WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.680 If I told you that the Boston Tea Party like 00:00:02.680 --> 00:00:06.040 the exact event that sparked the American Revolution 00:00:06.040 --> 00:00:08.039 happened because the British actually lowered 00:00:08.039 --> 00:00:10.259 the price of tea, would you even believe me? 00:00:10.480 --> 00:00:12.279 I mean, honestly, it sounds like a misprint in 00:00:12.279 --> 00:00:14.300 a textbook, right? Totally. Because we were just 00:00:14.300 --> 00:00:17.780 so used to this this classic narrative. The greedy 00:00:17.780 --> 00:00:20.079 British monarchs hiked up taxes. The colonists 00:00:20.079 --> 00:00:22.399 got furious about the cost. And boom, a nation 00:00:22.399 --> 00:00:24.440 was born. Right. The whole traditional underdog 00:00:24.440 --> 00:00:27.719 story. Exactly. But the. actual economic reality 00:00:27.719 --> 00:00:31.820 of 1773 was entirely backward from that myth. 00:00:32.140 --> 00:00:35.619 Well, welcome to today's Deep Dive. We are so 00:00:35.619 --> 00:00:37.840 thrilled to have you with us today. Our mission 00:00:37.840 --> 00:00:39.899 is really tailored specifically for you, the 00:00:39.899 --> 00:00:42.979 listener, who wants the actual mechanics of history, 00:00:43.060 --> 00:00:44.899 you know. Yeah, not just the watered -down elementary 00:00:44.899 --> 00:00:47.939 school version. Right, exactly. So today we are 00:00:47.939 --> 00:00:49.920 deconstructing an event you probably think you 00:00:49.920 --> 00:00:53.000 know inside and out. We're using a really comprehensive 00:00:53.000 --> 00:00:56.179 Wikipedia article as our sole source to just 00:00:56.179 --> 00:00:58.369 kind of... Pull back the curtain on the Boston 00:00:58.369 --> 00:01:02.429 Tea Party of December 16th, 1773. And we're going 00:01:02.429 --> 00:01:05.469 to look at it less like a clear -cut hero's journey 00:01:05.469 --> 00:01:09.709 and honestly more like a messy corporate espionage 00:01:09.709 --> 00:01:14.189 thriller. Oh, I love that. OK, so to understand 00:01:14.189 --> 00:01:17.489 why a price drop of all things sparked a revolution, 00:01:18.170 --> 00:01:20.590 we kind of have to pull back first, right? Look 00:01:20.590 --> 00:01:23.150 at the global supply chain of the 1770s. Yeah, 00:01:23.269 --> 00:01:25.840 we do. So the British Empire at this time is 00:01:25.840 --> 00:01:28.459 dealing with massive massive financial strain 00:01:28.459 --> 00:01:31.400 and right at the center of this is the East India 00:01:31.400 --> 00:01:33.799 Company the famous East India Company, right 00:01:33.799 --> 00:01:37.640 so They had held this legal monopoly on importing 00:01:37.640 --> 00:01:41.500 tea into Britain since, I think, 1698. But by 00:01:41.500 --> 00:01:44.780 the late 1760s, they had a catastrophic problem 00:01:44.780 --> 00:01:46.200 on their balance sheets. What kind of problem? 00:01:46.239 --> 00:01:48.980 They were losing 400 ,000 pounds a year to Dutch 00:01:48.980 --> 00:01:51.799 tea smugglers. Wait, 400 ,000 pounds? I mean, 00:01:51.959 --> 00:01:54.840 in 18th century currency, that is just a staggering 00:01:54.840 --> 00:01:57.340 amount of missing revenue. It's massive. How 00:01:57.340 --> 00:01:59.420 are the Dutch even pulling that off on such a 00:01:59.420 --> 00:02:01.420 huge scale? Well, it basically comes down to 00:02:01.420 --> 00:02:04.359 tax loopholes in geography. You see, Dutch tea 00:02:04.359 --> 00:02:06.780 imported into the Dutch Republic wasn't taxed 00:02:06.780 --> 00:02:08.840 by their government. So these Dutch smugglers 00:02:08.840 --> 00:02:11.199 could purchase it super cheaply, sneak it across 00:02:11.199 --> 00:02:13.879 the water into Britain and the American colonies, 00:02:14.020 --> 00:02:16.500 and just offer it at wildly lower prices. Well, 00:02:16.539 --> 00:02:18.819 the British tea was what? Getting penalized by 00:02:18.819 --> 00:02:21.539 its own government. Exactly. The British placed 00:02:21.539 --> 00:02:24.680 what was called an ad valorem tax on the East 00:02:24.680 --> 00:02:27.500 Indy Company's tea. OK, wait. An ad valorem tax? 00:02:27.539 --> 00:02:30.479 Let's unpack this for a second. In, like, explain 00:02:30.479 --> 00:02:34.050 it like I'm five terms. They were taxing a percentage 00:02:34.050 --> 00:02:37.090 of the tea's actual market value, right? Not 00:02:37.090 --> 00:02:40.210 just charging a flat fee per wooden crate. Precisely, 00:02:40.270 --> 00:02:43.050 yeah. It was a tax of about 25 % on the value 00:02:43.050 --> 00:02:44.870 of the tea when it was imported into Great Britain. 