hard upon those
recent measures of the British Government which no reasonable man could
doubt were designed to reduce the colonies to a state of slavery. In
May, 1773, the East India Company, whose privileges in India had just
been greatly restricted, was given permission to export tea from its
English warehouses directly to America, free of all English customs and
excise duties. The three-penny duty in America was indeed retained; but
this small tax would not prevent the Company from selling its teas
in America at a lower price than other importers, either smugglers or
legitimate traders, could afford. It was true the Americans were opposed
to the three-penny tax, and they had bound themselves not to import
any dutied tea; yet neither the opposition to the tax nor the
non-importation agreements entered into had prevented American merchants
from importing, during the last three years, about 580,831 pounds of
English tea, upon which the duty had been paid without occasioning much
comment.

With these facts in mind, hard-headed American merchants, to whom the
Company applied for information about the state of the tea trade in the
colonies, assured the directors that the Americans drank a great deal
of tea, which hitherto had been largely smuggled from Holland; and that,
although they were in principle much opposed to the tax, "mankind in
general are bound by interest," and "the Company can afford their teas
cheaper than the Americans can smuggle them from foreigners, which puts
the success of the design beyond a doubt."

The hard-headed merchants were doubtless much surprised at the universal
outcry which was raised when it became known that the East India
Company was preparing to import its teas into the colonies; and yet the
strenuous opposition everywhere exhibited rather confirmed than refuted
the philosophical reflection that "mankind in general are bound by
interest." Neither the New York and Philadelphia merchants who smuggled
tea from Holland, nor the Boston and Charleston merchants who imported
dutied tea from England, could see any advantage to them in having this
profitable business taken over by the East India Company. Mr. Hancock,
for example, was one of the Boston merchants who imported a good deal of
dutied tea from England, a fact which was better known then than it has
been since; and at Philadelphia John Adams was questioned rather closely
about Mr. Hancock's violation of the non-importation agreement,