ShmoopTube

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[ musical flourish ]

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And here's your Shmoop du jour, brought to you by tax evasion,

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hide and seek for accountants. Really.

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All right, here's the excerpt.

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[ mumbles ]

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[ mumbling continues ]

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All right. And the question:

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In general, taxes levied on the colonists

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like the Sugar Act... what?

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And here are your potential sweet, sweet answers.

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[ pouring ]

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Okay. Ever heard the phrase

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"no taxation without representation?"

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Well, that all started with the Sugar Act.

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Colonists really didn't wanna pay taxes if they didn't have a voice in their government.

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So, as you might imagine, things started to get a little sticky.

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So did the Sugar Act

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A - succeed in generating additional revenue for Great Britain?

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Well, people were pretty miffed about the tax on sugar.

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So much so that they refused to pay it.

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Honestly, the whole thing was a huge failure.

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Sort of like Crystal Pepsi.

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Uh, what's Crystal Pepsi you ask? Exactly. Ask your parents.

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It was around for 15 seconds.

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So it's not A. And we can also eliminate B,

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because we already figured out the Sugar Act

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was nowhere near a success.

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So did taxes like the Sugar Act C -

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fail because the taxed goods were

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considered luxuries and were in low demand?

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Well, these taxes were put on sugar, tea, stamps,

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the staples of everyday life.

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So you better believe people were up in arms

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when the things they most needed

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became a whole lot more expensive.

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So it's not C.

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That must mean the Sugar Act

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D - failed because colonists ignored the Act

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and instead smuggled taxed goods into America.

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You bet it did.

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People didn't wanna pay taxes on sugar, so they either

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flat-out refused to

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or they snuck sugar into the country

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illegally, getting that sweet fix however they could.

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So D is the right answer.

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[ groan ]

Full Transcript