Which act gave the East India Company an advantage over colonial merchants?

The act that gave the East India Company an advantage over colonial merchants was the Tea Act of 1773. The Tea Act was a British law designed to assist the financially struggling British East India Company by granting it a monopoly on the tea trade in the American colonies.

Key features of the Tea Act included:

1. Exclusivity for the East India Company:

  - The act allowed the East India Company to directly ship tea to the American colonies, bypassing colonial merchants. This gave the company a monopoly on the sale of tea in the colonies.

2. Taxation on Tea:

  - While the Tea Act reduced the tax on tea, it maintained the existing tax on tea imported into the colonies. This tax revenue was intended to help the East India Company and reinforce British control over the tea trade.

The Tea Act, however, led to widespread opposition in the American colonies. The colonists saw it as a violation of their principles of representative taxation, as they had no representation in the British Parliament, which was imposing taxes on them. The events that followed, including the Boston Tea Party in 1773, contributed to the escalating tensions that eventually led to the American Revolutionary War.