Molasses Act: Information from Answers.com

1733

Theoretically, at least, the Crown had chartered the colonies in America for its economic benefit, but the Crown was sometimes inconsistent in carrying out this policy. The Molasses Act of 1733 was an example. Rum distilling was one of the leading New England industries; the molasses for the rum was imported from both the British and the French West Indies. The act was passed to protect the interests of English planters in the British sugar islands; but it had the effect of raising the price of molasses in New England, and thus of depressing the distilling business there. The practice of bribing customs officials to allow the import of cheaper French rum became common as a result, and the act thereby became ineffective. Had it been systematically enforced, New England's economy would have been crippled, and the system of trade that had evolved over the years would have been destroyed.

An act for the better securing and encouraging the trade of His Majesty's sugar colonies in America.

Whereas the welfare and prosperity of Your Majesty's sugar colonies in America are of the greatest consequence and importance to the trade, navigation, and strength of this Kingdom: And whereas the planters of the said sugar colonies have of late years fallen under such great discouragements that they are unable to improve or carry on the sugar trade upon an equal footing with the foreign sugar colonies without some advantage and relief be given to them from Great Britain; for remedy whereof, and for the good and welfare of Your Majesty's subjects, we, Your Majesty's most dutiful and loyal subjects, the Commons of Great Britain, do most humbly beseech Your Majesty that it may be enacted ... that from and after December 25, 1733, there shall be raised, levied, collected, and paid unto and for the use of His Majesty, His Heirs, and Successors upon all rum or spirits of the produce or manufacture of any of the colonies or plantations in America, not in the possession or under the dominion of His Majesty ... which at any time or times within or during the continuance of this act shall be imported or brought into any of the colonies or plantations in America ... the sum of 9d., money of Great Britain, to be paid according to the proportion and value of 5s. 6d. the ounce in silver for every gallon thereof, and after that rate for any greater or lesser quantity; and upon all molasses or syrups of such foreign produce or manufacture as aforesaid, which shall be imported or brought into any of the said colonies or plantations of or belonging to His Majesty, the sum of 6d. of like money for every gallon thereof ... and upon all sugars and panelas [brown sugar] of such foreign growth, produce, or manufacture as aforesaid, which shall be imported into any of the said colonies or plantations of or belonging to His Majesty, a duty after the rate of 5s. of like money for every hundred-weight avoirdupois. ...

II. It is hereby further enacted ... that all and every the said duties hereby imposed ... shall be paid down in ready money by the importers thereof before the landing of the same, respectively.

III. And be it further enacted that, in case any of the said commodities shall be landed or put on shore in any of His Majesty's said colonies or plantations in America, out of any ship or vessel, before due entry be made thereof at the port or place where the same shall be imported, and before the duties ... shall be duly paid, or without a warrant for the landing and delivering the same, first signed by the collector or impost officer ... all such goods ... shall be forfeited and ... may be seized by the governor or commander in chief, for the time being, of the colonies or plantations where the same shall be so landed. ... And all and every such offense and forfeitures shall and may be prosecuted for and recovered in any Court of Admiralty in His Majesty's colonies or plantations in America ... or in any court of record in the said colonies or plantations where such offense is committed. ...

V. And it is hereby further enacted ... that if any person or persons shall be aiding and assisting in bringing on shore or landing any such sugar, panelas, syrups, or molasses, rum, or spirits into ... any of His Majesty's colonies or plantations in America, contrary to the true intent and meaning of this act, or shall receive into his, her, or their house or custody any of the commodities aforementioned, knowing the same to be imported or landed ... contrary to this act, every such person so offending shall forfeit treble the value of such goods, to be estimated and computed according to the best price that each respective commodity bears at the place where any such seizures shall be made. ...

VII. And it is hereby further enacted ... that if any of His Majesty's subjects who is or shall be master, or have the charge of any ship or vessel, shall ... permit ... syrups or molasses, rum or spirits ... brought on shore and landed in any of His Majesty's plantations in America ... every such master or other person so offending shall forfeit and pay the sum of £ 100. ...

IX. And it is hereby further enacted ... that in case any sugar or panelas of the growth, produce, or manufacture of any of the colonies or plantations belonging to or in the possession of His Majesty ... which shall have been imported into Great Britain after June 24, 1733, shall at any time within one year after the importation thereof be again exported out of Great Britain and that due proof be first made by certificate from the proper officers of the due entry and payment of the subsidies or duties charged or payable upon the importation thereof, together with the oath of the merchant, or his agent, importing and exporting the same, or in case such merchant or agent shall be one of the people called Quakers by his solemn affirmation to the truth thereof, and that all other requisites shall be performed that are by law to be performed in cases where any of the said subsidies or duties are to be paid by any former statute, all the residue and remainder of the subsidy or duty, by any former act or acts of Parliament granted and charged on such sugar or panelas as aforesaid, shall without any delay or reward be repaid to such merchant or merchants, who do export the same, within one month after demand thereof.

X. And it is hereby further enacted ... that from and after June 24, 1733, for every hundredweight of sugar refined in Great Britain ... which shall be exported out of this Kingdom, there shall be, by virtue of this act, repaid at the customhouse to the exporter, within one month after the demand thereof, over and above the several sums of 3s. and 1s. per hundred, payable by two former acts of Parliament ... the further sum of 2s., oath or solemn affirmation as aforesaid being first made by the refiner that the said sugar so exported was produced from brown and muscovado sugar, and that, as he verily believes, the same was imported from some of the colonies or plantations in America belonging to and in the possession of the Crown of Great Britain, and that, as he verily believes, the duty of the said ... sugar was duly paid at the time of the importation thereof, and that the same was duly exported. ...

