Which company owned the tea destroyed during the Boston Tea Party?

The East India Company owned the tea destroyed during the Boston Tea Party.

On December 16, 1773, members of the Sons of Liberty boarded three ships in Boston Harbor and dumped the tea into the water. The cargo belonged to the British East India Company, which had received special advantages under the Tea Act of 1773. That act allowed the company to sell tea directly in the colonies while retaining a tax imposed by Parliament.

Many colonists opposed the arrangement because they believed accepting the tea would imply acceptance of Parliament’s right to tax them without colonial representation. The protestors targeted the cargo rather than stealing it; they destroyed hundreds of chests and left the ships themselves largely intact.

The event intensified the crisis between Britain and Massachusetts. Parliament responded with the Coercive Acts, called the Intolerable Acts by many colonists, which restricted Massachusetts self-government and helped push the colonies toward open war. The tea’s exact quantity is reported as either 340 or 342 chests in different historical accounts.