The next act which is believed to have led directly to the Revolutionary War is the Tea Act. After the three pence per pound tax on tea was levied, some of the colonists bought their tea from smugglers who had purchased it from the Dutch East Indies. In 1773, in an attempt to curb this illegal trade and to help create a monopoly of the tea trade for the East India Company, Parliament passed a law allowing this company to ship tea from Asia directly to the American colonies without bringing it to English warehouses first, as had previously been the regulation. This situation resulted in the East India Company selling its tea cheaper than the other companies. In spite of this change, Parliament refused to repeal the three pence duty tax on tea which still had to be paid by the colonists. The American colonists realized the scheme of England, and not wanting to admit the right of Parliament to tax them even under these conditions, they decided not to submit to the payment of the duty tax. When the ships from the East India Company sent cargoes of tea to Charleston, Philadelphia, New York and Boston, some of it was stored indefinitely (at Charleston), some was returned (from Philadelphia and from New York City) and the rest was dumped into the Boston Harbor on December 16, 1773. The famous Boston Tea Party caused Parliament to pass the "Intolerable Acts" as punishment for the colonists of Massachusetts: (1) the Boston Port Bill closed the port of Boston to all trade until the colonists there had paid for the tea which had been destroyed and had agreed to obey the laws of Parliament and to maintain peace in the future, (2) the Massachusetts Government Act changed the charter of Massachusetts so that more governing power was in the hands of the royal officials and much less in the hands of the colonists, (3) the Administration of Justice Act provided that British officials in Massachusetts who had been charged with serious violations of colonial laws were from that time on to be sent to England for their trial and (4) an act provided that any colonial Governor was empowered from that time on to quarter British soldiers in barns or vacant buildings whenever the need arose. The first of these acts was to go into effect on June 1, 1774. Therefore, the colonists realized that something had to be done immediately if their resentment and ill feeling was to be recognized by Parliament and acted upon accordingly.