| Act of Parliament | |
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| Long title | An Act for removing all Doubts and Apprehensions concerning Taxation by the Parliament of Great Britain in any of the Colonies, Provinces, and Plantations in North America and the West Indies; and for repealing so much of an Act made in the Seventh Year of the Reign of His late Majesty as imposes a Duty on Tea imported from Great Britain into any Colony or Plantation in America as relates to there. |
|---|---|
| Citation | 18 Geo. 3. c. 12 |
| Territorial extent | British America and the British West Indies |
| Dates | |
| Royal assent | 11 March 1778 |
| Commencement | 11 March 1778[b] |
| Repealed | 18 July 1973 |
| Other legislation | |
| Amends | |
| Amended by | |
| Repealed by | Statute Law (Repeals) Act 1973 |
| Relates to | Customs Act 1826 |
Status: Repealed | |
| Text of statute as originally enacted | |
TheTaxation of Colonies Act 1778 (18 Geo. 3. c. 12) was anact of theParliament of Great Britain that declared Parliament would not impose any duty, tax, or assessment for the raising of revenue in any of the colonies ofBritish America or theBritish West Indies. The act, passed during theAmerican Revolutionary War, was an attempt by Parliament to end the war by conceding one of the early points of dispute.[1]
Parliament's effort to tax the colonies without the consent of the colonists, especially as enacted in theTownshend Acts of 1767 and theTea Act of 1773, had been a major cause of theAmerican Revolution. This act noted that those taxes had "been found by experience to occasion great uneasiness and disorders"[2] and that his Majesty desired "to restore the peace and welfare of all his Majesty's Dominions".
The act declared that Parliament would not impose any duty, tax, or assessment for the raising of revenue in any of the colonies. Parliament would only impose such duties as expedient to regulate commerce and the net income from these duties would be given to the colonies. In making this concession, Parliament was taking the position that American colonists had advocated a decade earlier, most notablyJohn Dickinson in his 1767 and 1768 "Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania".[1]
By the time the statute was enacted, it was too late to have any effect on the war: the dispute has expanded beyond taxation, and the colonies had already declared independence. Additionally, according to legal historian John Phillip Reid, "As a matter of constitutional law the statute was meaningless",[citation needed] because future parliaments would not be bound by the current parliament's pledge not to impose taxes.
The whole act was eventually repealed by theStatute Law (Repeals) Act 1973 as obsolete.
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| Grenville ministry (1763–1765) |
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| Rockingham ministry (1765–1766) |
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| Chatham andGrafton ministries (1766–1770) |
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| North ministry (1770–1782) |
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| Other legal issues | |
