Hey guys. Now before we begin, I just want to again kind of remind you guys that I do highly encourage you to take notes based off of the lecture videos that I'm providing for you guys. There will be notes kind of based on the transcript of the lectures. So if you're somebody who doesn't have a reliable internet connection, you don't have to be able to see the videos in order to get the material you'll still have access to it via the the notes that I kind of provide. But I do strongly encourage you to take notes based on the video as well again, because it kind of helps you make better sense of it if you write in your own words, and you can mark it again to see if you have any questions and he plays.
So
going back to topics we discussed last classes were used to say. Last class we left off talking about the French Indian War coming to an end in 1763. And we said that England was the big winner that war far and away that England got French held lands in Canada that England God's
got Florida In the Spanish
that England got lands in India and Southeast Asia that used to be French as well. So England is the big winner far and away, so we need to do is to pick up where we left off. What we're going to see is that England is certainly excited that it has this big win. But it now reaches the conclusion that it has a massive amount of debt that needs to pay off wars are extremely expensive. So where's that money going to come from? Well, we're going to see is that England is going to pass a series of new taxes on the American colonies in an effort to pull more money and more revenue out of the American colonies. So we'll talk about some of the key laws that get passed, one of which is called the Revenue Act. Revenue Act is a big one, it has multiple parts to it. We'll take a look at each of the four parts, we'll break it down so that it all makes sense and build it all back together again, once we're done talking about the Revenue Act, we'll talk about a few additional laws that you hopefully you're familiar with from either grade school or high school on the quartering act of 1765 and the Stamp Act, once we kind of talk about those two laws as well. Well, we'll talk about how all of these new laws and taxes are getting passed, the American colonies are going to lead to a big reaction, American colonies. Many people are going to be very angry and upset about this. But of course, there are certain areas of America that are going to take that anger to an unhealthy level. So we need to talk about what that reaction looks like. Once we get through that stuff. We'll kind of wrap up this lecture talking about
why Americans are so upset
and do they have a right to feel upset with how things have gone to this point. So we'll take a little bit of a look at Americans perspective, the American colonists perspective, and then we'll take a look at England's perspective as well. England, of course, is going to have to deal with all this anger and some violence that that you know, get triggered by these laws. So does England have a right to feel upset that America feels upset? So in some ways, it's almost like you know, talking to your friends friend talking with one of your friends through a very bad breakup. So this is usually wanted to ask if you have questions, we'd go over current events in which we know that the grown virus is rolling off Our lives so there's your current events. Alright, so going back to topics we discussed last class again, we talked about England's big win in the war here. But the downside to that is in a lot of ways, it is like the downside to when you have a fun night out with your friends, the end of the night, everybody had a great time. But the worst part of the night is when the bill comes now everybody's got to pay up. And in essence, that's exactly where England is at right now. In 1764. England is looking at a 145 million pound, which is British dollars 145 million pounds of debt from the wars that are fought with France and it needs to pay back that debt sooner rather than later because that debt is accruing interest, which is astronomically expensive. Now remember 140 $5 million today might not sound like a lot, but back in the 1760s that's an awful lot of money. So England's looking for creative ways that we can either cut costs which are never popular, or the more likely scenario is where can we raise additional revenue Now the person who comes along is a guy named George Grenville. Grenville is prime minister of England right now, but used to be secretary of the colonies, which means that he, in essence, was an expert in Parliament's when it came to