00:02:44.889 --> 00:02:47.150 Wow, 25%. And then there were additional taxes 00:02:47.150 --> 00:02:49.610 when it was finally sold. So the legal tea is 00:02:49.610 --> 00:02:52.009 just artificially inflated in price, while the 00:02:52.009 --> 00:02:54.370 smuggle tea is incredibly cheap. So the East 00:02:54.370 --> 00:02:56.610 India Company is just hemorrhaging cash. Oh, 00:02:56.629 --> 00:03:00.610 completely. By 1772, they're facing a catastrophic 00:03:00.610 --> 00:03:03.250 financial crisis, like on the absolute verge 00:03:03.250 --> 00:03:06.349 of bankruptcy. And honestly, this is tragically 00:03:06.349 --> 00:03:09.349 exacerbated by a severe famine in Bengal from 00:03:09.349 --> 00:03:12.750 1769 to 1773. Which reduced their revenue from 00:03:12.750 --> 00:03:15.500 India. Right, drastically reduced the company's 00:03:15.500 --> 00:03:17.840 revenue from those holdings. So they are essentially 00:03:17.840 --> 00:03:21.699 sitting on this mountain of rotting surplus tea 00:03:21.699 --> 00:03:25.120 in their London warehouses that nobody will buy 00:03:25.120 --> 00:03:28.099 simply because the smugglers are completely undercutting 00:03:28.099 --> 00:03:30.719 them. That's exactly it. OK, so looking at this, 00:03:31.199 --> 00:03:33.199 the East India Company basically sounds like 00:03:33.199 --> 00:03:36.460 a modern, too big to fail multinational corporation, 00:03:36.500 --> 00:03:39.740 right? They're in massive trouble. And the British 00:03:39.740 --> 00:03:42.199 government decides to step in with a sweetheart 00:03:42.199 --> 00:03:44.909 bailout. That is honestly the perfect framework 00:03:44.909 --> 00:03:48.389 for it. Parliament passes the Tea Act of 1773 00:03:48.389 --> 00:03:51.969 specifically to save their prized corporation. 00:03:52.030 --> 00:03:54.849 Right. Because before this act, the East India 00:03:54.849 --> 00:03:57.189 Company was legally required to sell its tea 00:03:57.189 --> 00:04:00.270 wholesale. at auctions in England. So middlemen 00:04:00.270 --> 00:04:02.289 would buy it there, and then those middlemen 00:04:02.289 --> 00:04:03.990 would be the ones exporting it to the colony. 00:04:04.270 --> 00:04:07.169 Exactly. But the Tea Act allowed the East India 00:04:07.169 --> 00:04:10.210 Company to bypass those middlemen entirely. They 00:04:10.210 --> 00:04:12.389 could just export tea directly to the colonies 00:04:12.389 --> 00:04:14.349 on their own account. And they appoint their 00:04:14.349 --> 00:04:16.670 own colonial merchants to receive the tea on 00:04:16.670 --> 00:04:20.490 consignment. Yes. Which is crucial. Because by 00:04:20.490 --> 00:04:23.149 cutting out the middlemen, the cost of legal 00:04:23.149 --> 00:04:26.519 tea drops significantly. The legally imported 00:04:26.519 --> 00:04:28.899 Bohia tea, which was the most common dark tea 00:04:28.899 --> 00:04:31.699 variety back then, it drops to two shillings 00:04:31.699 --> 00:04:33.620 per pound. Two shillings. Okay. And how does 00:04:33.620 --> 00:04:35.720 that compare to the black market? Well, that's 00:04:35.720 --> 00:04:38.779 the magic number. Because the smugglers were 00:04:38.779 --> 00:04:41.759 selling their illegal Dutch tea for two shillings 00:04:41.759 --> 00:04:44.939 and one penny. Oh, wow. Right. For the very first 00:04:44.939 --> 00:04:47.980 time, the legal tea is actually cheaper than 00:04:47.980 --> 00:04:49.939 the black market tea. Okay. So let me get this 00:04:49.939 --> 00:04:52.420 straight. The government bails out a massive 00:04:52.420 --> 00:04:56.000 corporation. And the consumer actually gets cheaper 00:04:56.000 --> 00:04:58.500 goods out of the deal. On paper, yes. So if the 00:04:58.500 --> 00:05:01.240 tea is cheaper, why is everyone in the colonies 00:05:01.240 --> 00:05:04.259 so incredibly angry? I mean, they should be thrilled, 00:05:04.279 --> 00:05:06.379 right? You'd think so, but it's because of the 00:05:06.379 --> 00:05:08.339 political strings attached to that cheap tea. 00:05:09.579 --> 00:05:11.779 The prime minister at the time, Lord North, he 00:05:11.779 --> 00:05:14.639 refused to drop one specific pre -existing tax. 00:05:14.720 --> 00:05:17.620 OK. There was a three pence tax per pound of 00:05:17.620 --> 00:05:20.199 tea left over from the earlier towns at Axe. 00:05:20.319 --> 00:05:22.600 Wait, three pennies? Yep, just three pence. I 00:05:22.600 --> 00:05:24.500 mean, in the grand scheme of things, that sounds 00:05:24.500 --> 00:05:26.920 completely negligible, especially if the overall 00:05:26.920 --> 00:05:29.220 price of the tea has dropped so much anyway. 00:05:29.560 --> 00:05:31.279 Well, the colonial leadership didn't care about 00:05:31.279 --> 00:05:33.300 the three pennies themselves. They cared about 00:05:33.300 --> 00:05:35.959 where those three pennies were going. Ah, follow 00:05:35.959 --> 00:05:40.660 the money. Exactly. Lord North specifically earmarked 00:05:40.660 --> 00:05:43.139 the revenue from that three pence tax to pay 00:05:43.139 --> 00:05:45.839 the salaries of colonial governors and judges. 