Two of these laws are the Sugar Act and the Tea Act. The Sugar Act (1764) was a tax passed by the British to pay for the Seven Years War, called the French and Indian War in America. It taxed sugar and decreased taxes on molasses in British colonies in America and the West Indies. The British Parliament passed the Tea Act in May 1773. It reinforced a tea tax in the American colonies. The act also allowed the British East India Company to have a monopoly on the tea trade there. This meant that the American colonists were not allowed to buy tea from any other source.
The Dutch located trading posts near harbors and rivers, such as the Hudson, in the early 1600s because these were the most advantageous in terms of profitable trading with Europe.
