TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION
The issue thus drawn centered on the question of representation . The colonists believed they could not be represented unless they actually elected members to the House of Commons . But this idea conflicted with the English principle of “virtual representation,” according to which each member of Parliament rep- resented the interests of the whole country and the empire — even if his electoral base consisted of only a tiny minority of property owners from a given district . This theory assumed that all British subjects shared the same interests as the property own- ers who elected members of Parlia- ment .