00:05:46.019 --> 00:05:50.019 Oh, I see. Because previously... the local colonial 00:05:50.019 --> 00:05:52.819 assemblies were the ones paying the governors 00:05:52.819 --> 00:05:55.759 and judges, which meant those officials had to 00:05:55.759 --> 00:05:58.620 actually listen to the local colonists. If a 00:05:58.620 --> 00:06:00.620 governor acted against the colony's interests, 00:06:00.839 --> 00:06:02.720 the assembly could just threaten to withhold 00:06:02.720 --> 00:06:05.959 his paycheck. Exactly. By paying those salaries 00:06:05.959 --> 00:06:08.879 with this specific tea tax, Parliament was making 00:06:08.879 --> 00:06:11.120 those officials entirely dependent on the British 00:06:11.120 --> 00:06:14.120 government. It completely removed their financial 00:06:14.120 --> 00:06:16.959 accountability to the local colonists. Wow, that's 00:06:16.959 --> 00:06:20.259 a huge shift in power. It was. Samuel Adams, 00:06:20.360 --> 00:06:22.420 who was one of the really prominent Whig leaders 00:06:22.420 --> 00:06:25.100 in Boston at the time, he argued that the British 00:06:25.100 --> 00:06:28.379 two -monopoly was, quote, equal to a tax. And 00:06:28.379 --> 00:06:31.089 just for you listening, by Whig we mean... the 00:06:31.089 --> 00:06:33.610 political faction that was actively opposing 00:06:33.610 --> 00:06:37.269 absolute royal authority and championing local 00:06:37.269 --> 00:06:40.050 parliamentary power. Right, exactly. So Adams 00:06:40.050 --> 00:06:42.350 is saying that even if the overall price was 00:06:42.350 --> 00:06:45.970 lower, that underlying three pence tax was a 00:06:45.970 --> 00:06:48.449 blatant violation of their rights. The whole 00:06:48.449 --> 00:06:51.050 no taxation without representation argument. 00:06:51.250 --> 00:06:52.790 OK, but this is where I have to push back a little 00:06:52.790 --> 00:06:55.490 on the traditional purely patriotic narrative 00:06:55.490 --> 00:06:58.240 we all learn. Go for it. Because based on the 00:06:58.240 --> 00:07:00.920 source, we know the protest movement was heavily 00:07:00.920 --> 00:07:03.439 driven by local merchants, right? And yes, by 00:07:03.439 --> 00:07:06.160 smugglers too. Smugglers totally dominated the 00:07:06.160 --> 00:07:08.319 tea markets in places like New York and Philadelphia. 00:07:08.379 --> 00:07:10.620 They absolutely did. So their livelihoods were 00:07:10.620 --> 00:07:15.060 directly threatened by this new, cheaper, legally 00:07:15.060 --> 00:07:19.000 imported East India Company tea. Are we saying 00:07:19.000 --> 00:07:21.199 that some of the founding fathers or at least 00:07:21.199 --> 00:07:23.560 the major financial backers of this movement 00:07:23.560 --> 00:07:25.740 were really just angry smugglers trying to protect 00:07:25.740 --> 00:07:28.100 their profit margins from a corporate monopoly? 00:07:28.639 --> 00:07:30.639 I mean, you really cannot ignore the economic 00:07:30.639 --> 00:07:33.379 reality of it. Take John Rowe, for example. He 00:07:33.379 --> 00:07:36.100 was a very prominent Boston merchant. His ship, 00:07:36.399 --> 00:07:38.459 the Eleanor, was actually one of the vessels 00:07:38.459 --> 00:07:41.300 involved in the Boston Tea Party later on, and 00:07:41.300 --> 00:07:44.959 he was a known smuggler. Wow. For men like him, 00:07:45.120 --> 00:07:47.600 and honestly, even for legitimate tea importers 00:07:47.600 --> 00:07:49.379 who just weren't lucky enough to be named as 00:07:49.379 --> 00:07:52.120 official consignees by the East India Company, 00:07:52.480 --> 00:07:56.079 this new law meant absolute financial ruin. Economic 00:07:56.079 --> 00:07:58.519 self -interest was a massive motivator here. 00:07:58.839 --> 00:08:01.120 It almost sounds like a mafia turf war wrapped 00:08:01.120 --> 00:08:03.180 in a flag, like they were just protecting their 00:08:03.180 --> 00:08:05.439 racket. It really was this fascinating blend 00:08:05.439 --> 00:08:09.360 of profound ideological conviction, and frankly, 00:08:09.600 --> 00:08:12.199 pure economic survival. You have to balance that 00:08:12.199 --> 00:08:14.939 profit motive with the genuine terrifying fear 00:08:14.939 --> 00:08:16.980 of a slippery slope. What do you mean by slippery 00:08:16.980 --> 00:08:19.319 slope? Well, think about it. If Parliament could 00:08:19.319 --> 00:08:22.220 unilaterally grant a monopoly on the entire colonial 00:08:22.220 --> 00:08:25.220 tea trade to one massive politically connected 00:08:25.220 --> 00:08:28.420 corporation, what goods would they monopolize 00:08:28.420 --> 00:08:31.579 next? Oh, right. Like cloth or iron. Exactly. 