Did Dutch Smugglers Provoke the Boston Tea Party?

The people of Boston dramatically rejected the Tea Act of 1773. This article imbricates Boston within the intercolonial, trans-Atlantic, and global networks that sustained its commerce. Like New Yorkers and Philadelphians, Bostonians smuggled tea and other commodities (sometimes called the “Dutch trade”) and joined the colonial nonimportation agreements. Unlike their counterparts, however, some Boston merchants had also violated the agreements by continuing to import British tea. This article argues that Atlantic smugglers trading with the Netherlands and other European nations helped create the conditions for the Boston Tea Part and helped provoke it.

The Boston Tea Party was a dramatic rejection of the Tea Act of 1773. Yet of the four seaports where the East India Company sent its tea, Boston should have been the least likely to host the destruction of the tea shipments. To understand why, it is helpful to imbricate Boston within the intercolonial and trans-Atlantic (even global) networks that sustained it. Had it not been for pressure from smugglers in the “Dutch trade” operating in New York City and Philadelphia, Boston might have been disinclined to participate in such a dramatic protest. Atlantic smugglers trading with the Netherlands and other European nations helped create the conditions for the Boston Tea Party and helped provoke it.