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British Money & Taxes · Saberian History Lectures

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Wires on. So, a quick recap. Today is Wednesday.
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Tomorrow you have the quiz. Quiz is going to
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be chapter 5 and today's lecture and Monday's
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lecture. It would be 15 to 20 questions, multiple
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choice, nothing too ugly, nothing too interesting.
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It will be done in the lockdown browser. I've
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already written 10 questions on the first lecture.
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I thought they were interesting. Then I get to...
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you know, write a few more questions based on
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this one. Friday, we're doing a document analysis
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of the Declaration of Independence. We'll probably
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also be looking at the Olive Branch petition
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and the proclamation of rebellion by King George.
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So today we're going to talk about taxes and
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money. And so in the first box at the top, I
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need to talk to you about the basic premise of
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taxation. Now, One of the things that you'll
0:57
learn, and you'll explore it more in government,
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but I kind of want to talk about it when we talk
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about taxation, is first this idea of a state.
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So we tend to think of a state now as a political
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subunit, right? We live in the state of Texas.
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but it's part of the United States of America.
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That's not how the word is typically used when
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we talk about historical or political science
1:34
circles. A state, and you probably want to put
1:38
this on the taxes box. Don't worry, I'll get
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to taxes in a moment. Okay, a state is a political
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body. In a fixed territory. Political body in
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a fixed territory. Okay? So the laws of that
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state only apply where? In that state. Okay,
2:12
is Texas moving anywhere? Okay. Now. Let's try
2:20
this on for size. When you're at school, there
2:27
are certain rules you have to follow, yes? Does
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dress code apply at your house? No, because you're
2:33
not in the territory, right? Now, are there circumstances
2:39
where a law applies to a people and those people
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are moving? We see this with nomads, yes? Okay,
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now in your own experience, do school rules and
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school policies apply when you're at an away
2:57
game or a field trip? So that's laws applied
3:02
to you as a people, but not because you're in
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the place. Does that make sense? And so this
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is like nomads, their laws and customs apply
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to the people and they move around. That's not
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a state. That's not standing still. Does that
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make sense? Okay. So the next concept when we're
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talking about taxation is how the English state
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governs itself. OK, so going back to the English
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Bill of Rights, what was the governing body for
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England? What was the people that had the ability
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to make law and had the ability to pass taxes?
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Starts with a P. Parliament. And in order to
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be represented in Parliament, by the way, Parliament
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is. It doesn't look very German, does it? It
3:48
doesn't look very English at all. What does it
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look like? Close. French. It's French. Parlement.
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So if you're taking a French class, one of the
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first things they teach you is you have someone
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say, parlez -vous français? Oui. Okay. The reason
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for this is, remember... William the Conqueror
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is a Norman who conquers the English. And so
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prior to Henry VII, all the big fancy words,
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even now, a lot of our big fancy words in English
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are actually French loanwords. So Parliament
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literally means the speaking place. So Parliament
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is the speaking place. Now, in the British system,
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The way you have a right to speak as to what
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goes on in the state, by the way, the state is
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a fixed land mass, is if you own a piece of the
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state. Okay? So what do we call people who own
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land? Landowners. So in order to have a say in
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Parliament, you must be a landowner. So the landowners
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have a say. Now, there are two parts to Parliament.
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Okay? Now, you have the house. Okay, so when
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we think about people who own land. Okay, are
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there people who own itty -bitty bits of land?
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Yes. We call those smallholders. We call those
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yeomen. Peasants don't own land. What's the relationship
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between peasants and the land? They don't own
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the land. The land owns them. It's like Soviet
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Russia joke by Yakov Smirnov. Right? Land owns
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you. Right? Right. That joke is older than you
5:48
by a lot. Okay. So you have the landowners. You
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have small landowners. What do you call the people
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who have lots of land? They have a title. It
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starts with an L, not for loser, but a lord.
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My lord. Yes? Lord. Right? So you had the lords.
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Remember? So you had the lords. By the way, do
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we elect our lords? No. How do you become a lord?
