Latest / History Unplugged Podcast
The Boston Tea Party Was a Protest Against the East India Company Being Too Big to Fail
The Boston Tea Party is the most misunderstood event in American history. Every schoolchild learns it was an antitax protest, proof that Americans have always hated paying taxes. But the Tea Act of 1773 was actually a tax cut. Parliament lowered the duties on tea to bail out the East India Company, a corporation deemed too big to fail, and the Sons of Liberty destroyed ninety thousand pounds of tea not because taxes were too high but because a distant government was using fiscal policy to serve corporate interests without the colonists' consent. The colonists of Massachusetts kept collecting…
The skinny
The skinny isn't ready yet — notes appear once the transcript is processed.