Economic Wisdom for Tumultuous Times

I believe I forgot to tell you one Anecdote: When I first came to this House it was late in the Afternoon, and I had ridden 35 miles at least. “Madam” said I to Mrs. Huston, “is it lawfull for a weary Traveller to refresh himself with a Dish of Tea provided it has been honestly smuggled, or paid no Duties?”

“No sir, said she, we have renounced all Tea in this Place. I cant make Tea, but Ile make you Coffee.” Accordingly I have drank Coffee every Afternoon since, and have borne it very well. Tea must be universally renounced. I must be weaned, and the sooner, the better.

John Adams to Abigail Adams, July 6, 1774

After the participants in the Boston Tea Party smashed 342 chests of tea (which could have made more than 18 million cups of tea for colonists!) and dumped them in Boston Harbor in a protest against the taxes levied by Townshend Acts and the Tea Act of 1773, it became even more important for patriotic colonists to stop drinking tea.

This was harder than it sounds, as the colonists were passionate about their tea, and drank nearly 1.2 million pounds of tea annually. As Adams’s letter indicates, a “dish of tea” was considered a sustaining, refreshing, revivifying drink under the most exhausting circumstances—even in the heat of July. But tea was also a social pleasure in happier times and a daily drink for colonists of all ages. The boiling water necessary to prepare tea would also have protected the health of colonists from potentially polluted water sources.

The reaction to the tax on tea was not only a reaction to the idea of taxation without representation, and to opening the door to the continued use of the colonies as a source of funding for a mother country from whom they had become increasingly divided. It was a reaction to taxing a commodity that the colonists could hardly imagine living without.

But the principled commitment of the colonists was such that they did. Adams’s letter reveals to readers a moment when his own exhaustion overcame his principles enough to ask for tea—”honestly smuggled” to avoid the tea tax. And it gives us, as well, his landlady’s response. No tea will be drunk in her house. No exceptions. Not even for Adams. 

Duly chastised, and one suspects, impressed by his landlady’s staunch commitment to the principles of the Revolutions, Adams resigns himself to coffee going forward.

The economic issues of the Revolution were not theoretical issues that only mattered to the politicians debating the technicalities of tariffs and taxes. They affected the daily lives of everyone in the colonies. And for the Revolutionary project to succeed everyone—from John Adams to his landlady—needed the resolve to maintain resistance to unjust taxation.

This month at A Call to Liberty, our authors explore questions about political economy and the Declaration of Independence. We leave it to you to decide if you will read them with a cup of tea or coffee nearby.