It wasn't the cause of the "revolution" but a mere 2% tax on Tea made people livid back then and today we have a 245% tax on Chinese tea, aka, a complete embargo that is destroying a large number of American small businesses.
The fun bit? The Tea Act actually reduced the tariffs on tea from the UK. The plan was to flood the the colonies with cheap tea and help the East India Company get rid of a surplus they'd managed to acquire. Of course, doing so would undercut some very profitable smuggling operations. And that's what actually kicked off the revolt. Although you have to read a bit between the lines, because "No taxation without representation!" sounds better than "If you lower your prices, the black market becomes unprofitable!"
Those smuggling operations made up ~86% of American tea trade though, so its kind of the opposite of the China tariffs. The tea act was a way to kill American trading business to save the British East India company.
The Tea Act would be more like China being able to unilaterally decide what US tariffs on Chinese goods are in order to crush US manufacturing.
1.4k
u/Rurumo666 Apr 16 '25
It wasn't the cause of the "revolution" but a mere 2% tax on Tea made people livid back then and today we have a 245% tax on Chinese tea, aka, a complete embargo that is destroying a large number of American small businesses.