The Tea Act of 1773 was a law passed by the British Parliament with the primary objective of helping the financially struggling British East India Company.
The company had a massive amount of tea stored in its London warehouses, so the act aimed to reduce the stock. It gave the company the right to ship its tea to North America directly and the right to the duty-free export of tea from Britain, although the tax imposed by the Townshend Acts and collected in the colonies remained in force.
However, the act, which received royal assent on May 10, 1773, was controversial as it reduced the tax on imported British tea, giving British merchants an unfair advantage over American tea merchants. This caused outrage among the American colonists, who condemned the act and planned to boycott tea.