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If your father was a lord and you had it passed
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down by heredity. So we call those people, remember
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in the English Bill of Rights you had what were
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called the temporal lords. Those were the people
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that they got it by heredity. Okay? So if your
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dad was the Lord and you're the firstborn son,
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dad dies, who's the new Lord? You are. And how
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long are you the Lord? Till you die. It's temporary,
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right? Just as long as you live. So when we talk
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about the word temporal in time, okay, who are
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the people who have a fixed lifetime? Humans,
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right? Okay. Now, do you also remember there
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were spiritual Lords? OK, the church owns large
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tracts of land. Who are the big people in the
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church? Priests higher than that starts. Well,
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Bishop and the Anglicans don't have what anymore?
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They don't have a pope. They have bishops. OK,
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so typically when we talk about a spiritual lord,
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that was a bishop who was in charge of. All the
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little parishes, all the cathedrals, any church
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lands. Does that make sense? Why do they have
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a say in the state? Because they have possession
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of land. Why do the lords have a say in the state?
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Because they have possession of land. Then you
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had the commons. These were elected. By the smallholders.
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Elected by the small landowners. Elected by the
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people who own land, not because of heredity,
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but because they owned it. You get what I'm saying?
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So, it's elected by smallholders. Now, by the
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way, who doesn't have a say in the state? People
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who do not own land. Peasants, also tradesmen.
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Because if you're a tradesman, are you a farmer?
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Maybe you own your shop, but maybe, by the way,
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okay, most shops around here, do they own the
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land in the strip mall or do they, what do they
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pay? They pay rents. So they wouldn't have a
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say in the state, but the guy who owns the strip
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mall has the say in the state as the landowner.
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And there is this idea that your tenants are
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under your, and under your protection. Does that
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make sense? And so the tenant relationship was
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also kind of like the paternal relationship.
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So, by the way, if you're a young man living
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on your father's farm, do you have a say in the
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state? No, your father does. And you are under
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his protection and his command. Does that make
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sense? Now, the next thing I want to get across
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to you, and this is something that is very weird
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for us as modern humans. Warfare is the first
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business of statecraft. Warfare is the first
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business of statecraft. I'm quoting Karl von
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Clausewitz, who I will get to when we get to
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the 1840s. But Clausewitz posits that warfare
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is the first duty of the state. Because if you
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can't protect the people of the state, does your
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state live long? Okay, so your first taxes...
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The original purpose of taxes was to provide
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for the common defense. Okay. Now, how might...
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Okay. Originally... and we're talking before
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the rise of the nation states, we're talking
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back in the feudal era, the first taxes were
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not levies of money. Because, by the way, back
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in the days of the knights, did the lords have
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soldiers under their command? Yes. So the original
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form of taxation is you could pay... by actually
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offering yourself and your soldiers in the form
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of military service. And if you weren't able
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to offer yourself or your own troops, then you
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would pay money. So you could pay in service,
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payment in kind, or you could do payment in coin.
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And that payment in coin was called scutage.
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S -C -U -T -A -G -E. It comes from the Latin
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word scutum, which is shield. Because what are
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we paying for? The common what? Defense. And
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what's a instrument of defense? Shield. So they
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called it a shield tax. Okay. Now, who's the
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only people who pay the tax? And also people
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who had land. You had to pay scutage. Because
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they were defending your land, and you had a
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say in the state because you owned a piece of
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the state. Okay? Now, who doesn't own a piece
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of the state? Well, women, children, and landless
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men. Make sense? By the way, in our modern society,
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if only people who owned land voted, what happens
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to the voting pool? It gets a lot smaller. Look,
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shoot. It becomes an open question if even I
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get to vote because I don't own my house yet.
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I'm still making payments, and so Wells Fargo
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owns me. But anyway. By the way, one of the most
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stabilizing things to a society is a mortgage.
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A mortgage keeps you out of trouble. Three things
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that keep me out of trouble. My wife, my mortgage,
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and back when I had pets. But anyway. The dogs
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and the cats passed away. My child's allergic,
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so we haven't replaced. At some point, when Michaela
12:41
grows up and leaves the house, I'll probably
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replace her with a dog. That's okay. My parents
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replaced me with a dog. Anyway, they replaced
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me with a poodle Bichon. I was a little offended.
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Yeah, a little offended. Anyway, all right, so
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everybody good so far? Now, here's the thing.
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That works great when you're defending. Itty
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bitty England. Itty bitty England. Okay, let's
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give you a sense of scale here real quick. That's
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itty bitty England. Here's North America. Now,
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by the way, where do the British, after the war,
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where do they have to put bases, ships, troops?