XIV. And it is hereby declared and enacted that this present act shall be taken to be a public act, of which all judges and justices shall take notice. ... And the same shall continue and be in force for the space of five years, to be computed from June 24, 1733, and to the end of the then next session of Parliament.

Source
The Statutes at Large [of Great Britain], Danby Pickering, ed., Cambridge, XVI, pp. 374-379.

The Molasses Act of March 1733 was an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain (citation 6 Geo II. c. 13), which imposed a tax of six pence per gallon on molasses from non-British colonies. Parliament created the act largely at the insistence of large plantation owners in the British West Indies.^[1] The Act was not passed for the purpose of raising revenue, but rather to regulate trade by making British products cheaper than those from the French West Indies.

The Molasses Act of 1733 provided:

... there shall be raised, levied, collected and paid, unto and for the use of his Majesty ..., upon all rum or spirits of the produce or manufacture of any of the colonies or plantations in America, not in the possession or under the dominion of his Majesty ..., which at any time or times within or during the continuance of this act, shall be imported or brought into any of the colonies or plantations in America, which now are or hereafter may be in the possession or under the dominion of his Majesty ..., the sum of nine pence, money of Great Britain, ... for every gallon thereof, and after that rate for any greater or lesser quantity: and upon all molasses or syrups of such foreign produce or manufacture as aforesaid, which shall be imported or brought into any of the said colonies or plantations ..., the sum of six pence of like money for every gallon thereof ...; and upon all sugars and paneles of such foreign growth, produce or manufacture as aforesaid, which shall be imported into any of the said colonies or plantations ... a duty after the rate of five shillings of like money, for every hundred weight Avoirdupoize....

Historian Theodore Draper described British intent on the tax as it would affect the American colonies:

Bladen [Col. Main Bladen who was a longtime member of the British Board of Trade] had conceived of the strategy of inflicting a prohibitive duty on imports from the French West Indies instead of simply disallowing them. When he was confronted with the argument that the proposed bill would result in the ruin of the North American colonies, he replied, “that the duties proposed would not prove an absolute prohibition, but he owned that he meant them as something that should come very near it, for in the way the northern colonies are, they raise the French Islands at the expense of ours, and raise themselves also [to]o high, even to an independency.”^[2]

A large trade had grown between the New England and Middle colonies and the French, Dutch, and Spanish West Indian possessions. Molasses from the British West Indies, used in New England for making rum, was priced much higher than its competitors and they also had no need for the large quantities of lumber, fish, and other items offered by the colonies in exchange. The British West Indies in the first part of the 18th Century were the most important trading partner for Great Britain so Parliament was attentive to their requests. However, rather than acceding to the demands to prohibit the colonies from trading with the non-British islands, Parliament passed the prohibitively high tax on the colonies for the import of molasses from these islands. ^[3] Historian John C. Miller noted that the tax:

...threatened New England with ruin, struck a blow at the economic foundations of the Middle colonies, and at the same time opened the way for the British West Indians -- whom the continental colonists regarded as their worst enemies -- to wax rich at the expense of their fellow subjects on the mainland.^[4]

Largely opposed by colonists, the tax was rarely paid, and smuggling to avoid it was prominent. If actually collected, the tax would have effectively closed that source to New England and destroyed much of the rum industry. Yet smuggling, bribery or intimidation of customs officials effectively nullified the law. ^[3] Miller wrote:

Against the Molasses Act, Americans had only their smugglers to depend upon -- but these redoubtable gentry proved more than a match for the British. After a brief effort to enforce the act in Massachusetts in the 1740’s, the English government tacitly accepted defeat and foreign molasses was smuggled into the Northern colonies in an ever-increasing quantity. Thus the New England merchants survived -- but only by nullifying an act of Parliament.^[5]

The growing corruption of local officials and disrespect for British Law caused by this act and others like it like the Stamp Act or Townshend Acts eventually led to the American Revolution in 1776. This Act was replaced by the Sugar Act in 1764. This act halved the tax rate, but was accompanied by British intent to actually collect the tax this time.

Notes

^ Draper pg. 95-96 Middlekauff pg. 63
^ Draper pg. 100. The quote provided by Draper came from Leo Francis Stock’s Proceedings and Debates of the British Parliaments respecting North America (1937) vol. 4. pg. 182
^ ^a ^b Miller pg. 96-99
^ Miller pg. 95
^ Miller pg. 99

Bibliography

Draper, Theodore. A Struggle For Power:The American Revolution. (1996) ISBN 0-8129-2575-0
Middlekauff, Robert. The Glorious Cause: The American Revolution, 1763-1789. (2005) ISBN 13:978 0-19-516247-9
Miller, John C. Origins of the American Revolution. (1943)

v • d • e British law and the American Revolution

Royal Proclamations, Acts of Parliament, and other legal issues relating to the American Revolution

Before 1763	Navigation Acts • Wool Act 1699 • Hat Act (1732) • Molasses Act (1733) • Iron Act (1750)

Grenville ministry (1763–1765)	Royal Proclamation of 1763 • Sugar Act (1764) • Currency Act (1764) • Quartering Act (1765) • Stamp Act 1765

Rockingham ministry (1765–1766)	Repeal Act (March 1766) • Declaratory Act (March 1766) • Revenue Act (June 1766)

Chatham and Grafton ministries (1766–1770)	Townshend Acts (1767)

North ministry (1770–1782)	Repeal Act (1770) • Tea Act (1773) • Coercive Acts (1774) • Restraining Acts (March & April 1775) • Proclamation of Rebellion (August 1775) • Prohibitory Act (December 1775) • Taxation of Colonies Act 1778

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