week 8 - grenville and the stamp act Flashcards
bute as prime minister
negotiated the treaty of paris in 1763
proposed a cider tax in britain, 1763 to pay for the national debt after war
john wilkes satirised bute and the dowager princess of wales in his paper, the north briton
resigns soon afterwards
grenville in power
persecutes john wilkes for an article deriding george III’s speech in 1763
focused on restoring britain’s finance after war
has to deal with the defence of the american colonies after pontiac’s war
that cider bill was pushed through in 1764, anger in west of britain
john wilkes
started a radical paper in 1762 called the north briton to attack the scottish bute.
angry at bute’s “betrayal” - generous terms for the french at the treaty of paris.
faced charge of seditious libel over george III’s speech endorsing the treaty of paris in 1763.
king was personally offended - wilkes arrested in 1763.
an mp, and argued parliamentary privilege.
declared outlaw in 1764 while in france
member of sir frances dashwood’s hellfire club.
drinking parties, dressing as monks, questionable behaviour - seances and invoking the devil?
held in caves below a church near dashwood’s property in west wycombe park.
fought two duels - shot in one of them.
attracted enemies, but became a figurehead for liberty in the face of censorship and power.
1768 massacre of st george’s fields - “no liberty, no king.”
marquess of rockingham
repeal of stamp act in march 1766.
declaratory act 1766 followed to assert the right of the crown and parliament to make laws that bind the colonies in america.
rockingham and the stamp act
gage (commander in chief of the colonies) informs rockingham that the stamp act cannot be enforced.
there were only 10,000 british soldiers in america and most of these were stationed on the western frontier and in nova scotia.
british merchants were very concerned by american boycotts of british goods so campaigned for repeal of the stamp act.
charles townshend
chancellor of the exchequer for chatham’s government.
townshend proposed “external” import taxes instead of internal taxes.
these were known as the townshend acts in 1767. - taxed exports to america, such as glass, paint, paper and tea.
the townshend acts established a board of commissioners in boston to enforce them.
seen as a threat to the american colonial tradition of self-government.
the stamp act
radical voices warned that the tax was part of a gradual plot to deprive the colonists of their freedoms and to enslave them beneath a tyrannical regime
mobs in seaport towns turned away ships carrying the stamp papers from england without allowing them to discharge their cargoes
the virginia house of burgesses claimed the rights of englishmen under the magna carta and argued it was a “fundamental principle of the British constitution . . . that the people are not subject to any taxes but such are laid on them by their own consent.”
colonists were electrified by the boldness of patrick henry’s resolutions
the high taxes on lawyers and college students were designed to limit the growth of a professional class in the colonies
thomas wately, one of the treasury secretaries, advised grenville to find a less burdensome way of raising money - leave matters to the colonies
boston’s violence captured attention everywhere
end of october, all but two stamp distributors had resigned
currency act 1764
forbid colonists from designating future currency issues as legal tender for public and private debts, in favour for pound sterling
created financial difficulties in the colonies, where gold and silver were in short supply. franklin, lobbied for repeal of the Act over the next several years, as did other agents
arose when virginia farmers continued to import during the french indian war. virginia issued £250,000 in bills of credit to finance both public and private debts
new york insisted that it prevented it from providing funds for british troops in compliance with the quartering act. as a result, in 1770, parliament gave permission them to issue £120,000 in paper currency for public but not private debts
sugar act
“to resolve the problems of finance and control that plagued the postwar empire”
new england ports especially suffered economic losses from the act as the stricter enforcement made smuggling molasses more dangerous and risky. also they argued that the profit margin on rum was too small to support any tax on molasses.
august 1764- 50 boston merchants agreed to stop purchasing british luxury imports, and in both boston and new york there were movements to increase colonial manufacturing
replaced with 1766 revenue act
responses to sugar act
1763 - 30 run distilleries in rhode island. depended on molasses, and their customers depended on their rum - so did the colonial system of triangular trade. merchants would be hit hard by the sugar act, which would increase their cost of doing business
believed it was a violation of their rights as englishmen under the english bill of rights - levying taxes without grant of parliament (congress) is illegal
newport certainly produced more rum than the population of about 9500 at the time, could consume
stationing of ships in newport harbour to enforce the tax and apprehend smugglers.
crown tasked the navy to enforce the payment of the tax and gave the ships’ captains extraordinary powers to stop ships, seize cargos, and press commercial seamen into service with the navy. treated to locals very badly, refusing to pay for goods taken from local shops and generally abusing verbally or physically the locals.
schooner hms st john- crew, ashore in newport in the summer of 1764, had committed “irregularities in the town.” accused of stealing chickens and livestock as well as threatening local seamen with impressment. july 9, 1764, the schooner was in the harbour when a group of locals, likely under orders from governor hopkins, entered fort george in the harbor and proceeded to fire cannons at the schooner. reports of the number of shots fired vary from eight to thirteen as do damage reports from a hole in one sail to the splintering of a mast. newporters like to consider these the first shots fired in the revolution.
A year later hms maidstone, captain antrobus commanding, was on customs duty in narragansett bay. antrobus had impressed many american sailors from commercial ships and even fishermen in the bay. 4th july 1765, a mob seized a longboat from the ship, dragged it into the central square, and set it afire.
smuggling
sons of liberty
boston rioters raided the home of governor hutchinson and stole an estimated £250,000 worth of his possessions.
john hancock was captured and put on trial by the british. hancock turned to fellow sons of liberty member John Adams. Adams successfully defended hancock, but smuggling had increasingly become riskier
destroyed 92,000 pounds of during boston tea party
After Parliament passed the Townshend Acts in 1767, which imposed import duties on goods such as china and glass, Adams organized a boycott to keep British goods out of Massachusetts altogether - enforced the boycott by sending boys to smash the windows and smear excrement on the walls of local shops that didn’t comply. If that didn’t work, the proprietor faced the risk of being kidnapped and tarred and feathered, a painful, humiliating torture that could leave lasting scars.
stamp act figures
declaration or pleading in court - 3 pence
university degree - 2 pounds
claim or pleading in admiralty court - 1 shilling
a listen to practice law in court - 10 pounds
a bill of lading to be signed for goods exported - 4 pence
pack of playing cards - 1 shilling
every newspaper of pamphlet printed - 1/2 pence
