1773,
commercial credit was greatly injured by extensive failures in England
and Holland. The distress and embarrassment of the mercantile classes
were farther augmented by a great diminution in the gold coin, in
consequence of wear and fraud,--such loss, by act of parliament, being
thrown upon the holders!
At this time, the discontents which had long been manifest in the
American colonies broke out into open revolt. The chief source of
irritation against the mother country was the impolitic measure of
retaining a trifling duty on tea, as an assertion of the right of the
British parliament to tax the colonies.