Among the causes which led to the American Revolution, the one most prominent in the popular judgment is the "tax on tea", imposed by Great Britain on her American colonies. The destruction, in Boston harbor, in December, 1773, of the cargoes of tea sent to that port by the East India Company, was undoubtedly the proximate cause of that memorable event, and in view of this fact, the occurrence, —"by far the most momentous in the annals of the town", says the historian Bancroft, —merits a more thorough and particular consideration than it has yet received.