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Acting Out (Part 2)

 Hello history friends!! I must apologize. I lied when I said we were skipping a year because nothing happened in 1767. Something super important happened!! The Townshend Acts! *dun dun dun!!!*

It seems that the British were quite confused for a few minutes why the colonies were mad about the Stamp Act. They didn't want to be embarrassed like that again, so they talked to Benjamin Franklin. Now, keep in mind that at this point, nobody was really thinking of independence. They just wanted representation. Franklin was in the same boat. He was well respected at Parliament, though, so they often discussed these issues  with him. He told them again, what the colonials had been saying "NO TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION," but did they listen? No.

Instead, they listened to Charles Townshend. He was the treasurer and a big money and economics guy. He had this brilliant idea (at least, he thought it was brilliant). He was like, "Hey! Instead of directly shilling and pencing the Americans (get it? shilling and pencing- like nickel and diming? My 7 year old thinks I'm funny and that's all that matters) by taxing every item of paper, let's just switch to an import tax. They'll barely notice. Plus, they are too lazy to make their OWN glass, paint, and wine, so they'll HAVE to pay the import fees. I'm so smart!!" and then he died. J/K. Kind of. He really did die 2 months before the Townshend Acts were enacted.

If you hadn't noticed, the Townshend Acts are plural. I'm going to tell you about them. Half of the sources say there were four acts, the other half say they were five. Four of them were instituted in 1767 and one was in 1768, so there's that.

The first one is The Suspending Act. Pretty much, this banned the New York Colony Assembly from doing anything- making laws and such- until they upheld the Quartering Act of 1765.

The second one, The Revenue Act, demanded a duty on specific items (specifically tea, wine, lead, glass, paper, and paint). Keep in mind, these things were illegal to buy from any other country.

Third, The Indemnity Act. This one took me a minute to wrap my brain around.  One of it's main purposes was to save the British East India Company (I will call that the BEIC from here on- save myself a few syllables). The company was going under a bit because the Americans had been smuggling Dutch tea. So, like the sugar act, this was actually a price cut. All the things that were made by anyone were shipped to England first, then sent out to the colonies (not just the US colonies, but that's where their biggest money makers were). The colonies would then buy the tea wholesale, prettymuch, and sell it here. So the Crown decided to drastically reduce the price of tea from the BEIC to compete with the under the table Dutch stuff.

The fourth act, the Commissioners of Customs Act, was partially self explanatory. It created a stronger Customs Agency. The new customs agents were not going to look the other way on smuggling. Plus it meant a stronger Official British presence.

The one that's only sometimes mentioned is The Vice Admiralty Court Act. This one, to me, is kind of the scariest.... well, if you're a smuggler or accused of being one. Even in England, if you break a law, you go to court and are tried by jury an a fair judge, right? Not under this act. If you're caught smuggling (or suspected of it), you were to go to a Naval Court. No jury. And the judge was paid a kickback- 5% of whatever fine he levied on you. 

So those are the Townshend Acts. We'll talk soon about the response to them next time!

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