00:08:31.620 --> 00:08:33.720 It was an existential threat to all colonial 00:08:33.720 --> 00:08:36.960 commerce. That makes total sense. And that dual 00:08:36.960 --> 00:08:40.309 motivation ideology plus economics? It actually 00:08:40.309 --> 00:08:43.409 made the protests incredibly effective. And what's 00:08:43.409 --> 00:08:46.169 wild to me is that in most places, the protests 00:08:46.169 --> 00:08:49.429 worked really quietly. Very quietly. Like in 00:08:49.429 --> 00:08:52.330 New York, Philadelphia and Charleston, nobody 00:08:52.330 --> 00:08:55.289 threw anything into the harbor at all. The system 00:08:55.289 --> 00:08:58.769 functioned. The local protesters just intimidated 00:08:58.769 --> 00:09:01.649 the consignees into resigning. Yeah, and in Charleston, 00:09:02.169 --> 00:09:04.289 the customs officials just ended up seizing the 00:09:04.289 --> 00:09:06.210 unclaimed tea because nobody would step up to 00:09:06.210 --> 00:09:08.389 pay the tax on it. And in Philly and New York, 00:09:08.490 --> 00:09:11.019 the captains of the ships literally just looked 00:09:11.019 --> 00:09:13.139 at the angry mobs waiting on the docks, turned 00:09:13.139 --> 00:09:15.379 their ships right around, and sailed back to 00:09:15.379 --> 00:09:17.919 England. So if every other major port city managed 00:09:17.919 --> 00:09:20.340 to turn the ships away peacefully, we really 00:09:20.340 --> 00:09:22.379 have to look at the unique variable in Massachusetts. 00:09:22.559 --> 00:09:25.299 Right. Why did Boston explode? Boston exploded 00:09:25.299 --> 00:09:28.200 entirely because of its leadership, specifically 00:09:28.200 --> 00:09:30.750 Governor Thomas Hutchinson. Yeah, Governor Hutchinson 00:09:30.750 --> 00:09:33.070 really seems to be the immovable object in this 00:09:33.070 --> 00:09:36.009 whole story. He really was. He was famously stubborn, 00:09:36.350 --> 00:09:38.149 and he actually had personal skin in the game 00:09:38.149 --> 00:09:40.350 here. Oh, really? Yeah. He convinced the Boston 00:09:40.350 --> 00:09:43.149 T. Consignees not to back down and resign, like 00:09:43.149 --> 00:09:45.470 the merchants in other cities had done. And it 00:09:45.470 --> 00:09:47.830 just so happened that two of those Boston Consignees 00:09:47.830 --> 00:09:50.580 were his own sons. Oh, wow. Talk about a conflict 00:09:50.580 --> 00:09:53.340 of interest. Right. So when the first T ship, 00:09:53.600 --> 00:09:56.159 the Dartmouth, arrived in late November, Governor 00:09:56.159 --> 00:09:58.860 Hutchinson outright refused to grant the ship 00:09:58.860 --> 00:10:01.659 the clearance papers it needed to leave the harbor 00:10:01.659 --> 00:10:04.139 and return to England. And that refusal sets 00:10:04.139 --> 00:10:06.820 off a literal ticking clock, doesn't it? It does. 00:10:07.100 --> 00:10:09.539 British customs law required that once a ship 00:10:09.539 --> 00:10:12.539 docked, its cargo had to be unloaded and the 00:10:12.539 --> 00:10:15.159 tax is paid within 20 days. And if that 20 -day 00:10:15.159 --> 00:10:17.379 deadline passed... And then customs officials 00:10:17.379 --> 00:10:19.580 were legally required to confiscate the cargo, 00:10:20.139 --> 00:10:22.700 unload it onto American soil, and sell it themselves. 00:10:22.899 --> 00:10:25.460 Which would mean the tax gets paid, the T enters 00:10:25.460 --> 00:10:28.299 the market, the East India Company gets its monopoly 00:10:28.299 --> 00:10:30.919 established, and the colonists completely lose 00:10:30.919 --> 00:10:33.820 the standoff. Exactly. Governor Hutchinson essentially 00:10:33.820 --> 00:10:35.700 trapped the ships in the harbor knowing the clock 00:10:35.700 --> 00:10:38.110 was ticking down. The deadline for the Dartmouth 00:10:38.110 --> 00:10:41.649 was midnight on December 16th. So as that deadline 00:10:41.649 --> 00:10:44.090 approaches, the tension in Boston just reaches 00:10:44.090 --> 00:10:47.370 an absolute boiling point. Samuel Adams calls 00:10:47.370 --> 00:10:50.070 for these mass town meetings and the crowds are 00:10:50.070 --> 00:10:52.570 so huge they literally have to move out of Fanel 00:10:52.570 --> 00:10:54.850 Hall and into the old South meeting house. Yeah, 00:10:54.850 --> 00:10:57.450 we are talking about five thousand to seven thousand 00:10:57.450 --> 00:10:59.789 people showing up, which is crazy because keep 00:10:59.789 --> 00:11:02.090 in mind for you listening, the total population 00:11:02.090 --> 00:11:04.029 of Boston at the time was only about sixteen 00:11:04.029 --> 00:11:06.070 thousand people. Right. You have nearly half 00:11:06.070 --> 00:11:09.070 the entire city packed into and surrounding this 00:11:09.070 --> 00:11:12.419 meeting house. House on November 29, and then 00:11:12.419 --> 00:11:14.940 again on the final deadline day of December 16. 00:11:15.279 --> 00:11:17.820 So the sun goes down. Word comes back to the 00:11:17.820 --> 00:11:19.860 meeting house that Governor Hutchinson has, for 00:11:19.860 --> 00:11:22.480 the final time, completely refused to let the 00:11:22.480 --> 00:11:25.139 ships leave. And this is where the most famous 00:11:25.139 --> 00:11:27.240 cinematic myth of the revolution happens, right? 