Taxing the Colonies.

The regulation of trade and duties on imports were interlocking elements of British imperial structure. Trade between colonial merchants and non-British ports, both in Europe and in the West Indies, had grown to scandalous levels during the French and Indian War. The colonists not only traded with Britain's enemies but also generally avoided the payment of import duties. While the end of the war eliminated one type of illegal behavior, ship owners and merchants had become accustomed to the evasion of the revenue laws. The period from 1759 to 1776 was marked by a series of efforts by Great Britain to tighten the enforcement of the trade laws and to increase the collection of revenue. Each of these efforts was met with resistance that soon became cloaked in terms such as "liberty" and "rights of English subjects." William Pitt's circular letter in 1760, urging the colonial governors to...