The Sugar Act was a piece of British legislation passed in April 1764. It was passed specifically to increase revenue collected from the American colonies, in order to fund their defence and regulation. It aimed to do this by adjusting customs duties on items imported by Americans and strengthening the means by which they were collected. The Sugar Act was the first British revenue-raising measure of the 1760s and raised considerable alarm and opposition in the colonies.
Molasses and rum
Molasses, a raw sugar product in viscous liquid form, was extensively used in the 13 colonies, particularly for distilling rum. In the 1700s, most molasses was produced from sugar cane grown in British and French colonies in the Caribbean that relied extensively on slave labour.
Demand for molasses was fuelled by the emergence of rum distilleries in New England. By 1730, there were around 40 distilleries in Boston alone, then a town of barely 14,000 people. Edmund Burke later observed that “the quantity of spirits they distill in Boston… is as surprising as the cheapness at which they sell it… but they are more famous for the quantity and cheapness than for the excellency”.
The importation of molasses at cheap prices became pivotal to New England rum producers. Most preferred to source their molasses from sellers in the French West Indies who offered significantly lower prices.
The Molasses Act
British molasses producers in the Caribbean, unable to compete with their French counterparts, began to lobby the government. In 1733, Parliament responded to their petitions by passing the Molasses Act.
The Molasses Act imposed a duty of between six and nine pence per gallon on all sugar products purchased and imported from non-British colonies. This was not a revenue-raising measure – it was intended to limit the trade with foreign colonies by artificially driving up the price of their goods:
“[A duty] upon all molasses or syrups of such foreign produce or manufacture… which shall be imported or brought into any of the said colonies or plantations… the sum of six pence.”
As might be expected, colonial producers opposed the Molasses Act. The duty would have bankrupted many distillers and shipping companies and, by and large, they ignored it. Incidents of smuggling increased markedly, while other importers got around the duty by bribing or harassing customs officials.
In the end, the Molasses Act proved largely unenforceable and within a few years, the British had given up trying to collect it.
New legislation
In the wake of the French and Indian War, the British Parliament began reviewing and updating items of legislation pertaining to trade with the American colonies. It resolved to scrap the 1733 molasses legislation and replace it with a new bill.
The result was the Sugar Act, passed in April 1764. This law actually reduced the customs duty from sixpence a gallon down to three pence, an attempt to make the law more palatable. This was offset by two other features that made the act deeply unpopular in the colonies.
Firstly, the Sugar Act outlined measures to enforce collection of the duty more rigorously. The right to issue writs of assistance was granted to customs officials, the Royal Navy presence in American waters was increased, and a new Vice-Admiralty Court was established at Halifax to deal with illegal traders.
Secondly, the Sugar Act also expanded the list of enumerated goods on which duties were to be levied. As well as sugar and molasses, a duty was now payable on a range of raw materials including furs, hides and skins, iron, timber, coffee and indigo. Some items, such as foreign rum and wines, were banned from importation altogether.
Colonial responses
As mentioned, the Sugar Act was met with concern and opposition in the American colonies, particularly among merchants and traders. It produced some of the first organised opposition to British policy – from organised boycotts and non-compliance to essays questioning the authority of the British Parliament.
The act had deleterious effects on the colonial economy, already in something of a slump after the end of the French and Indian War. With British customs collection now more effective and smuggling far more risky, many abandoned it altogether, driving up the price of rum and other goods.
Many colonial writers began to question whether Britain possessed the authority to levy taxes and revenue measures on the colonies without their approval. James Otis described the Sugar Act as “absolutely irreconcilable with the rights of the colonists”. Samuel Adams wrote that it “annihilates our charter right to govern and tax ourselves”.
The cartoon at the top of this page, Anti-Saccharrites, engages in lampoonery of King George III and his wife, Queen Charlotte, sipping sugared tea while their subjects go without – a reference to the Sugar Act.
“Colonial protests against the act emphasised three major points. First, there were objections to the continued attempt to provide a monopoly that would benefit West Indies planters at the expense of rum distillers in New England. Second, the colonists objected to the mechanisms of enforcement, which they believed violated the English common law’s principle of trial by juries. Finally, doubt was expressed about the Parliament’s right to levy taxes upon people who were not represented.”
Howell H. Gwin, historian
1. The Sugar Act was an item of British legislation passed in April 1764 and replacing earlier legislation called the Molasses Act.
2. The purpose of the Sugar Act was to increase revenue from American colonial trade by adjusting customs duties and improving how they were regulated and collected.
3. It did this by lowering an unenforceable duty on sugar and molasses, adding duties to other commonly traded items, and strengthening the powers of naval and customs officials.
4. The Sugar Act had a significant impact on the colonial economy by reducing smuggling, driving up the cost of molasses imports and hitting the colonial rum trade.
5. It produced some of the first organised forms of colonial protest against British policy, including non-importation, boycotts and debate about Parliament’s right to raise revenue in the colonies.
Citation information
Title: ‘The Sugar Act’
Authors: Jennifer Llewellyn, Steve Thompson
Publisher: Alpha History
URL: https://alphahistory.com/americanrevolution/sugar-act
Date published: July 15, 2019
Date updated: November 21, 2023
Date accessed: April 19, 2024
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