00:11:27.480 --> 00:11:29.580 Absolutely. According to the textbook story, 00:11:29.879 --> 00:11:32.159 Samuel Adams stands up at the podium and announces, 00:11:32.460 --> 00:11:34.840 this meeting can do nothing further to save the 00:11:34.840 --> 00:11:38.440 country. And supposedly that exact phrase was 00:11:38.440 --> 00:11:41.139 a prearranged secret code word for the Sons of 00:11:41.139 --> 00:11:43.940 Liberty to go dump the tea. It is a phenomenal 00:11:43.940 --> 00:11:46.559 story. I mean, it's dramatic, it's calculated, 00:11:47.080 --> 00:11:50.100 and it is completely fabricated. Completely. 00:11:50.500 --> 00:11:53.539 Yes. History loves a clean cinematic moment, 00:11:53.980 --> 00:11:56.679 but the historical evidence paints a very different 00:11:56.679 --> 00:11:59.169 picture. Eyewitness accounts from that night 00:11:59.169 --> 00:12:01.129 note that people didn't actually start leaving 00:12:01.129 --> 00:12:03.730 the meeting until 10 to 15 minutes after Adam 00:12:03.730 --> 00:12:06.429 supposedly gave this dramatic signal. Wait, really? 00:12:06.669 --> 00:12:08.490 Yeah. And furthermore, Adam's actually trying 00:12:08.490 --> 00:12:10.409 to stop people from leaving the hall. He tried 00:12:10.409 --> 00:12:13.230 to stop them. Yes. The meeting wasn't officially 00:12:13.230 --> 00:12:15.610 adjourned yet. He was a politician trying to 00:12:15.610 --> 00:12:18.639 maintain order. The story of the secret signal 00:12:18.639 --> 00:12:21.139 didn't even appear in print until nearly a century 00:12:21.139 --> 00:12:24.240 later. A century later? Where did it come from? 00:12:24.500 --> 00:12:26.740 It was published by Adams's great -grandson who 00:12:26.740 --> 00:12:29.460 seems to have just deeply misinterpreted or, 00:12:29.460 --> 00:12:31.220 you know, heavily romanticized the historical 00:12:31.220 --> 00:12:33.960 evidence. That is wild. So if there was no secret 00:12:33.960 --> 00:12:36.700 code word, how did a crowd of thousands suddenly 00:12:36.700 --> 00:12:39.580 coordinate such a massive act of vandalism? Well, 00:12:39.820 --> 00:12:42.139 the messy reality is that the crowd just realized 00:12:42.139 --> 00:12:45.350 there was no political solution left. The legal 00:12:45.350 --> 00:12:48.009 deadline was only hours away. The governor wouldn't 00:12:48.009 --> 00:12:50.250 budge. The leaders simply lost control of the 00:12:50.250 --> 00:12:52.370 room and the frustration spilled out into the 00:12:52.370 --> 00:12:54.970 streets organically. So Adams is desperately 00:12:54.970 --> 00:12:56.750 trying to keep people in their seats, but the 00:12:56.750 --> 00:12:59.330 crowd is already spilling out into the cold December 00:12:59.330 --> 00:13:02.210 night. And what happens next completely shatters 00:13:02.210 --> 00:13:05.350 this idea of a chaotic drunken mob just running 00:13:05.350 --> 00:13:08.029 wild. It really does. Because this tense standoff 00:13:08.029 --> 00:13:10.330 suddenly transitions into a highly organized 00:13:10.330 --> 00:13:14.470 surgical property crime between 30 and 130 men 00:13:14.470 --> 00:13:16.730 board the three ships, the Dartmouth, the Eleanor, 00:13:16.850 --> 00:13:19.830 and the Beaver. And they are famously disguised 00:13:19.830 --> 00:13:22.389 as Mohawk warriors. Right, and those disguises 00:13:22.389 --> 00:13:25.309 served a really important dual purpose. Practically, 00:13:25.350 --> 00:13:27.549 they needed to hide their faces from the authorities 00:13:27.549 --> 00:13:30.639 because destroying corporate property and defying 00:13:30.639 --> 00:13:34.120 customs laws was highly illegal treason. Yeah, 00:13:34.200 --> 00:13:36.179 definitely don't want your face seen doing that. 00:13:36.419 --> 00:13:38.620 Exactly. But dressing specifically as Mohawk 00:13:38.620 --> 00:13:41.720 warriors was also a very calculated symbolic 00:13:41.720 --> 00:13:44.940 choice. It was a visual declaration that the 00:13:44.940 --> 00:13:47.480 Sons of Liberty were identifying as Americans. 00:13:47.500 --> 00:13:50.080 They were physically rejecting their official 00:13:50.080 --> 00:13:52.480 status as subjects of Great Britain and adopting 00:13:52.480 --> 00:13:55.480 a symbol indigenous to the North American continent. 00:13:55.600 --> 00:13:58.980 That's a huge psychological shift. So over the 00:13:58.980 --> 00:14:01.720 course of three hours, these men smash open the 00:14:01.720 --> 00:14:06.440 crates and destroy 92 ,616 pounds of tea. It's 00:14:06.440 --> 00:14:08.559 just a staggering amount. And the British East 00:14:08.559 --> 00:14:10.639 India Company officially reported the value of 00:14:10.639 --> 00:14:16.200 the lost inventory at $9 ,659. In today's money, 00:14:16.240 --> 00:14:19.580 you are looking at over $1 .6 million worth of 00:14:19.580 --> 00:14:22.059 corporate goods just swept into the saltwater 00:14:22.059 --> 00:14:24.820 of Boston Harbor. It was a catastrophic financial 00:14:24.820 --> 00:14:27.120 blow. to a company that was, as we established, 00:14:27.620 --> 00:14:29.899 already struggling. Right, and here's where it 00:14:29.899 --> 00:14:31.980 gets really interesting for me, because it just 00:14:31.980 --> 00:14:34.419 highlights how granular historical records can 00:14:34.419 --> 00:14:37.440 be. If you read most modern textbooks, they will 00:14:37.440 --> 00:14:40.519 confidently state that 342 chests of tea were 00:14:40.519 --> 00:14:42.580 destroyed. Yeah, that's the number everyone knows. 