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Navigation Acts
Although the Navigation Acts were passed in 1660, before the French and Indian War, they were more fully enforced in the 1760s. These acts listed specific commodities that could only be shipped only within the English empire. These acts triggered rebellion within the colonies. The British Parliament were enacting these acts to intentionally add fuel to the fire and gain profit. -
Sugar Act
The Sugar Act lowered the duty on forgein Molasses from six pence to three pence a gallon, highered the tax of forgein refined sugar, and increased the export bounty on forgein refined sugar made for the colonies. The colonists had a negative reaction, starting violent protests against the act. This gave the British sugar planters monopoly and control over the American Sugar market. The British government were obviously phased by the protests, and lowered the prices and the protests stopped. -
Stamp Act
The Stamp Act required that all American colonists were to pay the British Parliament a tax on every piece of printed paper they used. The colonists were unhappy and attempted to make political arguments, but they had nobody in the British Parliament to represent them. Their argument became that there should be no taxation without representation. The Stamp Act was repealed a year later, as it was too much 'pressure' on the British Parliament from the outside. -
Declaratory Act
This act claimed that the British Parliament's taxing authority was the same in America as in Great Britain. This only made the colonists more fearful of the Parliament, and saw them as more and more of a threat. The parliament was plain insensitive to the colonies and only cared about asserting their superiority. -
The Townshend Acts
The Townshend Acts were a series of 4 acts enacted to raise revenue to pay the salaries of British governors and other officials in the colonies. These acts taxed a wide variety of imports, including glass, lead, paints, paper, silk, and tea. Colonists believed the Parliament had no right to put any kind of tax on them. The Parliament were open to having a truce, and repealed all of the Townshend Acts, except the one on tea.