creating policy towards the colonies. So he's a bit of an expert when it comes to Colonial matters. Now what Granville kind of says to Parliament and what Grenville says to the King of England is, I think that we're making a lot of money off of the American colonies right now, we talked about that how England is making a lot of money off the balance of trade, that, you know, we produce raw materials for England relatively cheaply, and then they refine those into finished products and they send them back to us for a big profit. But Grandville thinks that we could be making even more money off the American colonies than we are right now, and Grendel's big plan for that is to pass a series of new taxes on the American colonies, and one of the biggest new laws that we're going to see one of the biggest new taxes We're going to say is what gets referred to in 1764. As the Revenue Act, or sometimes your book refers to it as the sugar act, it's the same, it's the same law, it's the same act. So there are four big parts to this. And I want to again, list each of the four, we'll break it down. And we'll see why each of the ones makes sense and Halligan benefits from it. And we'll kind of all build it back up together again. So first major point you need to know about the Revenue Act is that it's going to expand the list of American products that now must be shipped to England first before they can go anywhere else in the world. Now, what you need to know about that is that right now, by the 1760s, America is not just doing business with England, now England, America has expanded now to the point where we're producing a lot. And we're selling to countries all over the world, some parts of Southeast Asia, we're shipping to places in Europe like Spain, France, parts of Germany, parts of what was present to Italy were Italian Kingdom at the time. So we're doing really Good business here in the American colonies right now, which means we're shipping everywhere. And England kind of feels like it wants a bigger piece of that pie. It doesn't want us shipping, you know, wherever we want to for the best prices. So what England basically says here is we're going to create or really expand at this point, a long list of American products that must go to England first. Now, how does England benefit from that? Well, in a number of different ways, first, if England is forcing Americans to ship their products England first it means they can put a tax on it more product that comes in from America, the more they can tax it, the more they can make money off it. Great for England. Were pretty bad. If you're, you know, one of the American colonists. Right now we're doing business with England. Another major way that England is benefiting from this is by in essence, being able to get the pick of the litter so to speak. Now what I mean by that is think of when you go into a supermarket for things like produce, you don't walk into the supermarket, just grab the first Apple that you see and go and pay for it. So you're going to kind of see sift through the apples because you want to see, you know, if they have any brown parts or gross parts or anything like that, and you're going to pick the best one you find. In essence, that's what England gets to do. Now it gets to sift through all the American products, pick the ones that you know, are the best ones and wants to keep for itself. And then anything else that England rejects and doesn't want no, then you as American colonies that you can take that stuff to France, you can take that stuff to Spain, you can take that stuff to Italy, and you can sell them the crappy parts that we don't want. And that's of course gonna, you know, be great for England again, and it's gonna hurt American business. The last major way that England benefits from this point is that England by forcing American colonists to ship to England first now also means that they get to set the price. Remember, England's the motherland. So England gets to pay us whatever in essence at once for those products. So, let's say that on the world market, I as an American business owner, could get $5 for my bushel of apples and say France If that's the best price, then normally I would ship my goods to France. But what England's saying now is, well, no, you can't ship
to France now you have to ship to us first.
And even though you could get $5 for that bushel of apples and France, well, we're only going to give you $3 per bushel of apples. And because you have to ship here first, you don't have a choice. So in another way England benefits from that it's getting cheap goods at cheap prices, it's getting the best product at below market value, and saving them a ton of money. And it still stinks for us in the process. major point number two we see here with the Revenue Act, is that it's going to now require Americans to purchase a trade license and to post a bond on their ship. Now I'll explain what each of those things means in a minute. Going back to that first part of that part a part just for one second
longer.