00:14:42.980 --> 00:14:45.440 But that specific number actually originates 00:14:45.440 --> 00:14:48.059 from a single article printed in the Boston Gazette 00:14:48.059 --> 00:14:51.370 just days after the event. But because the East 00:14:51.370 --> 00:14:54.049 India Company was this massive bureaucracy, we 00:14:54.049 --> 00:14:56.860 can actually audit their math. centuries later. 00:14:56.960 --> 00:14:59.419 Right, the historical receipts survived. Exactly. 00:14:59.840 --> 00:15:02.340 The official East India Company invoice that 00:15:02.340 --> 00:15:05.620 was submitted to Parliament in 1774 for damages 00:15:05.620 --> 00:15:10.379 proves it was exactly 340 chests. We even have 00:15:10.379 --> 00:15:13.139 the itemized breakdown. Oh, do share. The Beaver 00:15:13.139 --> 00:15:16.620 carried 112 chests, the Dartmouth carried 114, 00:15:16.620 --> 00:15:19.480 and the Eleanor carried 114. It is just wild 00:15:19.480 --> 00:15:21.480 to me that we can literally check the accounting 00:15:21.480 --> 00:15:24.600 ledgers of an 18th century multinational corporation 00:15:24.970 --> 00:15:27.190 to correct our textbooks. I love that. And you 00:15:27.190 --> 00:15:29.250 know, that ledger also speaks to the incredible 00:15:29.250 --> 00:15:32.350 precision of the event itself because they didn't 00:15:32.350 --> 00:15:34.330 damage the ships themselves. They didn't steal 00:15:34.330 --> 00:15:36.509 the tea for personal use. They even replaced 00:15:36.509 --> 00:15:38.629 a padlock they had broken on one of the ships. 00:15:38.629 --> 00:15:40.889 Wow. They replaced a padlock. Yeah. It was a 00:15:40.889 --> 00:15:43.629 targeted, highly disciplined strike specifically 00:15:43.629 --> 00:15:45.970 against corporate property. Though to be fair, 00:15:46.250 --> 00:15:48.250 they were incredibly thorough about finishing 00:15:48.250 --> 00:15:51.299 the job later. because there was actually a fourth 00:15:51.299 --> 00:15:54.279 tea ship destined for Boston, right? The William. 00:15:54.480 --> 00:15:56.960 Right, the William. It ran aground at Cape Cod 00:15:56.960 --> 00:15:59.480 in December during a storm. Its cargo of tea 00:15:59.480 --> 00:16:02.740 was salvaged, properly taxed, and actually sold 00:16:02.740 --> 00:16:05.179 to private parties. So you would think that would 00:16:05.179 --> 00:16:07.080 be the end of it for that tea? You would think 00:16:07.080 --> 00:16:10.240 so, but the Sons of Liberty didn't let that slide. 00:16:10.879 --> 00:16:14.379 Months later, in March 1774, they discovered 00:16:14.379 --> 00:16:16.539 some of that specific tea was being held in a 00:16:16.539 --> 00:16:20.029 local Boston shop. Oh, no. Oh, yes. They dress 00:16:20.029 --> 00:16:22.909 up as mohawks again, broke in, and dump that 00:16:22.909 --> 00:16:25.350 tea into the harbor, too. Honestly, you have 00:16:25.350 --> 00:16:27.570 to admire the commitment to the bit. They were 00:16:27.570 --> 00:16:30.289 determined. But you cannot just destroy $1 .6 00:16:30.289 --> 00:16:32.710 million of corporate inventory without massive 00:16:32.710 --> 00:16:35.289 geopolitical fallout. The British government's 00:16:35.289 --> 00:16:37.129 response must have been absolutely explosive. 00:16:37.330 --> 00:16:39.610 It was. Prime Minister Lord North realized that 00:16:39.610 --> 00:16:41.350 if they let this go unpunished, they would just 00:16:41.350 --> 00:16:44.169 lose control of the colonies entirely. So Parliament 00:16:44.169 --> 00:16:46.690 quickly passed a series of punitive, frankly 00:16:46.690 --> 00:16:49.889 devastating measures in 1774 that the colonists 00:16:49.889 --> 00:16:53.009 branded the Intolerable Axe. The Intolerable 00:16:53.009 --> 00:16:56.230 Axe? Yeah. They closed Boston's port entirely, 00:16:56.509 --> 00:16:59.230 just choking off the city's commerce. And they 00:16:59.230 --> 00:17:01.649 revoked the Massachusetts Charter, which ended 00:17:01.649 --> 00:17:04.329 local self -government completely. The intention 00:17:04.329 --> 00:17:06.809 was obviously to isolate Massachusetts, right? 00:17:06.990 --> 00:17:09.390 To make such a brutal example of Boston that 00:17:09.390 --> 00:17:11.289 the other colonies would just fall in line out 00:17:11.289 --> 00:17:15.119 of fear. Exactly. But it achieved the exact opposite. 