The East India Company Went Bankrupt — And Started the American Revolution

The East India Company Went Bankrupt — And Started the American Revolution In June 1772 a London banker fled to France, and within two weeks eight banks had collapsed. Eighteen months later, colonists in Boston threw three shiploads of tea into the harbour. Those two events are directly connected. The largest corporation in the world had run out of money, and Parliament rescued it by handing it the American tea market. The Tea Act imposed no new tax. It made tea in the colonies roughly half the price. This is the story of why the colonists destroyed it anyway, and why they were not protesting a tax but a bailout. The Exchequer covers the financial history behind events everyone thinks they already understand.