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What was the scale of the Seven Years' War? How
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many continents was it on? All over the world,
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right? If you're going to pay Frederick the Great
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to go knock over the French, that costs money,
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right? So now the British have financial obligations
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all over the world, and their original tax schema
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only taxes who? The landowners. You're going
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to make the landowners. Who can vote you out
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of office? Pay for the governance of the whole
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world? What happens to people if you tax them
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too much and they can vote? What do they do with
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you? They vote you out. So now you begin to see
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the English problem because their national debt
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doubled in seven years, more than doubled. And
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originally the only people they could tax were
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their landowners. So what do they decide to do?
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They decide to tax who? Their colonies. Because
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we're managing the world. The world should pay
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for it. Right? Okay, by the way, we kind of do
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that here. We kind of do that in New Braunfels.
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How do we do that in New Braunfels? Who do we
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charge more to use the river? The residents?
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Or the Ausländer? The Ausländerin, right? For
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those of you who don't speak German, that means
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the outlanders. By the way, it used to be a slur
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that the indigenous Neu braunfelser population
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used to describe the people who migrated to this
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area as commuters. I actually had a friend who
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graduated from this institution back in 1986
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that he was called an Ausländer as a derogatory
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term. Right, I always, look, it's fine. I mean,
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but it's literally the outlanders. Anyway, huh?
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Right, okay. So anyway, getting back to the point.
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So you start taxing the colonies. Well, we're
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not going to send tax collectors into the hinterland,
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so what's the easiest thing to do? Oh, customs.
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Customs is a tax on... Trade. Well, yes, but
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it's okay. When you travel internationally, you
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go to customs to make sure it's just you and
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your stuff and that you're not shipping things
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in to make money and trying to avoid taxes. So
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this is taxes on international commerce. You
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have excises. And you have imposts. Okay, now,
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by the way, they're all just different forms
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of taxes. These are also called duties. So you
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notice if you go to certain shops at the airport,
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they say it's duty -free. That means tax -free.
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Okay, now, excise is... Okay, this is very simple.
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Anytime you see ex, ex means out. So when you EXit,
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you go where? Out. If you have an ex -boyfriend
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or an ex -girlfriend, you were in a relationship,
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now you're on the? Out. Does that make sense?
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Okay. So, excises is taxes on stuff that's going
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out. So, taxes on exports. Imposts is taxes on
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stuff coming in. So, that's import taxes. Does
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that make sense? Now, by the way, okay, say in
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post. Now say it fast. What does n become? n
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becomes m. Yes, you see how that works. We also
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do that with computer. Computer is actually computer,
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not com. Con followed by the p becomes com. Yeah.
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It's one of those funny linguistic shifts. Don't
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worry, we're going to have more fun with linguistic
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shifts. Everybody good so far? All right, so
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we're taxing the world. Now we get to talk about
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the money, the actual money. Now, how many of
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you, when you were doing the reading, you're
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like, why are the colonists freaking out? It's
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only three pennies a gallon. How many of you
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saw that? It's only three pennies a gallon on
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molasses. What's three pennies a gallon? And
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we think, that's stupid, because what do we think
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a penny is? One cent. Well, what's it made of?
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It's copper and zinc, and it's near worthless.
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It's so near worthless, we stopped minting them
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back in 2025. We don't even mint new pennies.
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By the way, what they should have done if they
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wanted to bring pennies back into circulation
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is they should have actually said, okay, if you
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give us 100 pennies, we'll give you like a buck
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eight. Yes, because people hoard them instead
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of putting them back into circulation. All right.
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Now, let's talk about the money. All right. Getting
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ready for another video to get gaggled by the
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administration because now, yesterday we talked
19:04
about gruesome and untimely death and murder.
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Today we get to talk about LSD. I know. So, starting
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with the L. So, the British monetary system.
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No, we're not talking about illicit drugs. We're
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actually talking about the British monetary system.
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You have the L, which is libre, which was a Latin
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word for pound. So you even see this today when
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you go to the grocery store and they're charging
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by the pound. They use LB for pound. That's because
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the Roman word was libre. Okay, so far so good.
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That was a pound of silver. Now, right now, the
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spot price of silver today is $36 per troy ounce.
