10 HALVDAN KOHT. [No. 3. 



and was determined on doing so. The economic life of America 

 contained a revolutionary force that must logically lead to open 

 rebellion against conservative England. 



Once more the agrarian interests proved to be opposed to 

 the commercial interests. In 1767, the Parliament adopted a 

 reduction of a shilling in the land tax, praclically equivalent to 

 a reduction from 4 to 3 percent; in the debates of the House 

 the question was treated as one arisen between the Americans 

 and the landed interest of England, and it was generally thought 

 that the passage of the bill must bring in its train a tax on the 

 colonies, i. e. on commerce 1 . This actually happened in the 

 same year, the import duties in America being increased. 



The conflict that arose about these duties, which in no way 

 whatever exceeded what the Americans themselves until lately 

 bad asserted as absolutely legal, led direct to the declaration 

 of Independence of 1776. From the outset a conflict of economic 

 interests, it quickly developed into a political conflict and, step 

 by step, dissolved the union between Great Britain and her old 

 American colonies. 



If you read the Declaration of Independence in the light which 

 this view throws on its historical background, you will find that 

 it gives a nearly complete explanation of the causes of American 

 rebellion. In point of legal argumentation, the Declaration is a 

 very weak document, and it does not prove its thesis that the 

 King, by repeated injuries and usurpations, had endeavoured to 

 establish an absolute tyranny over the colonies. lndeed, none 

 of the alleged usurpations can justly be said to go beyond the 

 constitutional prerogalives of the King, half of them were nothing 

 else than the accepted colonial policy of two centuries, and the 

 worst injuries mentioned were merely the defence against or the 

 retortion to rebellious action in the colonies. Nevertheless, the 

 Declaration of July 4 tells the story of the Revolution very 

 plainly; it shows how the old colonial policy began to stir up 

 a spirit of opposition, — how the colonial legislatures, in putting 



1 Bancroft, VI. 59. 



