1 janv. 1733 - 1733 England Passes Molasses Act

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1733
To protect the economic interests of its West Indian sugar colonies, England passes the Molasses Act, which levies “duties” - basically, taxes - on molasses, rum, and sugar imported from non-British colonies. Colonists feel these taxes are outrageously high.

Meanwhile, Bostonian rum makers are getting rich by producing more than a billion gallons of rum per year by the 1730s.

Rum is made from molasses, and molasses is a sugar by-product, and molasses was generally cheaper in the French West Indies than in the British West Indies—following all of this? Boston's rum makers react with great displeasure when they learn about the Molasses Act.

But no problem—duties are levied only when ships bearing the taxed goods enter harbors, so New England colonists turn them away. Meanwhile, they minimize the Molasses Act’s effects by perfecting their smuggling skills.

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