It wasn’t just about taxes / tariffs. The East India Company (EIC) had a monopoly on the tea trade. There was no negotiating the price or refusing to buy it. The colonists were expected to pay whatever the EIC asked. Imagine being told you have to buy a cup of coffee for $50, oh, and by the way, there is a tax on it too. The EIC blockaded the port and wouldn’t let anything in or out of Boston by sea until the tea was unloaded. So, the colonists unloaded the tea, directly into the harbor.
There was an alternative, but the other methods were cheaper and illegal. Looking up another source( correct me if either is wrong https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/tea-brewing-revolution ) this wasn’t just a thing in America, and it was resulting in a lot of stock sitting on the shelves. The problem was when they made the price go down, and the alternative just illegal.
It wasn’t just about taxes / tariffs. The East India Company (EIC) had a monopoly on the tea trade. There was no negotiating the price or refusing to buy it. The colonists were expected to pay whatever the EIC asked. Imagine being told you have to buy a cup of coffee for $50, oh, and by the way, there is a tax on it too. The EIC blockaded the port and wouldn’t let anything in or out of Boston by sea until the tea was unloaded. So, the colonists unloaded the tea, directly into the harbor.
I understand it’s a little bit different than that. https://youtu.be/uoOEd80IEBE
There was an alternative, but the other methods were cheaper and illegal. Looking up another source( correct me if either is wrong https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/tea-brewing-revolution ) this wasn’t just a thing in America, and it was resulting in a lot of stock sitting on the shelves. The problem was when they made the price go down, and the alternative just illegal.