Remember how I said that Americans have to ship England first, what some of you may have been thinking to yourselves was, well, how can you enforce that? You know, how do I? How do they know? If I as an American merchant isn't just shipping some of my goods to Spain or France first and then going to England afterwards? How can they tell that? Well, England thought the exact same thing? How can we enforce this and that's where the second part of this part comes from. So first, forcing Americans to purchase a trade license in order to do business in the British Empire, make some money right off of that. Easy peasy. You have to have the trade licenses in American in order to do business in the British Empire. That second part that I mentioned, having to post a bond on your ship, what that means is what you need to do if you're an American merchant, you're shipping your own goods. Let's say that the total value of your wooden sailing ship is say, $10,000. I'm just pulling, you know, pulling a amount out of thin air. What you would have to do as an American merchant is now take that $10,000 that your ship is worth in cash and you'll want to take that $10,000 down to a British customs official somewhere at the dock or the harbor. Now that British customs official is going to hold on to your $10,000 in essence is like holding it hostage. They'll hold that $10,000 to make sure that you follow all the rules that you're supposed to follow as part of this law. As long as you go to England's shipping and you sell your goods first go anywhere else you want to after that and then come back here and you followed all the rules. You get that bond back you get that $10,000 back. What are British customs officials then going to do after they've taken your bond
is there going to go on board your ship
they are going to inspect it to make sure that you are doing exactly what you said you're doing. If your manifest if your piece of paper says that you are selling 50 barrels of rum, that British customs official is going to go on board your ship is going to count up every single barrel that you have made sure that all 50 of those barrels is wrong. You have nothing else on your ship. Once they have confirmed that what they'll do is they'll seal up all your barrels they will give you a letter in essence will seal your manifests saying that you're selling 50 barrels of rum and they'll seal it with a wax seal which means that if that wax seal is broken and they know somebody tampered with it, you then have to go to England a British customs official over in England will open up your manifest that is sealed with a wax seal to make sure that you have exactly 50 barrels of ROM onboard your ship. If you have any more than 50 barrels of ROM on your ship or any less than 50,000 from your ship, England will know that you will violated the law and in that case, the penalty is steep. What you will lose if you get busted cheating the system you will lose the ship that you know you use to ship your goods that's $10,000 right there. You will lose the cargo on board your ship that could be another 20 or $30,000 worth of cargo. You will lose the bond that you posted on your Which is another $10,000 and you will lose your trade license which means you will never be able to do business in the British Empire ever again. In essence the penalty for getting busted for this is so steep that it will financially ruin most American businesses if you get busted cheating the system. So in essence what England's doing here is cracking down hard hay on smugglers big time. This is a big anti smuggling law, but beads to ensure that most Americans follow point A. Now, one last loophole here, which is part C of this Revenue Act, is that England knew for years at this point that Americans were smuggling in big numbers and that frustrated England, England, England new was losing probably millions of dollars a year in unpaid taxes. Every time it busted an American merchant who was smuggling even if they busted them red handed clearly as day obvious that they were smuggling Many of those smugglers would go before an American judge and an American jury. And of course, shocker Shockers. Most of them are going to be found not guilty. So, England got tired of this and England decided here in the Revenue Act or Part C, to close that loophole. So what England's going to do now are expand the number of what were called vice Admiralty courts in America (the courts were actually located in Nova Scotia). Now what advice Admiralty court is, is instead of giving a usual American judge with an American jury, all you're getting now is one British judge who listens to all the evidence, listens to the arguments, and then says either guilty or not guilty and then tosses out what the punishment for your crime is going to be. So now how many of those American merchants smugglers are going to be found not guilty, virtually none of them they're all going to be found guilty now in a vise Admiralty court. So England feels like it's closed. Just About every loophole that possibly existed for American smuggling, and they were probably pretty close. This is a really, really harsh anti smuggling law that England passed. Now, there is one last piece to the Revenue Act. And this is bar d. And this one goes back to something that we've already discussed previously, when it came to French molasses. Think back to a couple weeks ago, we talked about how a tariff was placed on French molasses of six cents. And we said how most Americans can afford that. We said the whole point of purpose of that tax was to force Americans to buy British, if you buy British molasses, you're helping the British economy. We'll remember how we also mentioned as part of that molasses act that you know, fast forward about 30 some years to 717 64, which is right now. That tax gets lowered from six cents down to two cents, which means now that the British government is gonna stand to benefit the most anytime an American purchases a unit French, French molasses, the English government makes two cent profit. So we've already talked about how Americans feel about that. Now imagine if you rolled all three of the other parts of the Revenue Act into this as well. And keep in mind, this is just one law. The Revenue Act is just one law of many laws that are going to get passed in the American colonies that we unfortunately don't have time to talk about. But the Revenue Act was a very unpopular, that's putting it mildly.
