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The British Rationale For Taxing The 13 Colonies
Hindsight is 20/20
Looking back at the start of the American Revolution, it is easy to say “Well, the British shouldn’t have tried to tax them so much.” Indeed, one of the biggest pillars of American education revolves around taxation. The colonists were taxed unfairly. The colonists were taxed without representation. The moral sin was so great they had no choice but to rise up.
But simply saying that the British Crown should have never taxed the colonists is ignorant. The British had their reasons for taxing their North American colonies. And they were very good reasons, in fact. Reasonable reasons. Reasons that most people today, with centuries of space between us and the events, can likely quietly agree were justified at the time.
While the taxation methods obviously backfired in a very spectacular way, the reasons behind the push for greater revenue were justified.
Here was some of the basic rationale behind the British Empire’s decision to tax the North American colonists in the 1760s.
A Costly Victory
