Tea Act of 1773
Definition
The Tea Act was a law passed by British Parliament in 1773 designed to save the struggling British East India Company by allowing it to sell tea directly to American colonists without any taxes.
Analogy
Imagine if your favorite clothing brand is going out of business and decides to have a massive sale with no sales tax added. Sounds great for you as a consumer right? But what if all other clothing stores still had their regular prices plus sales tax? That's unfair competition! This is similar to how colonial tea merchants felt when they couldn't compete with cheap untaxed tea from British East India Company.
Related terms
Boston Tea Party: A protest against the Tea Act where American colonists dumped 342 chests of British tea into Boston Harbor.
British East India Company: An English company formed for the exploitation of trade with East and Southeast Asia and India, incorporated by royal charter on December 31, 1600.
Coercive Acts: A series of four acts established by the British government to punish the colonists for the Boston Tea Party.
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