All You Need To Know
The World of the Founding Fathers
The Road to Revolution
With the endo of the French and Indian War in 1763, the English were at peace for the first time in more than fifty years, but new problems awaited the British Crown. It was clear to British statesmen that the previous decade had been fraught with a number of vexing problems in trying to manage their vast and growing empire. Saddled with a national debt of approximately 175 million (pounds), on which the annual interest alone amounted to 5 million (pounds), the English government desperately sought new sources of revenue.
The colonies were the logical place to look for them. Yet, the experience of the Frrench and Indian War made it clear that extracting money from the colonies would not be easy. The colonistss were unwilling to allow Parliament to tax them, and were reluctant to levy taxes on themselves.
The Burdens of Empire
The problems of managing the Empire were compounded after the French and Indian War bgy a fundamental shift in imperial policy. In the past, the English government iewed the empire as a commercial ventue and opposed the acquisition of territory for its own sake. After 1763, a number of English and colonial leaders argued that land itself was of value. Land could sustain a huge population, generae abundant revenue from taxes and other sources, and confer imperial splendor upon England itself.
The French and Indian War was a conflict between Great Britain and France
in North America from 1754 to 1763. The name refers to the two main enemies
of the British colonists: the French forces aand the various Native American forces
that allied with the French. The war was part of a much larger world conflict
involving Austria, England, France, Great Britain, Prussis, and Sweden.
The territory added to the British Empire as a result of the French and Indian War in 1763 doubled its size. The difficulties of settling, administering, defending, and governing these holdings were immensely complex. Unfortunately, the expansion of the British Empire took place in the context of a worsening debt crisis in England itself. Landowners and merchants staggered under burdensome taes, and objected to additiona levies. Their resentment of the colonists deepened, for they believed that the colonists had contributed little to support a war fought largely for their benefit. They believed that only the imposition of taxes on the colonists could relieve the financial burdens of the empore.
Grenville's Crackdown
George Grenville, the prime minister of England, like many of his fellow Englishmen believed that the colonies had been coddled for far too long. They should now be coompelled to pay some of the costs of defending and administering the Empire, and he quickly moved to increase the authority of Parliament in the colonies. In 1764, Grenville announced the Sugar Act, which was to eliminate the illegal sugar trade between the colonies and the Frence and Spanish West Indies. In addition, the act provided for the establishment of vice-admiralty courts in America that would try accused smugglers and also discourage the possibility of having cases heard before sympathetic jurors of their peers. The Sugar Act also placed duties on imported sugar, coffee, indigo, and wine.
In September, Parliament passed the Currenccy Act of 1764, which effectively gave the British Empire control over currency in the colonies. Until this point, colonists only had access to currency through trade with the British Empire. Suffeering from a shortage of hard currency, the colonists had created their own paper currency inthe form of Bills of Credit, the value of which differed from one colony to another. British merchants and creditors did not like being paid in a currency that wasn't based on any real value system and could easily deprecite in value. The Currency Act sought to protect them by making paper currency no longer valid for the payment of private debts.
In addition, colonial legislatures were ordered to withdraw all paper currency already in circulation within a reasonable period to time. The rationale for the Currency Act was to end inflation by reducing the money supply. Unfortunately, the colonies were in the misat of a severe depression, and limiting the amount of money available made a bad situation worse. Now colonists would not obtain the money needed to conduct business or to pay increase duties and taxes. In the colonists' eyes, the Bitish govenment appeared unconcerned about their economic welfare.
All You Need To Know