Data Literacy for Social Studies, Tea Imported from England to the American Colonies, 1761-1775

Tea was an important and popular commodity in the American colonies. This graph  that visualizes U.S. Census Bureau data shows how much tea, in pounds, was legally imported to the colonies from 1761 to 1775.  Fluctuations reflect British trade policies pertaining to the American colonies. For, example the increasing imports in 1768 came after the British imposed the Indemnity and Townshend Acts which, respectively, lifted taxes on British East India Company tea imports into England, but raised taxes on British tea imports in the American colonies, while cracking down on smugglers. The advantage to English tea merchants caused a flood of tea into the colonies. Similarly, the Tea Act of 1773 gave the British East India Company a monopoly in the colonies, also leading to an influx of tea. The reaction of the colonies to the Tea Act, most famously encapsulated in the Boston Tea Party, is also demonstrated by the sharp decrease in tea imports after 1773. The spreadsheet found here contains the original Census Bureau data, a recreated table of the data, and the graph.