Molasses Act

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The Molasses Act (" Molasses Act ") was a customs law passed by the British Parliament in 1733 (6 Geo II. C. 13 after counting the Statutes at Large ), which established various import and export restrictions for the British colonies in North America and the Caribbean , especially tariffs on molasses .

The law came about as a result of pressure from British sugar cane growers in the West Indies , who were increasingly exposed to competition from French and Dutch growers in their main market, New England , and were demanding a protective tariff . The Molasses Act imposed an import duty of 6 d / gallon on foreign molasses on American importers - around 100% of the current value of the goods; foreign rum was subject to an import duty of 9 d.

However, the law had little effect as it was systematically evaded by smuggling ; Rhode Island, for example, the colony whose economy was most dependent on the rum distillery, had no tariffs whatsoever from molasses imports after 1744. After the end of the Seven Years' War , the Molasses Act 1764 was extended by the so-called Sugar Act , which halved the import duty to 3 d / gallon, but British efforts to actually collect the duty met with massive opposition and were ultimately one of the reasons for the beginning of the American Revolution .

literature

  • Gilman M. Ostrander: The Colonial Molasses Trade . In: Agricultural History 30: 2, 1956. pp. 77-84.