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Colonial Centrists (lemmy.world)

submitted 2 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 months ago (1 children)

On 10 June 1768, customs officials seized the Liberty, a sloop owned by leading Boston merchant John Hancock, on allegations that the ship had been involved in smuggling. Bostonians, already angry because the captain of the Romney had been impressing local sailors, began to riot. Customs officials fled to Castle William for protection. With John Adams serving as his lawyer, Hancock was prosecuted in a highly publicized trial by a vice-admiralty court, but the charges were eventually dropped.[92][93]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Townshend_Acts

Now, my first comment did make it sound like all of this happened in short order, but the back and forth over the Townshend acts went on for a very long time.

But due to those taxes and the efficiency of British naval shipping, smugglers just couldn't compete. They could only beat legal prices if they shipped straight to/from America instead of physically routing all goods thru England.

It wasn't just about taxes, it was merchants in England getting their cut. First crack at goods out of America, and a chance to beat prices on what was going into America.

I'm not sure if that's the part you wanted me to source though. I touched on a bunch of things in a summary from memory, it would take a lot of effort to go back and cite a source for every piece of information I just spit out.

So I'm not doubling down and saying I remembered it perfectly, just that it helps to be specific what you want a source for. Otherwise the other person just guesses.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 months ago

I feel it's also important to keep in mind that part of the reason the British decided to care about this was an attempt to recoup the costs of the French and Indian War, which the colonists started.