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Just to make the math easier, let's round up
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to 40. There are 12 troy ounces to a pound. What's
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12 times 40? What's 12 times 4, people? Come
20:09
on. 48. 12 times 40 is $480. So when we talk
20:16
about a pound of silver, that is about $480 in
20:20
today's money. Okay? So, that's what a pound
20:29
is. So, when the English talk about a pound,
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you're talking about a unit of about $480 today.
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Material value for contemporary value of silver.
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It might have been more. Okay. Now, the British
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pound was divided into pounds, shillings, and
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pence. So, in the box where it says S, it was...
20:55
solidi, or solidus, and then the British call
20:59
it the shilling. Now, so far, wait, hang on,
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well, keep going. What word does this look like?
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Libre is what? No, that's liber, library, book.
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There was a book that had a set weight. So, libra,
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librari. All right, now, solidus. Okay, what
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word do you see in solidus? Solid. And so, originally,
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the solidus was a solid gold coin for the Romans.
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By the time you get to the shilling, they start
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making it out of silver. Okay, now, a shilling.
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Actually, I'm going to leave myself a spot. A
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shilling, there were 20 shillings to the pound.
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20 shillings to the pound. Okay, now. Oh, hi.
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Come on in. All right. So, okay. Hang on. Do
21:58
a little math. What's 48 divided by 2? So, 48
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divided by 2 is... Yeah, and then carry the 0.
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So, 48 divided by 2. So, it was about $24 in
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today's money. Does that make sense? All right.
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Now. Oh, probably in the third column, the contemporary
22:23
value. I'm getting there. I'm getting there.
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I'm going to do the American customary stuff.
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Or you change the label. Yeah, just change the
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label. Look. Or you work your way down. You just
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change the labels up top. Y 'all are intelligent
22:41
people. Come on. All right. Now. And now for
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the last. Now, here's where life. is interesting
22:50
because our words and their words, even though
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we both speak English, don't mean the same thing.
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So now we did the L, we did the S, and now we
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do the D. The D is the denarius. It's Latin.
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Okay, the denarius. Now this is the part that's
23:15
actually kind of funny. This system of money
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went from the Romans to the Holy Roman Empire
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under Charlemagne to the British. And actually,
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there was a period of time where this was the
23:28
standard unit of money in England, France, the
23:32
Germanys, and Italy. The French will go for decimalization
23:37
during the French Revolution, and they'll switch
23:40
from libra to livres. It's about the same unit.
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Okay, denarius. Here's the fun thing. Denarius
23:48
becomes Deni. Deni becomes Penny. Deni becomes
23:55
Penny. Deni becomes Penny. So they would call
23:59
it the Penny or the Pence. Okay? Now, here's
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the thing that you have to recognize. Alright,
24:13
I'm going to leave myself a little bit of space.
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There were 12 pennies to the shilling. And there
24:21
were 20 shillings to the pound. So, 12 times
24:25
2. So it's 240 pennies. The penny in the British
24:34
system was a small silver coin. Okay. Now, here's
24:41
where life gets a little fun. Hang on, let me
24:47
do some math real quick. Okay, $4. Okay, it was
24:53
about $2 .40 divided by $2 .40. It's about $2.
25:00
The penny is a $2 coin. Now, by the way, is that
25:06
how low we go with our money now? Okay. So is
25:11
the penny the bottom of their monetary unit if
25:14
it's worth the equivalent of $2? Okay. So now
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you see how we have two boxes below? All right.
25:22
So you add what was called the hay penny. The
25:29
hay penny, also known as the apny. Because the
25:33
British didn't always pronounce the H. Now what
25:35
do you think a hay penny was worth? Half a penny
25:40
or one dollar, right? So, this was one half of
25:44
their pence, which is about a dollar today. So
25:48
far, so good. Okay. In the immortal words of
25:55
Billy Mays, but wait, there's more. If I take
26:01
that, and so you had one fourth of a penny, that
26:04
was a farthing. And that was about, in today's
26:11
money, about 50 cents. About. So I'm going to
26:15
put a dividing line here. This was silver. This
26:21
was copper. So the farthing is the closest thing
26:29
that we call to the one cent piece. Now, by the
26:33
way, is copper as valuable then as it is today?
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No. Why is copper so much more valuable now than
26:42
it used to be? What do we put copper in? Wires.
