Which act allowed the East India Company to dump its stockpile of tea on the American colonies?

• A. Tea Act
• B. Stamp Act
• C. Intolerable Acts
• D. Townshend Acts

Answer: (C)

The question is about how Parliament tried to address the East India Company’s finances by changing how tea could be sold in the colonies. The Tea Act of 1773 allowed the East India Company to ship tea directly to the American colonies and sell it with a monopoly, effectively letting them unload a large stockpile at a price lower than local merchants and smuggled tea could match. This lower price made the company’s tea very attractive, but it undercut colonial merchants and raised fears of imperial control over colonial commerce. That mechanism—direct sale to the colonies undercutting competition—is why the Tea Act is the best answer. The other acts didn’t authorize this: the Stamp Act taxed printed materials; the Intolerable Acts were punitive measures enacted after resistance; the Townshend Acts imposed duties on various imports but did not provide a way to dump stockpiled tea.