(Repeal of the Duties on Tea) AN ACT FOR REMOVING ALL DOUBTS AND APPREHENSIONS CONCERNING TAXATION BY THE PARLIAMENT OF GREAT BRITAIN: In any Colonies, Provinces, and Plantations in North America and the West indies: and for Repealing so much of an Act...as imposes a duty on Tea imported from Great Britain into any Colony or Plantation in America, or relates thereto.

      London: Charles Eyre and William Strahan, Printers to the King, 1778.. Fine with original cover sheet printed recto only. 4to. pp. [293]-296. In a custom quarter leather, marbled board clamshell box with leather labels, gilt lettering. A Rare important document of the American Revolution. OCLC lists only 4 copies (Tulane, Newberry Library, Yale, Mass. Historical Society). In 1765, the British Parliament passed the Stamp Act required all legal documents, permits etc. in the American colonies to carry a British tax stamp. The tax met with great hatred and resistance. It was repealed in March 1766. In 1767, Prime Minister William Pitt became ill and was replaced by Charles Rockingham. Charles Townshend, a man with little finesse or political savvy, was Chancellor of the Exchequer. Under his leadership the Townshend Act was passed which imposed taxes on lead, paint, paper, glass and tea imported into the American colonies. These taxes, like the Stamp Act, were passed without colonial input--"Taxation Without Representation". This and other disputes erupted into open violence in 1770 with the Boston Massacre. In an attempt to cool the situation, the British repealed all the Townshend taxes with the exception of that on tea. In 1773, in yet another ill advised move, Parliament passed the Tea Act. This permitted the British East India Company to sell tea to the British colonies in North America without the usual colonial tax, enabling them to undercut legitimate merchants and smugglers. While the Tea Act did not add additional taxes to tea, it did cause a furor in the colonies where local merchants and smugglers rallied the colonists to boycott tea. The boycott culminated in the Boston Tea Party.We come to 1778 and the Revolutionary War. With the current act, Parliament repealed the remaining tax on tea as one means of trying to quell the rebellion. A move Too Little, Too Late..