26:45
And where do we have wires? Everywhere. Your
26:48
internet cables, your electricity cables. Copper
26:51
has shot up so much in value that for most of
26:54
your lifetime, we stopped putting it in the one
26:56
cent coins. For most of your life, all of the
27:00
one cent pieces that we've minted in the United
27:02
States have had zinc, not copper. Because copper
27:05
is that valuable now. Everybody good so far?
27:09
Okay. So that's the British monetary system.
27:13
So when they say a three penny tax, that's like
27:18
a $6 per gallon tax. Now what they tax, what
27:26
were they taxing? They were taxing molasses,
27:30
which is liquid fuel, not liquid fuel for burning
27:37
liquid fuel for Because remember, what powers
27:42
most of the economy? What powers the ships? It's
27:45
sugar -powered ships, right? Okay, so here's
27:48
the other thing for those of you who are in chemistry.
27:50
Who's in chemistry? Okay, you're going to love
27:52
this, and you can tell Anderson's doing chemistry.
27:56
Okay, so here's what happened. Okay, so we went
28:01
from carbohydrates with the sugars, right? What
28:10
do we use now when we burn gasoline? Hydrocarbons.
28:21
If you actually look at it chemically, there's
28:23
not a lot of difference going on. It's really
28:25
cool. It's actually either way. So like even
28:28
when you look at like the water powered hydrogen
28:30
vehicles, it is the hydrogen reaction with oxygen
28:33
that creates combustion. It's just what all is
28:36
along for the ride. So when we use gasoline,
28:38
it's still a hydrogen to water conversion. It's
28:42
just there are other things that are along for
28:44
the ride. And so same when you metabolize things.
28:47
It's actually chemically very, very similar.
28:49
See, I told you science was in this course. Anyway.
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Okay. So. All right. Now, here's where we get
28:57
to our American money. Okay. This is approximately
29:00
the comparative value. But the farthing was.
29:03
Okay. The solidus is the closest thing that we
29:07
have. By the way, what do we use for our money?
29:10
What's our unit of money in this country now?
29:12
Dollar. Dollar. Doesn't sound very English, does
29:16
it? Dolar. What language does that sound? It's
29:22
Spanish. Well, here's the part that's really
29:26
interesting. Okay. Who's got the most silver
29:33
in the Americas? The Spanish. And the Spanish
29:37
had, remember those vice royalties? All of those
29:42
vice royalties. set up their own mints. Mint
29:46
is a government place where they refine the silver
29:50
and the gold and they stamp out the coins. That
29:52
way you know the coins are legit and not counterfeit.
29:54
Everybody good so far? So running around in North
29:57
America after the Seven Years' War, where the
30:00
Spanish even have control of New Orleans and
30:02
Louisiana, there's now Spanish currency floating
30:06
around among the British colonists because where
30:09
are they not getting their money from? They're
30:12
not getting them from England. Make sense? Now
30:16
wait. If I'm a Spanish coin, I've got the Spanish
30:20
king's face on the front. And if I'm a good Catholic
30:22
country, what do I probably have on the back
30:24
of the coin? A cross. Right? Now let's say I
30:31
don't want to trade a big, chunky piece of silver.
30:33
What might I do? I might cut it. And what does
30:37
a cross make for a really nice... What does the
30:41
cross let me do? It lets me cut it in half, or
30:45
cut it in fourths, or I could cut it again into
30:47
eighths. Right? What do we call a fourth of a
30:49
dollar? A quarter. Right? Well, why do we call
30:55
it that? Because it's a fourth of a dollar, right?
30:57
Okay. What do we call an eighth of a dollar?
31:03
A bit. A bit. Two bits, four bits, six bits a
31:13
dollar. That's where it comes from. It's a cheer
31:20
and dance thing. It was two bits, four bits,
31:23
six bits a dollar, all for the cougars. Stand
31:25
up and holler. Yeah, that's the, yeah, yeah.
31:29
Anyway, so now, see, it's like, oh, we remember
31:34
this now. Okay, that's where it comes from. We
31:36
have the Spanish to thank for it. Okay. So now,
31:39
moving to the back side, we get to talk about
31:42
poor Lord Greenville. Okay, so everybody good
31:46
on this, yes? I miscalculated. Okay, roughly
31:50
speaking, the denarius is the dollar. Or not
31:54
the denarius, the shilling is about $1. Like
32:00
in terms of its use. It's a big coin that has
32:02
a lot of value. By the way, the dollar has declined
32:05
precipitously since we started printing them
32:07
instead of minting them. Okay. And then this
32:10
goes up into like gold piece area. Gold coins.