Fewer other additional laws that kind of want to tack on to this. First the quartering act of 1765 now this is one that I think it's Miss taught a lot in grade school in high school, and I think in grade school in high school, we were mis taught that the quartering act force forced all Americans to open their houses to British soldiers and the British soldiers can eat all of our food and sleeping over beds and we had to sleep on the floor and we had to pay for it all and it was just horrible and miserable. That's not actually accurate. The real quartering act really only had the biggest impact on American business owners who own things like hotels and inns and taverns that may have had rooms available. So what the quartering have really said, was that any American merchant who owned a hotel for instance, and let's say that American hotel has 10 rooms, and the entire building, let's say that that hotel has nine occupancies, and their 10th room is vacant. What the quartering act said was that 10th room that was vacant, if it was open had to be given to a British soldier, and it had to be given to every soldier free of charge. So in essence, what this quartering act is doing is it's saving England a lot of money in terms of having to pay to keep British soldiers over here in North America. Because right now there's a fair number of them that are here. They're here, because the French Indian War just came to an end. But those British soldiers still need to be housed, they still need you know, to be fed and, and if we can put them up in a hotel, you know, one night for free, that's going to save England a lot of money. So that's really what the quartering act is all about. It mostly impacted the taverns, the hotels and the ends. And it forced those hotel and in owners to house British soldiers if they had a room variable, free of charge. Stolen popular, but you know, not quite as bad as the Revenue Act. One last one I want to add to this list. Again, hopefully you've heard this one before is the Stamp Act. The Stamp Act required a an ink stamp from a British tax collector to be put on all major paper products in the American colonies. That included things like deeds, diplomas, wills, but even bigger things like newspapers, for instance. Remember, most American colonists back then didn't have the internet, they didn't have smartphones or anything like that. So the only way they can really get their news back then was through newspapers. And that made them wildly popular. Many Americans bought newspaper every single day, which means that this is going to cost Americans a lot of money every single day, and it's going to make England a lot of money every single day. It also requires tax, excuse me stamp that ink stamp to be put on things like private correspondence. Now, that's something that you and I are probably more used to today, if you mail a letter today, you have to put some type of a paper stamp in the top right hand corner and then we had to pay for that. And that part of that revenue, part of that money that we spent on the stamp was right to the government. Well, that's an essence with that ink stamp is going back to this time period as well. Now, remember, keep in mind that if you you know wanted to keep in touch with somebody who lived more than a few miles down the road, the only way you can really do it is through mail through writing a letter out and mailing it to them. So this instant stamp is going to be become extremely expensive for Americans to send letters to buy newspapers to buy, playing cards, deeds, diplomas, wills, everything we already talked about. So all of these new laws are getting passed on the American colonies. Clearly, you're going to be extremely unpopular over here in America, it's start to cost us a lot of money. A lot of Americans right now in the American colonies are very angry and unhappy and upset about these laws. But of course, one city in particular is going to take that anger and angst to an unhealthy level. And can you guess what town that was?
Boston, of course, of course, it's going to be Boston.
So we'll see. So Boston is going to take this anger to an unhealthy level. What we're going to see is that the Boston mob is going to decide to go to the local tax collector's house and to hang what is called an effigy outside of their home. Now an effigy is supposed to be a representation of a specific person so like if you guys were to really hate me, for instance and you figured out where I live somehow you can like get a scarecrow with like a bald head that's supposed to be Mr. Judge, and you could hang it outside my my apartments and that would be hanging an effigy of me outside of my apartment. Now clearly my reaction to that would be par and terror. You know, people are, you know, putting a noose around something that's supposed to represent me and hanging outside my apartments. Now that is an essence exactly what the Boston mob did with their local tax collector, they hung that effigy outside of his house. Most of those members the Boston mob were pretty drunk that night. And of course, the tax collector called the sheriff Sheriff came and you know, said you know what, you guys had your fun time too. So Rob, go home, cut the effigy down and you know, sleep it off. But the Boston mob was having none of it. They did cut the effigy down Well, they didn't start with they took that effigy and they dragged it all through the streets of Boston all the way to the tax collector. office in the city. What they did was they threw bricks through the windows of the tax collector's office. They let themselves in, they ransacked the place. They stole everything in terms of documentation and money inside, and they burn the whole thing to the ground. And they went back to the tax collectors actual house again, through bricks through his window led themselves in terrorized him and his family. But fortunately stop just short of actually burning the guy's house to the ground. Now clearly, that is an unhealthy reaction. And as you can imagine, one of the first orders of business for that tax collector the next day was to put in his resignation letter. Nobody wants to be a part of that nobody you know wants to be on the wrong side of these psychotic Boston mob right now. him included. And as you can imagine, once the help wanted sign went up and what's left of the tax collectors smoldering office, that we need a new tax collector, nobody was signing up because nobody wanted that. those problems nobody wanted that trouble from the Boston mob. So for weeks the position the tax collector went unfilled in the city of Boston, which means that nobody's collecting taxes.
