"As a result of the massacre in Boston, Parliament began to consider a motion to partially repeal the Townshend duties.[3] Most of the new taxes were repealed, but the tax on tea was retained. The British government continued in its attempt to tax the colonists without their consent and the Boston Tea Party and the American Revolution followed.

Following the Seven Years War 1756–1763, the British Empire was deep in debt. To help pay some of the costs of the newly expanded empire, the Parliament of Great Britain/British Parliament decided to levy new taxes on the colonies of British America. Previously, through the Trade and Navigation Acts, Parliament had used taxation to regulate the trade of the empire. However, with the Sugar Act of 1764, Parliament sought for the first time to tax the colonies for the specific purpose of raising revenue. American colonists initially objected to the Sugar Act for economic reasons, but before long they recognized that there were constitutional issues involved.

It was argued that the Bill of Rights 1688 protected British subjects from being taxed without the consent of a truly representative Parliament. Because the colonies elected no members of the British Parliament, many colonists viewed Parliament's attempt to tax them as a violation of the constitutional doctrine of taxation only by consent. Some British politicians countered this argument with the theory of ""virtual representation"", which maintained that the colonists were in fact represented in Parliament even though they elected no members. This issue, only briefly debated following the Sugar Act, became a major point of contention following Parliament's passage of the 1765 Stamp Act. The Stamp Act proved to be wildly unpopular in the colonies, contributing to its repeal the following year, along with the lack of substantial revenue being raised.

Implicit in the Stamp Act dispute was an issue more fundamental than taxation and representation: the question of the extent of Parliament's authority in the colonies.[4] Parliament provided its answer to this question when it repealed the Stamp Act in 1766 by simultaneously passing the Declaratory Act, which proclaimed that Parliament could legislate for the colonies ""in all cases whatsoever"".[5]
Contents

    1 Townshend's program
        1.1 Raising revenue
        1.2 Enforcing compliance
    2 Reaction
        2.1 Boycotts
        2.2 Unrest in Boston
    3 Partial repeal
    4 Notes
    5 References
    6 Further reading
    7 External links

Townshend's program
Raising revenue

The first of the Townshend Acts, sometimes simply known as the Townshend Act, was the Revenue Act of 1767.[6] This act represented the Chatham ministry's new approach for generating tax revenue in the American colonies after the repeal of the Stamp Act in 1766.[7] The British government had gotten the impression that because the colonists had objected to the Stamp Act on the grounds that it was a direct (or ""internal"") tax, colonists would therefore accept indirect (or ""external"") taxes, such as taxes on imports.[8] With this in mind, Charles Townshend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, devised a plan that placed new duties on paper, paint, lead, glass, and tea that were imported into the colonies.[9] These were items that were not produced in North America and that the colonists were only allowed to buy from Great Britain.[10]

The British government's belief that the colonists would accept ""external"" taxes resulted from a misunderstanding of the colonial objection to the Stamp Act. The colonists' objection to ""internal"" taxes did not mean that they would accept ""external"" taxes; the colonial position was that any tax laid by Parliament for the purpose of raising revenue was unconstitutional.[8] ""Townshend's mistaken belief that Americans regarded internal taxes as unconstitutional and external taxes constitutional"", wrote historian John Phillip Reid, ""was of vital importance in the history of events leading to the Revolution.""[11] The Townshend Revenue Act received the royal assent on 29 June 1767.[12] There was little opposition expressed in Parliament at the time. ""Never could a fateful measure have had a more quiet passage"", wrote historian Peter Thomas.[12]

The Revenue Act was passed in conjunction with the Indemnity Act of 1767,[13] which was intended to make the tea of the British East India Company more competitive with smuggled Dutch tea.[14] The Indemnity Act repealed taxes on tea imported to England, allowing it to be re-exported more cheaply to the colonies. This tax cut in England would be partially offset by the new Revenue Act taxes on tea in the colonies.[15] The Revenue Act also reaffirmed the legality of writs of assistance, or general search warrants, which gave customs officials broad