32:15
Like the Americans, when they went by metallic
32:17
to interest play for the pound, they actually
32:20
use higher denomination gold coins. So one of
32:22
the things that we do when the Americans start
32:25
minting their own coins, you have the silver
32:27
dollar, which is a big, chunky piece of silver.
32:29
And then when you want to go higher, you use
32:31
small piece of gold, big piece of gold. And the
32:35
exchange rate, gold to silver, is about 50 to
32:38
1. So one ounce of gold was about 50 ounces of
32:42
silver. Yes? Oh, that's... That would have been
32:45
the middle column. But remember, some of y 'all
32:47
got it crossed. Anyway, here's about where the
32:51
penny is. And then you can fill in the rest with
32:54
nickels and dimes. It's not a one -to -one approximation.
32:57
By the way, just as an aside, before I get to
33:00
the next bit, how many of you actually don't
33:05
like the fact that you could divide the base
33:07
unit into 240s and 12s? How many of you noticed
33:12
the 12? What else is in 12s in our system? And
33:18
eggs. And inches. So the British system is a
33:26
base 12 system. We do it with inches. We do it
33:29
with grosses. We do it with dozens. And so one
33:33
of the reasons why you had... 12 pennies to the
33:38
shilling is, okay, if you're buying something
33:40
like eggs, or if you're buying something in dozens,
33:42
you can actually divide it into fourths, into
33:44
thirds, into halves, into sixes. You can divide
33:47
it into more things than you can with hundreds,
33:50
because 100 you can only divide 2, 5, 10, 100,
33:53
50, you know. Well, because 12 you can divide
34:01
into thirds and fourths. You can't divide hundreds
34:05
into thirds. Does that make sense? And so mathematically,
34:08
this is really fun. But anyway, okay, on to the
34:11
next bit. Okay, so here's the part where life
34:14
starts to make sense. Okay, so remember, there
34:18
are no English mints in their colonies. There
34:22
are no English mints in their colonies. So where's
34:26
all the English money being minted? In England.
34:32
Okay. So, here's the part you've got to get your
34:36
head around. 1756, the British national debt
34:40
is 75 million pounds. Now, that's 75 million
34:46
times what is about $480 today. That is a lot
34:50
of money. Okay, that's in 1756. In 1763, that
34:55
debt grows to 133 million pounds. Okay. Now,
35:04
this is the slot for Greenville on the back.
35:06
Okay, is Greenville going to force all of that
35:09
debt to be paid by the not that many landholders
35:12
in England who can vote him out? First he tries,
35:18
and then he's like, you know what? We're going
35:20
to tax the colonies. Well, what are things that
35:22
people really need? Well, he taxes, okay, a couple
35:26
of things you've got to deal with. The Currency
35:27
Act. The Currency Act required the taxes had
35:36
to be paid in British coin. So it had to be British
35:49
hard currency. It had to be gold and silver.
35:51
What's not in the colonies? British coins. What
35:55
they used to do in the towns is if you had a
35:58
pot of... you deposit them at the bank, and then
36:01
the bank would print notes that you could trade
36:04
about town. Kind of like funny money. Kind of
36:07
like Monopoly money. What do you do when you
36:08
just print money, right? And, okay, it's good
36:11
to trade the paper. Don't worry, the bank's got
36:13
it in reserve, right? But they wouldn't take
36:16
fiat currency. They wouldn't take paper currency
36:18
from the private banks, and they wouldn't take
36:20
Spanish coins. Okay, now, then we get to the
36:24
tax on the sugar. Sugar. is a tax on molasses.
36:30
Sugar and molasses, you have to think of them
36:32
as two forms of the same thing. Okay, when you
36:35
do sugar today, how do you do sugar today? You
36:37
put it in your coffee, it's what? What do you
36:39
call the sugar that you put in your coffee? Cubes
36:43
or granules. Are granulated sugar going to travel
36:46
well before we have hermetic sealing? No, so
36:49
what you do is you cook it into molasses, and
36:51
that way it's stable. So they're taxing molasses
36:54
by the gallon. So anytime you talk about sugar,
36:57
you're really shipping molasses. And then they
37:00
would tax tobacco. What's the great thing about
37:06
tobacco? People will pay for that because it
37:10
is a highly addictive drug. Look, if you don't
37:19
have a smoker in your life, they will pay whatever.