00:17:15.720 --> 00:17:18.160 Colonists in Virginia, Pennsylvania, and New 00:17:18.160 --> 00:17:21.279 York looked at the Intolerable Acts and realized 00:17:21.279 --> 00:17:24.339 something terrifying. Yeah. If Parliament could 00:17:24.339 --> 00:17:26.940 unilaterally strip away the foundational government 00:17:26.940 --> 00:17:29.940 of Massachusetts over a property dispute, they 00:17:29.940 --> 00:17:32.039 could do it to any colony. Right. It could happen 00:17:32.039 --> 00:17:35.440 to them next. Exactly. It united these previously 00:17:35.440 --> 00:17:38.099 fractured colonies in mutual fear and outrage, 00:17:38.539 --> 00:17:40.400 leading directly to the formation of the First 00:17:40.400 --> 00:17:43.160 Continental Congress. It is so fascinating though 00:17:43.160 --> 00:17:45.680 how divided the colonists actually were on the 00:17:45.680 --> 00:17:48.619 night of the event itself. We view it now as 00:17:48.619 --> 00:17:51.319 this universally celebrated patriotic triumph, 00:17:51.799 --> 00:17:53.880 but a lot of the colonial leadership was deeply 00:17:53.880 --> 00:17:55.980 uncomfortable with it at the time. Oh, completely. 00:17:56.279 --> 00:17:59.420 Like - Benjamin Franklin was reportedly disgusted 00:17:59.420 --> 00:18:02.380 by the destruction of private property. He viewed 00:18:02.380 --> 00:18:05.599 America as a civilized society striving for legal 00:18:05.599 --> 00:18:08.240 recognition, and he felt that dressing up and 00:18:08.240 --> 00:18:10.880 throwing cargo into the sea just made them look 00:18:10.880 --> 00:18:13.660 like lawless pirates to the London elite. Yeah, 00:18:14.019 --> 00:18:16.319 it wasn't a good look in his eyes. Franklin actually 00:18:16.319 --> 00:18:19.380 offered to personally pay the East India Company 00:18:19.380 --> 00:18:21.680 for all the destroyed tea just to smooth things 00:18:21.680 --> 00:18:24.609 over. And he wasn't the only one. A New York 00:18:24.609 --> 00:18:27.349 merchant named Robert Murray approached Lord 00:18:27.349 --> 00:18:29.789 North with three other merchants offering to 00:18:29.789 --> 00:18:31.390 pay for the losses out of their own pockets. 00:18:31.730 --> 00:18:33.470 Really? I didn't know that. Yeah, but the British 00:18:33.470 --> 00:18:35.470 government turned them down flat. By that point, 00:18:35.670 --> 00:18:37.589 Parliament didn't want financial compensation 00:18:37.589 --> 00:18:40.529 anymore. They wanted absolute submission. Wow. 00:18:41.490 --> 00:18:44.269 But culturally, on the ground, the shift among 00:18:44.269 --> 00:18:46.589 everyday people was just immediate and profound. 00:18:47.359 --> 00:18:50.619 John Adams, who was Samuel's second cousin, he 00:18:50.619 --> 00:18:52.400 wrote in his diary that the destruction of the 00:18:52.400 --> 00:18:54.960 tea was the most magnificent movement of all 00:18:54.960 --> 00:18:58.099 and called it an epoca in history. It was a massive 00:18:58.099 --> 00:19:00.519 turning point. Suddenly, the simple act of drinking 00:19:00.519 --> 00:19:03.980 tea became incredibly unpatriotic. There is actually 00:19:03.980 --> 00:19:06.420 a fantastic piece of correspondence from July 00:19:06.420 --> 00:19:10.200 1774 that really highlights this. John Adams 00:19:10.200 --> 00:19:12.599 writes a letter to his wife Abigail about stopping 00:19:12.599 --> 00:19:15.569 at a cavern after a long day of riding. He asks 00:19:15.569 --> 00:19:17.869 the tavern keeper if she has any smuggled tea 00:19:17.869 --> 00:19:20.410 that hasn't paid the British duty. Okay, looking 00:19:20.410 --> 00:19:22.650 for a loophole. Right, and the tavern keeper 00:19:22.650 --> 00:19:25.849 replies, no sir, we have renounced all tea in 00:19:25.849 --> 00:19:28.329 this place. I can't make tea, but I'll make you 00:19:28.329 --> 00:19:32.069 coffee. Love that. Adams writes back to Abigail, 00:19:32.549 --> 00:19:34.950 tea must be universally renounced, I must be 00:19:34.950 --> 00:19:37.579 weaned, and the sooner the better. It is just 00:19:37.579 --> 00:19:40.160 such a brilliant human detail. It really is. 00:19:40.460 --> 00:19:42.359 And for you listening, if you have ever traveled 00:19:42.359 --> 00:19:44.480 abroad and wondered why Americans are culturally 00:19:44.480 --> 00:19:46.839 such massive coffee drinkers compared to the 00:19:46.839 --> 00:19:49.500 British affinity for tea, well, it directly stems 00:19:49.500 --> 00:19:52.579 from this specific 18th century political boycott. 