ntended that payment of even the small duty
             imposed would be ruinous to their businesses. Merchants, legislatures and
             town meetings protested the law, and colonial lawyers found in the preamble
             of the Sugar Act the first intimation of "taxation without representation," the
             slogan that was to draw many to the American cause against the mother
             country. Later in 1764, Parliament enacted a Currency Act "to prevent paper
             bills of credit hereafter issued in any of His Majesty's colonies from being
             made legal tender." Since the colonies were a deficit trade area and were
             constantly short of hard currency, this measure added a serious burden to the
             colonial economy. Equally objectionable from the colonial viewpoint was the
             Quartering Act, passed in 1765, which required colonies to provide royal
             troops with provisions and barracks. STAMP ACT The last of th
             ...