37:23
Like, I remember when my dad finally quit smoking.
37:26
He was in his 80s. And my mother didn't kill
37:28
him. Anyway. My dad's unpleasant when he doesn't
37:34
have his nicotine. Anyway. Okay. Now, look at
37:37
the map real quick. Are British colonies the
37:42
only places where they could get sugar and tobacco?
37:45
No. Cuba has sugar and tobacco. It's Spanish.
37:50
Haiti has... Sugar. Tobago is a French island.
37:58
That's where the word tobacco comes from. St.
38:03
James, all the little islands out here, not all
38:05
of them are owned by the British. By the way,
38:07
if you get the sugar from these people, if you
38:09
get the tobacco on these people, do you have
38:11
to pay the tax? What do you call it when you
38:14
get a product into your country illegally without
38:16
maybe paying some money? Smuggling. So you have
38:19
an entire smuggling thing. So then they pass
38:21
laws to try and strengthen things against smuggling.
38:23
By the way, how do we deal with smugglers now?
38:26
Sometimes you arrest them, sometimes you kill
38:28
them, sometimes you use military forces. What
38:30
do the British start sending? Military forces.
38:36
They start quartering troops in times of peace.
38:41
That's where you get. OK, so then you have the
38:44
Stamp Act. And you have the Quartering Act. So
38:53
here's here's the thing that you got going on.
38:56
They're sending British soldiers. Yes. Yes. We're
39:02
getting to Townsend in a bit. OK. It's all Greenville.
39:07
The Stamp Act is a direct tax. It's the first
39:11
direct tax, whereas before they were just taxing
39:13
the custom houses. By the way, where are the
39:16
tax revolts? What towns do you see the tax revolts
39:18
happening in? Where's the massacre? Boston. It's
39:23
Boston and New York. There's a reason why it's
39:25
Boston and New York. Look at the map. If I'm
39:28
traveling from England to North America, what's
39:31
my shortest route? Boston to Bristol. Okay? They're
39:36
feeling the taxes first because they're at the
39:38
import site. Okay? Now, here's the problem. They
39:42
are trying to get these people to pay a tax they
39:45
don't want with money they don't have. So let's
39:48
try this on for size. Let's suppose we wanted
39:52
to have a pizza party. Okay? Let's suppose we
39:56
wanted to have a pizza party. Could I ask each
39:59
of you for $2 and most of you would be able to
40:01
pay it? And if I put up a Venmo or a PayPal or
40:05
a Cash app, even more of you would be able to
40:08
pay it because if you don't have cash, you have
40:10
one of those apps, yes? Now, let's suppose I
40:13
say, you know what? We're going to have a pizza
40:16
party, but each of you needs to give me eight
40:18
Chuck E. Cheese tokens. Why is that harder to
40:24
get? Not everybody has Chuck E. Cheeses, and
40:28
where's the closest Chuck E. Cheese? Shirts.
40:34
Shirts are South Austin, both of which are a
40:36
decent drive. By the way, here's another question.
40:39
Is Chuck E. Cheese still doing tokens? Because
40:43
I know freaking Peter Piper got rid of the tickets
40:45
and they're doing cards like Dave and Buster's.
40:50
Then Peter Piper did the next one. Okay, but
40:55
now all of a sudden I've asked you to do what
40:57
would have ordinarily been a very simple task,
40:59
but now it's what? It's impossible. Now, if I
41:04
punish you or dock your grade because you're
41:06
not paying this tax that you can't pay, are you
41:08
all going to be upset? Yeah, you see how that
41:10
works. Okay, and so one of the things that you
41:13
might wrap your head around is it's not necessarily
41:15
that people had a problem with the tax, but they
41:17
also had a problem with, I can't pay this. By
41:19
the way, if that's the only way to pay British
41:22
money, what happens to the value of the British
41:23
money? It goes up because it becomes more rare
41:28
and more useful. Does that make sense? Okay,
41:31
so Greenville, by the way, if people aren't paying
41:35
the tax and are working really hard to not pay
41:37
the tax and you're spending money to enforce
41:39
the taxes, are you actually winning? And when
41:42
you're not politically winning, guess what happens
41:43
to you? Bye -bye. So Greenville is dismissed.
