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What british economic policy caused the Boston Tea Party?

What british economic policy caused the Boston Tea Party? Do you think the colonists were justified in their acts of rebellion, or should they have taken some other course of action for this?

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1. Tax on imports
2. The British Government, having gone to great expense to protect the American colonies during the French-Indian War, thought the colonies should help clear the British debt. So the British Parliament imposed a series of taxes. The colonists were used to local self-government and objected to paying taxes they hadn't voted for ("No taxation without representation!") The British backed off on most of the taxes, but left the tax on tea. They wanted to make the point that they could tax if they wanted to. They thought that the Americans, being fond of tea, would have to go along eventually. The most outright anti-British rebels in Boston thought their fellow-colonists would cave, too. They organized the Boston Tea Party to crank up the heat on all sides. It worked. The British economic policy was "mercantilism." The colonies were there to provide raw materials and a market for British manufactured goods. Transporting the goods was supposed to be limited to British ships, although there was a lot of smuggling -- another sore point between the colonies and the Mother Country. The British East India Company had a monopoly on trade in tea. The Company was tremendously wealthy and deeply tied to the British political structure. So, the Tea Party not only struck at British tax policy, but hit British fat cats and politicians in their wallets.
3. The great tea conflict began when the British East India Company hiked its prices to accomodate tax levied by the crown. The result was the evolution of a thriving black market in tea in the colonies. Enterprising Americans began importing contraband tea from the Netherlands and selling it well below the price of British tea. Supposedly, some of the most revered American patriots were involved in this illicit but profitable trade. As more and more Americans refused to drink British tea, the East India Company faced a financial crisis. It became so overstocked with unsold tea, there was a seven-year supply sitting in warehouses in England. To unload some of that stock and eliminate competition in the colonies, it was decided the company would slash its price below black market costs. But when shiploads of cheap British tea arrived in the colonies, Americans reacted in an unexpected way. Instead of being pleased, they were angry. Colonial tea-drinkers felt they were being manipulated by the British, but little did they realize, they were also being manipulated by the black marekteeers, who organised a series of "spontaneous" tea parties.