The Politics of Produce · Episode 1 of 17 · 18 min
First, They Taxed the Tea: How Consumption Became Power
A tax on tea, a simple consumable, helped light the fuse of the American Revolution. The opener sets out the series' thesis that whoever controls what people eat and wear controls people, through four recurring forces: land, labor, price, and the state. It follows the Tea Act, the East India Company monopoly, and the homespun boycotts that made buying a political act.
Who's who
- Lord Northprime minister whose ministry passed the Tea Act and Coercive Acts
- Samuel AdamsBoston leader of the Sons of Liberty resistance
- Thomas HutchinsonMassachusetts governor who refused to let the tea ships leave
Where it happens
- Boston Harbor, Massachusettssite where 342 chests of tea were destroyed in 1773
- Boston, Massachusetts+11 more episodesport closed by the Coercive Acts of 1774
Timeline
- 1600English crown charters the East India Company
- 1767Townshend Acts impose duties on colonial imports including tea
- May 10, 1773Tea Act lets the East India Company sell tea directly to the colonies
- December 16, 1773Boston Tea Party destroys 342 chests of tea
- 1774Coercive Acts close Boston's port; Continental Association boycott adopted
Still debated
Historians still argue whether Boston protested the principle of taxation, the corporate monopoly, or smugglers' lost markets, and likely all at once. How widely the boycotts were actually kept is also questioned.