41:50
There's a very brief time where they have Lord
41:52
Rockingham. He repeals the Stamp Act. And then
41:57
you have Townsend. Townsend's the guy who puts
42:00
the crackdown on the colonists. Now, here's what's
42:04
going on in all these colonies. The colonies
42:07
have colonial assemblies that are voted by the
42:11
landowners. What did we call that body that was
42:13
voted by the landowners? Parliament. So they
42:16
have their own little parliament and they think
42:18
their own little parliaments are sovereign. So
42:21
what the British start doing is they start sending
42:24
royal... governors, and royal judges. Okay? Now,
42:37
can I erase this bit? Okay, so, Boston, people
42:44
aren't happy about the taxes. Boston, the British
42:49
send troops to occupy the city to enforce the
42:52
taxes. A whole bunch of, okay, Can we say that
42:57
sometimes young men in the cities do stupid things?
43:01
Let's just say a group of juvenile miscreants
43:04
decided to pick a fight with the British regulars
43:06
who have firearms. By the way, are there people
43:08
who are stupid enough to throw things at people
43:10
with firearms? Does it end well for them? No.
43:14
So here you have the British. They're the British
43:16
soldiers. They're being accosted and assaulted
43:19
by a crowd. So they fire with the projectile
43:21
weapons they have at hand. And that's your Boston
43:23
massacre of 1770. Now, here's the weird thing.
43:29
What do we call it when people kill people and
43:32
maybe it's against the law? Murder. The officers
43:38
and men of the British detachment are tried in
43:43
Boston by the Bostonians. So the soldiers are
43:48
on trial for murder. Now, by the way, what could
43:56
happen if they're convicted? They get hanged.
44:00
Now, what's the awkwardness of His Majesty's
44:04
soldiers enforcing His Majesty's taxes being
44:08
hanged by a group of Bostonians? Would that go
44:12
over very well? No. Now, they don't get tried.
44:16
Guess who gets to defend them in court? John
44:20
Adams defends them in court. And he wins. He
44:27
gets an acquittal. Now, we're in Townsend now.
44:35
Okay, we're in Townsend now. North, he had a
44:38
very short run. He repealed a few taxes. He's
44:40
not that interesting. Don't worry about North.
44:42
Anyway, so John Adams, he gets an acquittal.
44:46
Okay, the next incident. You have the Gaspé.
44:53
This is a custom ship that was taken over in
44:58
Rhode Island, and they killed the captain. Okay,
45:01
so you have a Rhode Island mob killing a man
45:04
who has a commission from His Majesty himself.
45:07
Okay? Customs enforcement attacked in Rhode Island.
45:15
Now, here's what's different. The British do
45:24
not allow the perpetrators to be tried in Rhode
45:29
Island. They take the people involved in the
45:33
gas bay back to England to be tried. The Rhode
45:39
Island crowd that attacked the gas bay, they
45:42
get taken back to England to stand trial for
45:45
their lives. What crime have they committed?
45:47
Murder. And treason. Because they attacked a...
45:51
British military vessel in the pursuit of its
45:53
duties. Now, if you're a Rhode Islander, do you
45:56
think these people are going to get a fair shake?
45:58
No. If you're British, are they getting a trial
46:01
by a jury of their peers? Yes, because, oh, we're
46:04
all Englishmen. So one of the things that you
46:07
have to recognize, you've got two things going
46:08
on. One, you have a world of political violence
46:11
that not everybody's on board for. Two, the central
46:18
idea is, Do you have your English rights because
46:24
you're an Englishman, no matter where you are
46:27
in the world? That's the colonial idea. Or the
46:32
British idea. Do you have your English rights
46:35
because you are in England? Because are the British
46:41
getting their taxes approved by Parliament? Are
46:44
they giving people a trial by jury? Yes, but
46:48
it's in England. England. And that's the central
46:50
idea. That's the central conflict between the
46:54
colonists and the British homeland. The British
46:57
maintain that your British rights are in England.
47:01
And the Americans assert that their rights are
47:04
because they are English. And on that note, I
47:08
think that's a good place to stop.