Instead of levying a duty on trade goods, the Stamp Act imposed a direct tax on the colonists. Specifically, the act required that, starting in the fall of 1765, legal documents and printed materials must bear a tax stamp provided by commissioned distributors who would collect the tax in exchange for the stamp.
A stamp act is a law that puts a tax on the transfer of some documents. Colonists had to pay a tax on every piece of printed paper they used - ship's papers, legal documents, licences, newspapers and even playing cards were taxed. ... It was one of the causes of the American Revolutionary War.
