Molasses Act

(noun)

A 1733 law of the Parliament of Great Britain imposing a tax of six pence per gallon on imports of the named product from non-British colonies.

Related Terms

Examples of Molasses Act in the following topics:

  • Navigation Acts

    • For the most part the Acts of Trade and Navigation were obeyed, with the exception of the Molasses Act of 1733 This law proved to be a great temptation encouraging extensive smuggling because the law provided no effective means of enforcement until the 1750s.
    • The deeply unpopular Molasses Act was the first of the Sugar Acts.
    • New England ports especially suffered economic losses from the Sugar Act, as the stricter enforcement made smuggling molasses more dangerous and risky.
    • They also argued that their profit margin on rum was too small to support a tax on molasses.
    • The Sugar Act was repealed in 1766 and replaced with the Revenue Act of 1766, which reduced the tax to one penny per gallon on molasses imports, British or foreign.

  • Enforcing the Navigation Acts

    • Later revisions of the Act added new regulations.
    • The Acts were in full force for a short time only.
    • Later laws such as the Molasses Act of 1733 (the first of the Sugar Acts) levied heavy duties on the trade of sugar from the French West Indies to the American colonies, forcing the colonists to buy the more expensive sugar from the British West Indies instead and only added fuel to the growing fire.
    • On the whole, the Navigation Acts were more or less obeyed by colonists, despite their dissatisfaction, until the Molasses and Sugar Acts.
    • The Molasses Act led to extensive smuggling, as no effective means of enforcement was provided until the 1750s.

  • The Sugar and Stamp Acts

    • The earlier Molasses Act of 1733, which had imposed a tax of six pence per gallon of molasses, had never been effectively collected due to colonial resistance and evasion.
    • The earlier Molasses Act of 1733 was passed by Parliament largely at the insistence of large plantation owners in the British West Indies.
    • Molasses was used in New England for making rum, and the molasses trade had been growing between New England, the Middle colonies, and the French, Dutch, and Spanish West Indian possessions.
    • The Molasses Act was set to expire in 1763.
    • When passed by Parliament, the new Sugar Act of 1764 halved the previous tax on molasses.

  • British Taxes and Colonial Grievances

    • The Sugar Act of 1764 reduced the taxes imposed by the Molasses Act, but at the same time strengthened the collection of the tax.
    • Following the Quartering Act, Parliament passed one of the most infamous pieces of legislation: the Stamp Act.
    • The Stamp Act Congress met in October 1765, petitioning the King and Parliament to repeal the act before it went into effect at the end of the month.
    • The act faced vehement opposition throughout the colonies.
    • Parliament repealed the Stamp Act but passed the Declaratory Act in its wake.

  • Swelling Protest

    • Following the Molasses, Sugar, and Quartering Acts, Parliament passed one of the most infamous pieces of legislation: the Stamp Act.
    • However, the Stamp Act provided the first internal tax on the colonists and faced vehement opposition throughout the colonies.
    • In addition to the specific protests of the Stamp Act taxes, it asserted that:
    • Public outrage over the Stamp Act was demonstrated most notably in Massachusetts, New York, and Rhode Island.
    • Samuel Adams was a leader in the colonial opposition of Stamp Act.

  • The Habit of Self-Government

    • The Sugar Act established a tax of six pence per gallon of sugar or molasses imported into the colonies, and by 1750, the Parliament had begun to ban, restrict, or tax several more products.

  • Land and Liberty

    • The Sugar Act established a tax of six pence per gallon of sugar or molasses imported into the colonies.

  • The Plantation Economy and the Planter Class

    • Over the years, tobacco became important to Virginia's economy, even acting as currency at times.
    • Some plantations also went a step further and distilled the molasses, the liquid left after the sugar is boiled or clarified, to make rum.

  • Commerce in the New England Colonies

    • Traders set up stores selling English manufactures such as cloth, iron utensils, and window glass, as well as West Indian products like sugar and molasses.
    • After these products had been delivered to port towns such as Boston and Salem in Massachusetts, New Haven in Connecticut, and Newport and Providence in Rhode Island, merchants then exported them to the West Indies, where they were traded for molasses, sugar, gold coins, and bills of exchange (credit slips).
    • They carried the West Indian products to New England factories, where the raw sugar was turned into granulated sugar and the molasses distilled into rum.

  • Early New England Society

    • Traders set up stores selling English manufactures such as cloth, iron utensils, and window glass, as well as West Indian products like sugar and molasses.
    • After these products had been delivered to port towns such as Boston, Salem, New Haven, Newport, and Providence, merchants then exported them to the West Indies, where they were traded for molasses, sugar, gold coins, and bills of exchange (credit slips).
    • They carried the West Indian products to New England factories where the raw sugar was turned into granulated sugar and the molasses distilled into rum.