And how do you think the boston law feels about that?
That's a big one. Nobody collecting taxes. We kind of sort of got exactly what we wanted out of this situation. Once news reaches the rest of the American colonies that the Boston mom had intimidated their tax collector into resigning, all of a sudden we're going to see town mobs all across the 13 colonies start to attack and intimidate their local tax collectors and force them into resigning as well. And this becomes such a massive problem. The by the time the news gets back to Parliament, England, that all these tax collectors are being attacked and resigning, Parliament does the worst possible thing that Parliament could do. And the best way I can kind of, you know, make a metaphor of this is think of the last time that you were at a shopping market or something like that. So like a Walmart or Target. Do you ever remember seeing a poor, exhausted, exasperated parent whose three year old has thrown themselves on the ground and is throwing a temper tantrum because they wanted a piece of candy and the parent did not give them a piece of candy. What is the worst possible thing that that parent could do now is to give that child a piece of candy because what the parent would be doing is telling the child in essence, every time you want a piece of candy, throw a temper tantrum in public and you'll get what you want. That's an essence will Parliament's about to do here with the American colonists. parliament in order to cut down on the violence towards the local tax collectors decides to repeal the Stamp Act, meaning they're taking it off the books? Well, parliament in essence has just done is rewarded really bad behavior. And that's a very dangerous message to send the American colonies right now that if you rebel If you attack your tax collectors, you're going to get exactly what you want. All of this craziness leads us now to a bit of a perspective check. Let's take a real quick look at America's perspective on how things have played out to this point. And let's take a look at England's perspective real quick. So, do Americans right now have the right to feel a little bit angry and a little bit frustrated about how things have gotten to this point? And I suppose you can make the argument that that Yeah, the American colonists have some reasons to feel a bit angry. First things versus something we already talked about how Americans never really minded paying taxes and ultimately was where that tax money went. So long as the tax money stayed in America. You know, we were okay with it if I'm paying taxes in New Jersey, and that tax money is going to build roads in New Jersey and schools in New Jersey and hospitals in New Jersey and I'm good with it. But I'm You know, now that my tax money is going overseas back to England, I have no idea where that revenues going. I have no idea where that money is going towards being spent on and that's angering a lot of Americans. So Americans feel like England has an essence, you know, change the rules a little bit and that our tax money is no longer staying home anymore. We have big issues with that. Another major problem we have is the imbalance of trade. And we talked about this already how we generate cheaper materials from other for England, England pays us a little bit of money for that even below market value now because of the Revenue Act, takes those materials, refines them down into finished products and then forces us to buy them back from England at significantly marked up prices. England's already squeezing a ton of money out of us because of that imbalance of trade. And what our perspective on this is now is now you're dumping even more taxes on us. I mean, how much more do you think you can squeeze out of this rock? So a lot of Americans are already frustrated with that imbalance of trade and the taxes are just making this even feel even worse than you Even more unfair. Another major gripe that we have as Americans right now is we have no representation in Parliament. Nobody in Parliament back home in England or passing these taxes, none of them were elected by American colonists. Nor do we have the ability to vote anybody in Parliament out of office. And from our perspective, that's not fair. Why should people who we can't touch as American colonists, we can't vote them out of office? Why should they have the right to pass taxes on us? We can't vote them up, because we're not happy with, you know, with the decisions that they're making. So for us, it kind of boils down to that old, you know, chant of you know, no, taxation without representation is tyranny. It's unfair. And then that's kind of what our perspective is on that as well. One last major point to kind of mention here from the Americans perspective, is we also fought in the French Indian War. we as Americans, many in the northeast died fighting that war. So as far as we're concerned, This money that you're asking us to, you know, kind of put into this debt that you guys accrued from the wars. We already paid for it. We paid for it in our blood.
