The British Empire In 1763

The British Empire was the strongest and most successful empire in 1763.The American Revolution came as a result of an argument about the constitution between the British colonists and the Americans. In 1763, ministers from Britain tried to spread costs of imperialism to the Americans. The British ministers made efforts to start administering their empire after the war of 1756 to 1763. During this period, they had accumulated large debts with France. The only solution at hand was to seek ways of generating revenue. The revenue Act, also known as the sugar Act, and the stamp Acts, were passed in parliament in 1764 and 1765 respectively.
The Americans insisted that the British had no right of taxing them because they had no representatives in

the House of Commons. They argued that if they submitted to taxation, they would remain slaves of their colonies. The opposition by the American to the British colonies was already planned before the stamp act of 1765. During the war period that took seven years, the merchants from the British and American side traded as enemies. Robert Morris had summed up the attitude of the merchants when America was fighting for its independence, when he stated that merchants belonged to no country. Britain had tried its best to stop the trade between them and the French West Indies during the war, but, without success. The success came only after they conquered Canada in 1760. This success did not go down well with the American merchants in Boston. They tried hard to interfere with the British customs service by use of numerous court cases. James Otis Jnr., a lawyer for the merchants had tried preventing customs officers from using of writs assistance in searching for goods that were smuggled. He lost the case after the court had declared use of writs as legal. A series of attack in courts concerning the use of writs by the custom service also failed. However, there was enough evidence that the customs service was corrupt inefficient.
Another revenue law that brought controversy was the molasses Act. Set in 1733. British West Indies could not buy or supply molasses and any food that was being sold by the British colonies. Colonies from the mainland were therefore forced to trade with West Indies islands which seemed to have better markets and whose supply of molasses was a bit cheaper. The British attached to the plantations of the West Indian tried to persuade parliament to enact a molasses act with the aim of placing economic barriers. This law was supposed to introduce a levy duty of six pence on every gallon of molasses imported by the British colonies. There were also other duties imposed on products imported from outside. However, most British officials ignored this law that the customs officials constantly evaded it. The profits reaped from this trade helped in the development of British manufactures. It is this interference by the British on the trade and the introduction of the 1763 Grenville ministry policies that brought about the resistance from the Americans in the northern.
This debate concerning the trade brought in other issues that were about the way the constitution of the British Empire was structured.

The first discussion on the constitution between Americans and the British was held in as the war came to an end in 1763. A number of issues in the administrative policies were discussed. One of the issues was the inefficient and corrupt customs service headed by the British in America, the currency Act. Set up in 1764 which, did not allow colonies to give out paper money, the stamp act set up in 1765, which ordered all legal documents be issued with stamps and in which the bearers were supposed to pay for them, the invention of the Halifax Nova Scotia court where officials from the customs service could appeal their cases from the courts of the local colonies and many more Acts of parliament. These legislations were too demanding to the Americans and they had to strongly oppose them because they infringed people’s property rights and democracy. However the front liners of the American Revolution were careful not to break their relationship with the British because these conflicts were not about the American economic values, but it was about people’s democratic rights. They only resorted into conflict as the last

option.