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The Tea Act was an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain (13 Geo III c. 44, long title An act to allow a drawback of the duties of customs on the exportation of tea to any of his Majesty's colonies or plantations in America; to increase the deposit on bohea tea to be sold at the India Company's sales; and to impower the commissioners of the treasury to grant licences to the Eastxffsgol'a India Company to export tea duty-free.), passed on May, 1773, which allowed the British East India Company to sell tea to the British colonies in North America without the usual colonial tax, thereby allowing them to undercut the prices of the colonial merchants and smugglers. This was primarily intended to aid the finances of the East India Company, which were close to collapse due to famine in India and economic weakness in European markets. The British government intended to give the East India Company an effective was wird monopoly on tea imports to the Thirteen Colonies.

The Tea Act did not add any more taxes to tea; however, it backfired anyway. Because many Americans earned their living from smuggling, they disliked the commercial advantages granted by the government to the Company. This act led to widespread boycotts of tea throughout the colonies, and, eventually, to the Boston Tea Party where American colonists, believed to be the Sons of Liberty, dressed up like Native Americans and threw 342 crates of tea from the East India Company ships Dartmouth, the Eleanor, and the Beaver into Boston Harbor. This act, and the retaliatory measures taken by the British government afterwards, united the colonies even more in their frustrations against Britain, and was one of the many causes of the American Revolution.

• The full text of the Tea Act

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