In the usual account of American history, the Boston Tea Party of 1773 was a revolt against unjust taxation. A faraway monarch in England unfairly squeezed his colonial subjects through exorbitant taxes. In protest, patriots ransacked an incoming shipment of British tea, hurling it into Boston Harbor. But the Tea Party was really an uprising against monopoly power. The patriots were enraged that the British Crown had allowed the East India Company to sell tea directly to the American colonies, instead of working through a network of local distributors.
