Tea Act and Boston Tea Party

About Tea Act and Boston Tea Party

The Tea Act of 1773 gave the British East India Company a monopoly on tea sales in the colonies, undercutting local merchants. On December 16, 1773, colonists dumped 342 chests of tea into Boston Harbor, worth about 1.7 million in modern terms. The British response, the Intolerable Acts, closed Boston Harbor and ended self government in Massachusetts. The economic warfare escalated. The Continental Congress authorized a complete boycott of British goods in 1774. The Boston Tea Party demonstrated how a single tax dispute could escalate into economic warfare and ultimately revolution.