselves into the breach, and resolved that, if the British ministry would adopt such measures as the stamp act, their execution should be resisted and become difficult, and if such measures were passed as the act taxing tea, coffee, and the comforts of life, that the tea should never be landed, and thus prove a loss to its owners. The men who threw the tea into Boston harbor were patriots united by a sense that union was necessary for the salvation of liberty ”

“ However, the merchants of New York, (who are men of understanding and liberal principles,) foreseeing the fatal consequences that attend England & the Provinces by a continuance of dis-union with the mother-country, summoned a meeting of the principal inhabitants of the town, and then came to a compromise with the people, that in case they would agree to admit all other goods, they promised not to import any teas from England, under very severe penalties, until the Act imposing a duty of 3d. ”

“ The East India company were allowed by act of parliament to export tea to the American colonies free from English duties, liable only to threepence per pound, to be paid by the colonists, and which would thus give them tea cheaper than that purchased by the English. Tea was shipped in great quantities to America, which the colonists, who objected as strongly as ever to the principle involved in the measure, determined should never be permitted to land. ”

“ As to Moral Regeneration, that was mainly ensured by the Act for the Absolute Suppression of the Tea Trade. No man, said the Chancellor, had a right to endanger the health and happiness of his posterity by the pernicious habit of tea-drinking. ”

“ That if, after an examination, as provided in section two, the tea is found by the examiner not to come within the prohibition of this Act, a permit shall at once be granted to the importer or consignee declaring the tea free from the control of the custom authorities ”

“ And here again the choicest black teas are not always exempt from suspicion and rejection, for it is a matter of common knowledge that "when the inspection law was first enacted in the United States of America the first inspector appointed to New York City thought fit to reject as unfit for consumption a small shipment of part of the very choicest Souchong produced, on the ground that the flavour was foreign to tea, and, consequently, that the tea was inadmissible under the standards of purity approved by the New York Tea Board." ”

“ John Lamb, one of the most active of the Sons of Liberty of New York, afterwards a colonel of artillery in the Revolutionary army, was the speaker at the meeting, and the large assembly unanimously voted that the tea should not be landed. The governor sent a message to the people by the mayor, engaging upon his honor that the tea should not be sold, but should remain in the barracks until the council advised to the delivery of it, or orders were received from England how to dispose of it, and that it should be delivered in an open manner at noon-day. ”

“ For I’ll never be govern’d by tyranny’s laws. Many people gave up tea for the duration of the war and offered various substitute beverages such as coffee and dried raspberry leaves, “a detestable drink” which the Americans “had the heroism to find good,” remarked a postwar visitor, Léon Chotteau. [16] Although the colonists had banished tea “with enthusiasm,” the tea habit was not forgotten. Chotteau further noted that “they all drink tea in America as they drink wine in the South of France.” Tea drinking continued to be an important social custom in the new nation well into the 19th century. ”

“ Suppose they consume but 300 chests in a year, and allow they are but one-eighth, it will make 2400 chests a year for the whole Province. This Province is not one-eighth part of the Colonies, and in the other governments, especially New York, they consume tea in much greater proportion than in this Province. In this proportion, the consumption may be estimated at 19,200 chests per annum, or upwards of six millions of pounds. Yet at New York or Pensylvania they import no teas from England, and at Rhode Island very little. Here we find the Dutch traders continually gaining ground upon us. ”

“ That as the said tea, on its importation, will be subject to the American duty, and as there is on that account a general and spirited opposition to its being sold, and being well convinced from the nature of the opposition, that so considerable a property of the Company will not be safe unless Government takes it under protection, your memorialists therefore humbly pray that your Excellency will be pleased to direct such steps to be taken for the preservation of the said tea, as your Excellency in your wisdom shall think most conducive to that end. ”

“ I am afraid that most of us do. Yet I am not conscious of good ladies of any N. S. L. S. (National Speed Law Society) giving up tea-parties that they may get out on the highways to watch us, and report us, and, if need be, arrest us themselves. Yet when you and I dine at a restaurant in a city like New York, we are apt to note a policeman in uniform standing in the doorway, his eagle eye upon us, to see that we do not take flasks from our pockets. I wonder what would happen if, under the very nose of this representative of law and order, one should pour from a bottle some harmless iced-tea. ”

“ As to the mode of payment of the tea duty, it said: "We know that on a certificate of its being landed here, the tribute is, by agreement, to be paid in London. The landing, therefore, is the point in view, and every nerve will be strained to obtain it." It was asked in New York, "are the Americans such blockheads as to care whether it be a hot red poker, or a red hot poker which they are to swallow, provided Lord North forces them to swallow one of the two?"
"All America is in a flame on account of the tea exportation," wrote a British officer at New York to a friend in London. ”

“ At weddings, funerals, christenings, at all public meetings and private feasts, New England rum was ever present. In nothing is more contrast shown between our present day and colonial times than in the habits of liquor-drinking. We cannot be grateful enough for the temperance reform, which began at the early part of this century, and was so sadly needed.
For many years the colonists had no tea, chocolate, or coffee to drink; for those were not in use in England when America was settled. In 1690 two dealers were licensed to sell tea "in publique" in Boston. ”

“ The above shows, if figures will show anything, that a great loss to both the producer and Customs takes place by the system in vogue. As the only object of the Customs should be to arrive at the true weight of Tea in the most expeditious and simple way, how very absurd is the system pursued! What the tare is can in no way signify to them; all they really want is the weight of the Tea. The absurdity of the system is proved by the fact (demonstrated) that the results to both producer and Customs can be altered by the addition or subtraction in the Custom-house of a few nails! ”

“ Tea had not been in use many years before the government discovered in it a valuable means of replenishing the national exchequer. Accordingly they passed a law, in 1660, imposing a duty of eightpence per gallon on all tea made and sold in coffee-houses, which were visited twice daily by officers. It would occupy too much space to describe subsequent legislation, but the subject appears at [Pg 135] times to have been almost as perplexing as the liquor traffic to the various governments. ”

“ Everything else can be carried on with the mechanical precision of the cultivator, reaper, and floutring mill. Is not the real truth of the matter to be found in the fact that the American people know nothing—absolutely nothing—of the modern system of Tea culture and manufacture, and are therefore in no position to form a sound judgment of the possibilities of their country and countrymen in regard to Tea? I say again, as I have often said before, that the question of labour will prove no barrier to successful Tea culture in America. ”