ir share of the cost. The severe debt though was of little concern compared to the thirty-five hundred thousand pounds it would cost to supply and train 10,000 troops for the protection of the colonies. “Facing heavy costs of supporting a standing army in the North American colonies, Britain hoped to shift some of the fiscal burden onto the colonists by imposing a series of taxes without consulting colonial governments (Eliot).” The debt of war was mostly paid for by taxes from in England itself. The plan though was to raise more money for the colonies own defense. The graph below shows how much money was actually raised to pay for both the war and the colonies own defenses. (Encarta) graphIt is clearly obvious that the colonials not only attempted to forestall payments on what Britain considered long overdue taxes but succeeded at costing the British Empire more than three hundred thousand pounds a year. The colonials resisted many changes, since they felt secure without the French to the north. Many colonists lost respect for Britain due to a sub par performance in battles throughout the war. The English felt quite differently, in fact they had a notion that the colonists had been illegally trading with Canada during the war. The English felt that the burden of debt must be shared. Ultimately most of the war was footed by the English back home (Notes)). Britain surmised that the best way to raise funds for their arrearage would be to exact taxes. Few if any taxes raised substantial sums of money. Taxes were imposed both internally and externally to accumulate funds to pay for the war. The stamp tax was levied for just those reasons. Passed in 1765 it marked the beginnings of colonial resistance to taxation. The tax included a payment on many legal items, such as marriage papers, loans, and playing cards, that would help to make a sizable dent in the British deficit. The wide dislike of theses taxes in the colonies showed a...
