"A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people."

In this episode, we explore the Boston Tea Party, the global tea industry, British-American perceptions of tyrannical governments in Asia, and the Declaration of Independence.

Topics include the following:

-the connotations of the word "tyranny" in the Colonies

-the presumption in the Britain and the Colonies that "freedom" only meant being Protestant and living in a constitutional monarchy

-the East India Company, the tea trade, the cotton trade, and the Mughal Empire

-Colonial American consumer culture and the origins of ethical consumption movements

-the 7 Years' War, the Battle of Plassey (1757), and the conquest of Bengal by the East India Company

-the East India Company's role in the famine in Bengal in the late 1760s, which led to the deaths of millions of people there

-the Tea Act of 1773, which was an effort by the British government to generate revenue after the decline in income from the East India Company due to the famine

-the Boston Tea Party and the British reaction in the form of the Intolerable Acts

-reasons for Americans' long-standing distrust of giant, unaccountable corporations like the East India Company

Selling Empire: India in the Making of Britain and America, 1600-1830

The cover image depicts The Destruction of Tea at Boston Harbor, an 1846 lithograph by Nathaniel Currier.