Definition
The stamp act - law on the Stamp - is a Loi adopted by a Gouvernement which imposes a tax on the transfer of certain documents such as the acts of property. The people paying this tax receive an official stamp to affix on their documents. The taken tax, called stamp duty - literally, due on the stamp -, was developed for the first time at the Netherlands in 1624 after a public contest aiming at finding a new form of tax. Since, a large variety of products and documents were presented to the stamp act, of which charts to be played, patented drugs, accounts - checks, mortgages, contracts, almanacs and newspapers. The objects thus taxed must often be physically stamped in official governmental offices after payment of the tax, although certain alternatives like the annual payment of a fixed sum or the purchase of adhesive stamps are more practical and usual methods.
The stamp acts were used in many countries of which the Australia, the Bhutan, the Canada, the Ireland, the Malaysia, Israel, the the United Kingdom and the the United States of America.
Events related to Stamp Act
The crisis in New England, 1765 - 1766
The Stamp Act of 1765 aims to force the American colonies in order to reinflate finances of the Treasury, settings with evil by the Guerre Seven Year old, and to maintain the army in place in Americas. The law is adopted unanimously on March 22nd 1765 and takes effect on November 1st, 1765, the financial ones then envisage a tax entry of 100.000 pound sterling per annum; it relates to all the legal documents, the licenses, the commercial contracts, the newspapers, the wills, the booklets and the charts to be played. A great resistance within the colonies is immediately opposed to him, and the law is repealed on March 18th, 1766. This incident pokes concerns of the colonists about the intentions of the British Parliament and increases the weight of the separatist movements which, in the long term, causes the Guerre of independence of the United States of America.
A badly accepted tax
The American colonists estimate that the British Parliament is not equitable: this new tax was adopted without main concerns being consulted nor represented at the assembly, which pokes their anger. The colonists claim to be treated like full citizens and that, in particular, one grants the right to them - applied in metropolis - to be consulted for all the businesses which relate to them.
In addition, they denounce the uselessness of the army in faction in North America; this one is useful more, according to them, to protect the goods from value that the colonists themselves. Indeed on several occasions in the past the French, the Spaniards and the Dutchmen attacked the coastal properties and the cities without the British army not intervening: the protection of the colonies was ensured by the colonial militia.
The rebellion
As of the adoption of the law, a deputy of Virginia (Patrick Henry) calls with civil disobedience. The colonists attack the tax collectors, supendent them with masts, tar and feathers recover them. A secret association called the Fils of Freedom (Sounds off Liberty) is founded in New York by Isaac Sears and John Lamb and causes the authority of London. Riots burst, in particular in Boston, but also with New York City and Charleston in South Carolina. Everywhere, the British troops react with violence, which pokes the anger of the colonists.
Stamp Act Congress
In October 1765 takes place Stamp Act Congress - Congress against Stamp Act - where nine colonies are represented by 27 deputy. They write a declaration with the address of the Parliament and the king, the Declaration of the Rights and Doléances, in which they expose their objections against the Parliament and claim the respect of their constitutional laws. Stamp Act is finally repealed the March 18th 1766, the government yielding more to the pressure British tradesmen suffering from the boycott of their goods in North America that in front of the complaints of the colonists.
See too
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