Which act taxed molasses

Instead of fair trade, British producers wanted to protect their market and lobbied Parliament for a tax on foreign molasses.

On December 25, the Molasses Act came into effect imposing a duty of 6d per gallon on molasses imported from non-British colonies. Manufacturers of rum feared that supply of molasses and its higher price would affect its manufacturing capacity and therefore lose market share in an already competitive market.

Colonial businessmen bypassed this law by smuggling molasses from French and Spanish colonies at a cheaper price. The customary bribe to clear customs in New York and Massachusetts amounted to half a penny a gallon, this trade prospered for many years, yet the British authorities did not seriously enforce it.

In , Charles Townshend, then president of the Board and Trade, proposed to use the act to raise revenue from the colonies. The Sugar Act would meet with major resistance in New England where the manufacture of rum from molasses had become a major industry.

Another economic measure passed by Parliament which affected the colonies was the Currency Act of which prohibited the American colonies from giving bills of credit the same status as legal tender.

Bills of credit was a local solution to the lack of silver and gold coin in the colonies. These instruments were supported by the credit of the government which issued them and not by gold and silver specie. The Currency Act stopped colonial merchants from paying their British creditors in devalued paper money issued by colonial governments.

Many in the colonies blamed the act for causing widespread economic failure after British merchants rejected payment for their goods in devalued bills of credit and demanded to be paid in hard currency.

Great Britain had forbidden the printing of colonial currency in certain colonies in earlier years and many viewed the act as an extension of those earlier currency laws. Complaints against the Sugar Act were also fairly low-key though there was a great deal of grumbling among merchants in New England.

Some Boston merchants agreed to boycott the purchase of British luxury goods in retaliation. This step began nonimportation, or the boycott of British goods, as a tool of colonial protest. In the second paragraph of the Sugar Act, however, Parliament announces an intention that goes beyond imposing customs duties. What is that intention?

Why does the legislation call this new intention "just and necessary"? What products besides sugar and molasses will Parliament tax see second paragraph? Many customs officers stationed in the colonies had been known to take a bribe to ignore smuggling.

In an attempt to crack down on illegal smuggling, Parliament gives the customs officers a great deal of latitude. Further Exploration 6. Do you think that it is fair that the British ask the colonists to contribute to their own defense? Why or why not? After you have answered this question, look at the Massachusetts Gazette of 31 May Do you agree with the Bostonians?