63年以前的英国政策是建立在有益的忽视之上的，英国人选择不推翻殖民地。弗吉尼亚殖民地就是这一概念的缩影。首先，殖民地由一家名为弗吉尼亚伦敦公司的股份公司资助，1619年，该公司批准殖民者拥有第一个殖民立法议会，后来被称为弗吉尼亚伯吉斯之家。该殖民地后来成为皇家殖民地，国王任命了一位总督。本篇留学生作业指出如果伯吉斯家族支付总督的薪水，殖民地就可以保留他们；这被称为钱包控制。弗吉尼亚学会了依靠对钱包的控制；他们可以通过影响州长的薪酬来影响他的决定。控制钱包的权利遍布所有皇家殖民地，这一权利和殖民地议会将成为殖民者拒绝放弃的权利。皇家殖民地的殖民地议会是两院制立法机构，包括伯吉斯议院和总督委员会。殖民地有这样的政治回旋余地，他们可以制定自己的投票要求，切萨皮克地区需要土地，新英格兰地区需要圣徒身份。有益忽视的概念导致殖民者后来将自己视为与英国结盟的一部分，而不是他们国家的一部分。英国最初政策的另一个要点是提倡重商主义的概念。殖民者在国内征税，但为了促进重商主义，议会有对外进出口税，如《糖蜜法案》。《糖蜜法案》对法国产品征税，以阻止殖民者购买这些产品，从而使英国产品更便宜。
British policies between 1763 and 1776 were focused on using the colonies to raise revenue in ways that the colonists saw as unconstitutional. The change in these acts and the colonists’ reaction was the start of a battle of wills between the colonists and parliament over the principle of taxation. The start of the change in policies was the writs of assistance. The writs of assistance was passed to discourage smuggling, however it was a general warrant that allowed officials to enter any ship where smuggled goods may or may not be hidden. The writ required no prior evidence for a seizure; colonists saw this as a breach of their constitutional rights. The writs of assistance also discarded traditional privacy of families’ homes, being that most merchants businesses were home based. Three years following the trial against the writs of assistance, which the colonists lost, was the passing of the Sugar Act (1764). The Sugar Act was designed to raise revenue, and was an amendment to the Molasses Act. The Sugar Act also introduced new complicated shipping requirements, and disregarded the concept of a fair trial. There was no jury for the people who were suspected for smuggling, and the suspects were considered guilty until proven innocent. The Sugar Act was never strongly resisted because it didn’t widely affect everyone in all of the colonies. However the Stamp Act was strongly refuted. The Stamp Act was passed due to the failure of the Sugar Act to ease Britain’s financial debts. It obligated colonists to buy special stamped paper for wills, newspapers, documents, and diplomas. Also unlike the Sugar Act, the stamp act would affect everyone living in any of the colonies multiple times. Another major difference is the tax to be an internal tax, instead of an external tax like the Sugar Act. Similar to the Sugar Act the violators of the law will face a jury-less trial. With the Stamp Act came the idea of spreading the concept or virtual representation to the colonies. Virtual representation is the theory that all British subjects were considered and parliament would protect their well being. The colonists denied the theory that virtual representation could be spread to the colonies, and they felt that they were being denied constitutional rights by the act. The concept of virtual representation and the act being an internal tax led colonists to resist the Stamp Act. In response to the great resistance parliament repealed the stamp act, but left in its place the Declaratory Act. The colonists mistakenly took the Declaratory Act as an effort to “save face”; however its true meaning was that the colonists could not claim exemption to any parliamentary statue. Due to the colonists’ strong resistance to an internal tax, parliament passed the Townshend duties, external taxes to raise revenue. The new law posed taxes on certain items such as glass, paint, led, paper, and tea, which were imported to the colonies. The colonists only accepted taxation on trade as a form of regulation, not as a way to raise British revenue. Raising revenue was not the only reason the Townshend duties were made, another goal was to use it to pay the governors salary. This would allow Britain to take control of the purse away from the colonists. In response to the offensive law Massachusetts released a circulatory letter that condemned taxation without representation. Though the Townshend duties were offensive, the acts that finally caused a fatal fracture in the bond between the
