Was the British case for taxation of the American colonies justified?
No taxation without representation is a wonderfully catchy slogan and it has some merit. But how about the taxpayer in Britain? Protecting the colonists from the occasional war with the French, from Indian attacks (that most colonies brought upon themselves), etc. required stationing, provisioning, paying, and transporting soldiers and sailors to North America. How do you think the average resident of Suffolk or York felt about the government spending his tax dollars protecting westward-pushing American colonists? The cost of administering courts, judges, governors, crown officials, public improvements and other imperial expenses were legitimate uses of taxation which, for the most part, was granted in colonial assemblies. The taxes that all British citizens and colonists paid were often circumvented by the well known habit of American colonists smuggling. This shortfall in revenues required more policing of the massive Atlantic seaboard that was ineffectual and added again to the expe