Lord Grenville saw no reason why it should be permitted in the colonies and be winked at by England. The colonies were lightly taxed when compared to the rest of the British Empire. American colonists "paid no more than sixpence a year against the average English taxpayer's twenty-five shillings" [11]. They were doing well in America. There was enough industry to surprise an Englishman who had never been there before. There was absolutely no excuse for the colonists to be further exempt from taxes that every other British citizen paid. Therefore, with logic on their side, King George, Lord Grenville, and Parliament agreed that through the Revenue Act the colonists should help pay for their own protection. The price of sugar products was actually lowered through this act because the tariff was removed and "the duty on foreign molasses imported into the British colonies was reduced from sixpence to threepence"[12] . Therefore, the Sugar Act should have come as a relief to the American colonists, as it would have been, provided they had been paying the tariff all along rather than avoiding it. Instead of enjoying this reduction in the cost, the colonists boycotted the purchase of sugar purchases. Lord Grenville was shocked. The tax that had been implemented to pay for the protection of these people had failed. Lord Grenville did not understand how a lowered price on an item could have caused so much opposition. Most people today would understand his confusion. If the price of an item were to be lowered, even if it did involve a new tax, most people would cheerfully pay the new tax and enjoy the lower price. The mind set of the colonists was obviously very different. In accepting the tax, they would have been accepting the right for Parliament to impose a tax upon them. The problem for the colonists was that Parliament did indeed have the right to tax them. According to the contemporary jurist William Blackstone, "The power of Parliament [w...