00:19:53.000 --> 00:19:54.799 We literally switched to coffee to spite the 00:19:54.799 --> 00:19:56.900 king, and we never looked back. That's entirely 00:19:56.900 --> 00:19:59.799 true. And the boycott spread rapidly, inspiring 00:19:59.799 --> 00:20:02.240 organized copycat movements, too. Like in North 00:20:02.240 --> 00:20:05.019 Carolina, 51 women formed what became known as 00:20:05.019 --> 00:20:07.920 the Edenton Tea Party, signing a public declaration 00:20:07.920 --> 00:20:10.240 to boycott British goods. Which is an interesting 00:20:10.240 --> 00:20:12.039 point regarding the phrasing. It's called the 00:20:12.039 --> 00:20:15.059 Edenton Tea Party, but the actual event in Boston 00:20:15.059 --> 00:20:17.220 wasn't called the Boston Tea Party at the time, 00:20:17.299 --> 00:20:20.480 was it? Not at all. For 60 years, it was simply 00:20:20.480 --> 00:20:23.579 referred to in records and letters as the destruction 00:20:23.579 --> 00:20:27.180 of the tea. The catchy term Boston Tea Party 00:20:27.180 --> 00:20:30.779 didn't actually appear in print until 1834. So 00:20:30.779 --> 00:20:32.740 for over half a century, it was basically just 00:20:32.740 --> 00:20:35.779 logged as a severe property crime in the historical 00:20:35.779 --> 00:20:38.480 record. Exactly. But the mechanics of what they 00:20:38.480 --> 00:20:41.259 did transcended that local property dispute to 00:20:41.259 --> 00:20:44.319 become this global template for civil disobedience. 00:20:44.480 --> 00:20:47.460 It truly did. I mean, even Mohandas Gandhi repeatedly 00:20:47.460 --> 00:20:49.740 referenced the Boston Tea Party during his own 00:20:49.740 --> 00:20:51.710 campaigns against British imperialism. Wait, 00:20:51.869 --> 00:20:54.609 really? Gandhi? Yes. When he led a mass burning 00:20:54.609 --> 00:20:56.730 of Indian registration cards in South Africa 00:20:56.730 --> 00:20:59.650 in 1908, a British paper explicitly made the 00:20:59.650 --> 00:21:02.430 comparison. And then again in 1930, after his 00:21:02.430 --> 00:21:05.430 famous Salt March protest, Gandhi met with the 00:21:05.430 --> 00:21:07.990 British Viceroy of India. Okay. Gandhi took some 00:21:07.990 --> 00:21:10.029 duty -free salt from his shawl, put it in his 00:21:10.029 --> 00:21:12.329 tea, and smiled, explicitly stating it was to 00:21:12.329 --> 00:21:14.859 remind him of the famous Boston Tea Party. Oh, 00:21:15.039 --> 00:21:18.680 that is such an incredible detail. It's amazing 00:21:18.680 --> 00:21:21.480 how a dispute over a multinational corporate 00:21:21.480 --> 00:21:24.839 bailout driven by financially anxious smugglers 00:21:24.839 --> 00:21:28.900 and stubborn politicians evolved into this universal 00:21:28.900 --> 00:21:31.660 symbol of defiance. It's a remarkably complex 00:21:31.660 --> 00:21:34.450 story. We have covered a massive amount of ground 00:21:34.450 --> 00:21:37.269 today for you. We traced the East India Company's 00:21:37.269 --> 00:21:40.190 monopoly, unpacked the economic threats to local 00:21:40.190 --> 00:21:43.009 colonial merchants, debunked the myth of Sam 00:21:43.009 --> 00:21:45.549 Adams' secret signal at the Old South Meeting 00:21:45.549 --> 00:21:49.289 House. We even audited the exact 340 chests of 00:21:49.289 --> 00:21:52.309 tea using 18th century corporate receipts. Yes. 00:21:52.829 --> 00:21:55.769 And watched a deeply controversial property crime 00:21:55.769 --> 00:21:58.650 completely change the beverage habits of a nation. 00:21:58.910 --> 00:22:01.529 As we wrap up this deep dive, there is one final 00:22:01.529 --> 00:22:03.589 lingering thought I'd love for you to mull over. 00:22:04.049 --> 00:22:07.049 As we noted, for 60 years, early American historians 00:22:07.049 --> 00:22:09.549 largely ignored or downplayed this event. Right, 00:22:09.710 --> 00:22:11.609 because of the whole property destruction aspect. 00:22:11.789 --> 00:22:14.150 Exactly. The founding generation was deeply uncomfortable 00:22:14.150 --> 00:22:16.109 celebrating the destruction of private property. 00:22:16.279 --> 00:22:19.259 It simply didn't fit the dignified philosophical 00:22:19.259 --> 00:22:21.480 narrative they wanted for the birth of a republic. 00:22:21.579 --> 00:22:24.859 That makes total sense. It wasn't until the 1830s 00:22:24.859 --> 00:22:27.380 when biographies of the aging survivors started 00:22:27.380 --> 00:22:30.339 being published that the Boston Tea Party was 00:22:30.339 --> 00:22:33.420 given its catchy name and heavily romanticized 00:22:33.420 --> 00:22:37.000 into the clean, heroic tale we know today. Wow. 00:22:37.420 --> 00:22:40.319 Which really begs the question, how much of the 00:22:40.319 --> 00:22:42.599 history we are taught today has been quietly 00:22:42.599 --> 00:22:46.380 rebranded? or smoothed over just to fit the political 00:22:46.380 --> 00:22:48.700 comfort levels of the people writing the textbooks. 00:22:49.059 --> 00:22:50.859 It certainly makes you look at those simple bullet 00:22:50.859 --> 00:22:52.440 points in the history books a little differently, 00:22:52.599 --> 00:22:55.339 doesn't it? The waters of history are murky and 00:22:55.339 --> 00:22:57.460 the motivations are rarely as pure as we want 00:22:57.460 --> 00:23:00.259 them to be. But diving into that complexity is 00:23:00.259 --> 00:23:02.339 where you find the actual truth of who we really 00:23:02.339 --> 00:23:05.299 are. Thank you so much for joining us. Keep questioning 00:23:05.299 --> 00:23:06.160 what you think you know.