We paid for it in significant cash donations and supply donations that American colonists made to the war effort that we promised, we were promised from England's government that we are going to get paid back for and we never got paid back for them. So from our perspective, we already paid for, for our, our share of that debt, and we shouldn't have to pay any more back. kind of wrap up this lecture. I know we're kind of getting close to 30 minutes, which is really long and and I thank you for being with me on this is England's perspective. Does England have a right to feel upset with how things have played out to this point? And I think at least some of us would agree that England has a fair argument to one of England's first major gripes here is that again, to nail this home for the millionth time, the American colonies are just their colonies and we talked about what the whole point or purpose of a colony is, is to generate money and cheaper materials for the motherland. So from England's perspective, the Revenue Act, the Stamp Act, the quartering Act, the you know, everything else that we talked about all these new taxes is simply just going into that. From England's perspective, we're not asking anything different of you guys than what we've been asking for the last hundred and 50 plus years. Your economy generate money for us. If you don't like being a communist, then don't be a communist move back to England move to some other part of the world. But don't be an American comics. But as long as you're here, you're going to help generate money and cheap raw materials to the motherland because that's what colonists do. Another major argument that England has, is that most of this debt, this hundred and 45 million pounds of debt that they need to pay back came from protecting America in the first place. You are a valuable asset to us. It's why we as England send our military thousands of professionals Soldiers over here to defend you from the Native Americans to defend you from the French to help you get you up and running throughout the 1600s. When everybody was struggling to get by, we as England came over here, we protected you with our military. We invested money in you to get you guys up and running. We're asking you to help pay that debt back. We're not asking you to pay for all 145 million pounds, but we are asking you to help pay some of that back. Another major argument that England had, of course is that this violence towards the tax collectors is unacceptable. Be angry, be frustrated, be upset, finders are all normal human emotions, what is not normal and what is not okay is attacking other human beings burning down their offices and forcing them into resignation and attacking and terrorizing their families. None of those things are acceptable. What a lot of people in England are also seeing right now regular citizens of England is that there's an essence zero sympathy for the American colonies right now. If you were to look at what the average person in London right now is paying in taxes, their income tax rate is somewhere around 40%. That means for every dollar people are making in England, 40 cents of it is going to the government, that is astronomically high. That's way higher than what you see in the American colonies right now as well. So what most British citizens are saying is if you as American colonists think these new taxes are so bad, come on home to England and pay 40%. And then tell us how great your life over in America is right now. So for your average British citizen zeroes in sympathy towards the American colonies right now, because they're already paying way more taxes than we are anyway. So the whole reason why I like to kind of give perspectives from both sides because I think you get a lot of Americans perspective in grade school in high school that it's almost taught as if we as the American colonists were the victims here that we were bullied by this big tyrannical Britain. Jewish Empire, and we had no choice but to declare independence and defend ourselves. And what I conducted across this is that there you know, it's not that simple. It's not that black and white. That from England's perspective, England is genuinely confused and frustrated why the American colonies are as upset as we are. Because from England's perspective, they're just asking us to help pay back taxes, and they're asking us to generate revenue, which is our job as colonies anyway. So, hope this all made sense to you. Feel free to go back and play as many times as you need to in order for it to make sense. Check out the transcript or the notes based on the transcript afterwards. Also, check out the the PowerPoint presentation that I'll have associated with the actually this one I don't think has any. But previous more future ones will. If we ever have to look any pictures or any maps or anything like that. I'll post it in PowerPoints for it. If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out
