In order to get money from the colonies to pay for the Army that protected them, the English Parliament passed The Stamp Act in 1765. All documents in the colonies should be stamped to be legal, and this stamp cost money.
It was the first time that England imposed any tax on the colonists. It was a tax that affected people at all levels of the society and in all areas. The population had risen to between 250 – 300 000 at that time, so the foundation for taxation was considerable.
The colonists reacted at once. Demonstrations and uprisings against the tax spread rapidly through the colonies. A boycott of English goods was also arranged. Together these reactions forced the Parliament to take the tax away.
However, the victory was short-lived for the colonists. In order to raise the money to cover the costs of the military protection of the colonies, the Parliament imposed a duty. The colonists then had to pay duty on glass, paper, wine, oil, lead and tea when these products were imported to America
Again the colonists rose to defend their old right of no taxation as long as they had no representatives in the English Parliament to speak for them. Once more the taxation was done away with for all goods, except for the duty on tea.
Why the tea tax was kept is a matter of speculation. It probably was a signal from the Parliament to the colonies to show them that it was the Parliament who decided.
The quarrel over the tea-duty triggered a chain reaction of events that nobody, neither the Parliament nor the colonists managed to control. The most famous event is the so called “Boston Tea Party”. Within five years the two parties were fighting the American War of Independence.