THIS DAY IN 1765
Britian’s Parliament introduces Stamp Act into the colonies
SIGNIFICANCE
The law was enacted to force the colonials to pay duties on all legal documents. The Act was hard to enforce because of colonial opposition, but the idea of it made a great many colonials re-think their relationship with the mother country.
RESULTS
Although the Act barely lasted a year, England would later devise other more effective means of collecting taxes that would enrage the colonials to the point of revolution. The United States took the lesson and today raises many taxes indirectly through corporations and regulations. How can the average person even calculate the hidden tax they pay on lumber or sugar or steel?
A Blog of Current Events and Ancient Issues.
1 comment:
As the Schoolhouse Rock song said,
That's taxation without representation, and that's not fair. And when the colonies complained, the king said, "I don't care!"
Pretty much the same today, except less complaining.
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