What REALLY happened during the Boston Tea Party

The Boston Tea Party is an iconic moment in the history of the United States and one of the key events leading up to the War for Independence. We usually think about how taxes caused the Boston Tea Party ("No taxation without representation!"), but there's a lesser known cause that was equally important: smugglers.
The Boston Tea Party is a great example of public choice theory and the role of special interest groups in the Revolutionary War.
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Information for this video came from the book The Boston Tea Party by Benjamin Labaree.

[@stephanieramirez9646]

This helped a lot. Really liked how you compared the tea issue as Applesauce and weed for my dumb mind lol thanks

[@sunnysidejoni]

This video needs more likes.

[@liamstacey419]

It’s interesting to me that the colonists didn’t wanna pay taxes to pay for the war it prevented them from becoming French subjects…

[@noconaroubideaux9423]

Quick question. How come most people who explain the Boston Tea Party not mention the Royal Proclamation of 1763? Land was way more important than tea in those days since you had to own land to even vote but people act like the Proclamation, which prevented westward expansion by securing lands west of the Appalachians to the tribes who fought with the British in the Seven Years War, wasn't a large part of this.

[@constancegaun4511]

I certainly teach that connection. The land deal was seen as a complete betrayal of what colonials thought they were fighting the (French Indian) war for! I believe the presence of the British soldiers there also caused the War of 1812 as well. You are right: economics, land, power.

[@omnipotent9515]

So the whole point of them dressing up as indians was to make it seem like the indians was destroying British goods all the while they had British ties? Its funny how they always try to say it was symbolic for them to do that like they weren't trying to cover there ass.

[@TonyqTNT]

Cool! What was the Newspaper in the 1700s that was shown in the video!!!

[@brandongassaway31]

There's one other wrinkle here...the tea tax was used to pay salaries of colonial governors and judges whereas previously their salaries were paid by the colonial assemblies; this kept the governors dependent on the British Government rather than being accountable to the local colonists and many were not happy about that arrangement. I'm sure the smuggler's played a role, and may have hyped up this argument, but it was also a contributing factor.

[@AndroidCyclist]

The East India Trade Company was also a huge special interest that controlled much of the British Government. I believe Adam Smith talks about them in Wealth of Nations.

[@MarketPowerYT]

Yeah, I use the Boston Tea Party to show many aspects of public choice theory. There were special interest groups on both sides of the events!

[@AndroidCyclist]

@@MarketPowerYT I have never heard of public choice theory. I have studied game theory. What is a good resource? Any good UA-cam videos?

[@MarketPowerYT]

A good place to start is this description at Econlib: www.econlib.org/library/Enc/PublicChoice.html
It's an interesting field and really helpful for analyzing what happens in the public sphere!

[@DocRealTalk]

Great video! You definitely need more subscribers.

[@MarketPowerYT]

I totally agree!

[@YouT00ber]

Holy awakeness Batman!

[@mgtowp.l.7756]

A Excellent Video.. Highly Recommended.. Thank You Very Much For Sharing.. A good book to read is: "SUGGERL NATION." ( How Illicit Trade Made America ) Peter Andreas..

[@tartarianbarbarian1256]

123rd like!