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Analysis of Negotiating Tactics Employed in Benjamin Franklin’s Efforts to Secure Repeal of the Stamp Act of 1765

By Ryan R. Petersen

Final Paper for Managerial Negotiating
Columbia Business School
Professor Casey Ichniowski
August 8, 2007

Introduction

The story of Benjamin Franklin’s efforts to secure repeal of the Stamp Act for the American colonies provides valuable insights for negotiators of any time period. The high-stakes negotiations demonstrate the importance of correctly interpreting the interests of your own base; understanding your opponent’s interests and best alternatives; fostering influential allies to lobby on your behalf; developing public support for your cause; creating alternative solutions for mutual gain; framing for common ground; allowing the other party to save face; and preparing exhaustively before negotiating.

Franklin’s mastery of the tactics of influence allowed him to save his political career while convincing the British Parliament to repeal an act that had gained near unanimous support just one year earlier. Before we can get to all of that, however, we’ll need some background on the circumstances leading up to the negotiations.

Motivations for the Stamp Act

With the 1763 conclusion of the Seven Years War with France (known as the French and Indian War to the colonists), Great Britain finally controlled the entire North American continent east of the Mississippi River. Despite the resounding military success, all was not well in the empire. Britain had incurred massive debts throughout the war, and Parliament was anxious to secure new revenue sources to strengthen its financial position.

From the British perspective, their war had provided new security for the colonies, so they felt justified in compelling the colonists to contribute to the debt repayments. Although the rules of mercantilism required American trade to go through British ports, the mother country had never directly taxed its colonies before. In April 1764, Parliament passed the American Revenue Act (known as the Sugar Act to the colonists), a bill that actually reduced the tax on molasses from six pence per gallon to three pence. Yet where the six pence tax was easily evaded, this new tax was accompanied by measures calling for strict enforcement. The tax quickly served its purpose, generating an important new stream of revenue for the government.

From the American perspective, however, the Sugar Act was an egregious affront to their political rights and a shameful display of ingratitude on the part of the British. In the North American theatre, the war with France had largely been financed with American money and fought by American soldiers. Furthermore, colonial leaders argued, the Sugar Act violated natural law by taxing American subjects who had no direct representation in Parliament. Despite calls for resistance from leaders such as Samuel Adams, the movement to oppose the Sugar Act did not gather the critical mass needed for repeal.

Parliament held little regard for colonial opposition to its authority. Even before the Sugar Act was passed, the body had begun considering a more expansive measure known as the Stamp Act. If passed, the bill would impose a new tax on the colonies’ licenses, deeds, indentures, leases, legal documents newspapers, almanacs, pamphlets, calendars, ship’s papers, dice and playing cards (Currey 1968, 139). Although the new proposal first reached Parliament in March 1764, George Grenville, First Lord of the Treasury and Chancellor of Exchequer, preferred to allow a year to review its implications and alternatives.

Meanwhile, as the colonial agent in London for Pennsylvania, Benjamin Franklin was charged with navigating the stormy waters of imperial politics on behalf of the American people. With no formal authority in Parliament, and relatively few connections within the tight-knit circles of British power, Franklin faced a daunting task.

Yet the Americans could hardly have hoped for a better representative. By 1765 Benjamin Franklin had long established himself as the colonies’ foremost public citizen. A leader of the Enlightenment and one of the eighteenth century’s most well-known thinkers, Franklin’s company was eagerly sought after by leading scientists, artists, statesmen and kings across Europe. While a full sketch of Franklin’s life is outside the scope of this paper, some background information will be useful for understanding his negotiating stance as well as the perceptions of him held by his opponents in Parliament.

The Life of Benjamin Franklin

Franklin fled Boston at seventeen to escape a forced apprenticeship in his brother’s printing press. Arriving nearly penniless in Philadelphia, he soon secured work as an assistant to one of the city’s printers. Before long, Franklin was managing the business with little oversight from his rather incompetent boss. Ever prepared to seize an opportunity, when the chance arose he launched his own press to compete with his former employer.

Through his trademark combination of industry and integrity, along with the exceptional quality of his work, Franklin grew the business rapidly. Before long he was winning lucrative contracts from the colonial government, including several for the printing of paper currency. In 1729 Franklin launched the Pennsylvania Gazette, a broadsheet that quickly became the colony’s best-selling newspaper. Capitalizing on a lucrative trend in the publishing industry, he then began producing Poor Richard’s Almanac, an annual publication carrying news, information, and editorial pieces stressing a life of virtue. His almanac soon became one of America’s best-selling publications, providing a generous income, widespread fame, and considerable influence.

Perhaps recalling how he himself had felt obliged to leave several print shops because of a lack of upward mobility, Franklin consciously set out to create opportunities for his most talented employees. He would provide them with capital and contacts to set up their own print shops—in a different city of course. As a result, Franklin not only eliminated potential competitors in his home market, but soon found himself with ownership stakes in a network of print-shops across the colonies. Meanwhile he installed one of his most talented managers to run the print shop in Philadelphia, allowing Franklin to effectively retire from business. The combination of these business ventures, along with his frugal lifestyle, would provide Franklin with a sizable fortune and relatively secure income for the rest of his life.

Finally blessed with financial stability, Franklin began looking for alternative outlets for his unbridled energy. He formed a secret group of influential citizens, the Junto, to debate matters practical and philosophical. He would often introduce his ideas here, convince the members to support them, and then urge them to covertly promote the ideas in the public sphere. In this manner, and in conjunction with his influential printing press, he was able to develop widespread support for numerous public ventures. He launched the colonies’ first volunteer firefighting corps and first public library. He developed and later implemented a scheme for Philadelphia’s first university, now known as the University of Pennsylvania. During the war with the French, he took matters of colonial defense into his hands, successfully organizing a militia in the largely pacifist city of Quakers. Serving as a Colonel in the militia, he led construction of a chain of forts along the western frontier.

Meanwhile Franklin expressed his creativity through his many scientific endeavors, including the ingenious electrical experiments that would gain him world renown. Franklin flew a kite with a wet string attached to a metal ground wire in the midst of a thunderstorm. To avoid electrocution, he manipulated the kite using a second, dry string that would not conduct electricity. As the kite collected electric charge from the clouds, the wet string discharged it into the metal ground wire, providing an effect identical to an electric charge generated by rotating a magnetic field. Thus, Franklin proved conclusively that lightning is an electrical phenomenon. Ever the practical man, he deduced from his experiment the design for the world’s first lightning rod. When word of Franklin’s experiments reached Europe, it propelled him to the elite ranks of the scientific establishment: he was admitted to The Royal Society and granted honorary doctorates from the most famous of institutions.


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Labels: benjamin franklin, Columbia Business School, negotiations, stamp act

Tom Peters writes:

Life 101: A 40-year Reflection

Go on offense.
Give everybody a shot.
Decentralize.
Try a bunch of stuff.
Make it up as you go along.
Get some stuff wrong.
Laugh a lot.
Get some stuff right.
Who knows, you might get lucky ...

Or:

Extract "lessons learned" or "best practices."
Thicken the Book of Rules for Success.
Become evermore serious.
Enforce the rules to increasingly tight tolerances.
Go on defense.
Install walls.
Protect-at-all-costs today's franchise.
Centralize.
Calcify.
Install taller walls.
Write more rules.
Become irrelevant and-or die.

Labels: inspiration