"The relation between Great-Britain and her colonies is that of parent and children; and the power of the parent must, in the nature of things, be absolute and uncontrolled. . . . To suppose a right in the colonies to resist the acts of the British parliament is to suppose a state of independence which does not exist, and which would be ruinous to the colonies themselves. . . . The Parliament of Great Britain has an absolute, undisputed, and limitable [unlimited] authority over all the subjects of the empire, in all cases whatsoever, both of taxation and legislation."
— Martin Howard, Loyalist, *A Letter from a Gentleman at Halifax*, 1765
Based on the excerpt, which of the following best explains how the debate over parliamentary authority reflected a fundamental disagreement between British loyalists and colonial resistors regarding the nature of the British Empire?
- British authorities asserted that Parliament held indivisible sovereignty over the entire empire, whereas colonial resistors argued that taxation was a right reserved exclusively for their local representative assemblies.Cevap
- BBritish loyalists argued that parliamentary taxes were intended to dismantle the mercantilist system in favor of imperial free trade, while colonists sought to preserve traditional colonial trade monopolies.
- CColonists accepted the principle of virtual representation for internal taxes like the Stamp Act but initiated violent boycotts only after Parliament attempted to enforce direct representation through the Coercive Acts.
- DParliament conceded to the colonial demand for direct representation in the Declaratory Act of 1766, which was subsequently repealed after the Boston Tea Party.