The Sugar Act (citation 4 Geo. III c. 15), passed on April 5, 1764, was a revenue-raising Act passed by the Parliament of Great Britain. It revised the earlier Sugar and Molasses Act, which had imposed a tax of six pence per gallon on molasses in order to make English products cheaper than those from the French West Indies. This is a list of Acts of the Scottish Parliament. ... This is a list of Acts passed by the Parliament of Northern Ireland. ... This is a list of Acts of the Northern Ireland Assembly passed by that body from its establishment in 2000 until its suspension in 2002 and from its re-establishment in 2007. ... This is a list of Measures of the National Assembly for Wales. ... The is a list of Orders in Council for Northern Ireland which are primary legislation for the province when the it is being directly ruled from London and also for those powers not devolved to the Northern Ireland Assembly. ... Statutory Instruments (SIs) are parts of United Kingdom law separate from Acts of Parliament which do not require full Parliamentary approval before becoming law. ... The British monarch or Sovereign is the monarch and head of state of the United Kingdom and its overseas territories, and is the source of all executive, judicial and (as the Queen-in-Parliament) legislative power. ... is the 95th day of the year (96th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1764 was a leap year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... The Revenue Act was passed in 1764 by British Prime Minister, George Grenville to enforce the provisions of the Sugar Act (or Molasses Act) of 1733. ... The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative institution in the United Kingdom and British overseas territories (it alone has parliamentary sovereignty). ... Sugar and Molasses Act of 1733 was an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain (citation 6 Geo II. c. ... Molasses or treacle is a thick syrup by-product from the processing of the sugarcane or sugar beet into sugar. ... The term French West Indies (see also Antilles françaises) refers to the two French overseas departments of Guadeloupe and Martinique. ...

Background

The earlier Sugar and Molasses Act of 1733 was passed by Parliament largely at the insistence of large plantation owners in the British West Indies. 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. 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.^[1] Sugar and Molasses Act of 1733 was an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain (citation 6 Geo II. c. ...

During the Seven Years' War, known in America as the French and Indian War, the British government substantially increased the national debt to pay for the war. In February 1763, as the war ended, the ministry headed by John Stuart, the Earl of Bute, decided that continuing Indian problems in North America necessitated the maintenance of a standing army of ten thousand British regular troops in the colonies. Shortly thereafter, George Grenville replaced Bute. Grenville supported his predecessor's policy, even more so after the outbreak of Pontiac’s Rebellion in May 1763. Grenville faced the problem of not only paying for these troops but servicing the national debt. The debt grew from £75,000 before the war to £122,600,000 in January 1763, and over £800,000,000 by the beginning of 1764.^[2] Combatants Kingdom of Prussia Kingdom of Great Britain and its American Colonies Electorate of Hanover Iroquois Confederacy Kingdom of Portugal Electorate of Brunswick Electorate of Hesse-Kassel Philippines Archduchy of Austria Kingdom of France Empire of Russia Kingdom of Sweden Kingdom of Spain Electorate of Saxony Kingdom of Naples and... Combatants France First Nations allies: Algonquin Lenape Wyandot Ojibwa Ottawa Shawnee Great Britain American Colonies Iroquois Confederacy Strength 3,900 regulars 7,900 militia 2,200 natives (1759) 50,000 regulars and militia (1759) Casualties 3,000 killed, wounded or captured 10,040 killed, wounded or captured The French and... Government debt (public debt, national debt) is money owed by government, at any level (central government, federal government, national government, municipal government, local government, regional government). ... John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute (May 25, 1713 - March 10, 1792), was a Scottish nobleman who served as Prime Minister of Great Britain (1762-1763) under George III. A close relative of the Campbell clan (his mother was a daughter of the First Duke of Argyll), Bute succeeded to... George Grenville (14 October 1712 – 13 November 1770) was a British Whig statesman who served in government for the relatively short period of seven years, reaching the position of Prime Minister of Great Britain. ... Pontiacs Rebellion was a war launched in 1763 by Native Americans (American Indians) who were dissatisfied with British rule in the Great Lakes region and the Ohio Country after the British victory in the French and Indian War. ...

Grenville did not expect the colonies to contribute to the interest or the retirement of the debt, but he did expect a portion of the expenses for colonial defense to be paid by the Americans. Estimating that the expenses of defending the continental colonies and the West Indies to be approximately £200,000 annually, Grenville’s goal was that the colonies would be taxed for £78,000 of this needed amount.^[3]

Passage of the Sugar Act

The Sugar and Molasses Act was set to expire in 1763. The Commissioners of Customs anticipated greater demand for both molasses and rum as a result of the end of the war and the acquisition of Canada. They believed that the increased demand would make a sharply reduced rate both affordable and collectible. When passed by Parliament, the new Sugar Act of 1764 halved the previous tax on molasses. In addition to promising stricter enforcement, the language of the bill made it clear that the purpose of the legislation was not to simply regulate the trade (as the Molasses Act had attempted to do by effectively closing the legal trade to non-British suppliers) but to raise revenue.^[4]

The new act listed specific goods, the most important being lumber, which could only be exported to Britain. Ship captains were required to maintain detailed manifests of their cargo and the papers were subject to verification before anything could be unloaded from the ship. Customs officials were empowered to have all violations tried in vice admiralty courts rather than jury trials in local colonial courts where the juries generally looked favorably on smuggling as a profession.^[5]

Effect on the American colonies

The Sugar Act was passed by Parliament on April 5, 1764, and it arrived in the colonies at a time of economic depression. A good part of the reason was that a significant portion of the colonial economy during the Seven Years War was involved with supplying food and supplies to the British Army. Colonials, however, especially those impacted directly as merchants and shippers, assumed that the highly visible new tax program was the major culprit. As protests against the Sugar Act developed, it was the economic impact rather than the constitutional issue of taxation without representation, that was the main focus for the Americans.^[6] 1764 was a leap year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... In general, the word colonial means of or relating to a colony. In United States history, the term Colonial is used to refer to the period before US independence. ... This article is about the 1756–1763 war. ...

New England especially suffered economic losses from the Sugar Act. The stricter enforcement made smuggling more dangerous and risky, and the profit margin on rum, so the colonists argued, was too small to support any tax. Forced to increase their prices, many Americans, it was feared, would be priced out of the market. The British West Indies, on the other hand, now had undivided access to colonial exports and with supply well exceeding demand the islands prospered with their reduced expenses while all New Englanders saw the revenue from their exports decrease. The foreign West Indies had also been the primary colonial source for specie, and as the reserves of specie were depleted the soundness of colonial currency was threatened.^[7]

Two prime movers behind the protests to the act were Samuel Adams and James Otis, both of Massachusetts. In August 1764, fifty Boston merchants agreed to stop purchasing British luxury items, and in both Boston and New York there were movements to increase colonial manufacturing. There were sporadic outbreaks of violence, most notably in Rhode Island.^[8] Overall, however, there was not an immediate high level of protest over the Sugar Act either in New England or the rest of the colonies. That would begin in the later part of the next year when the Stamp Act was passed.^[9] The Sugar Act was repealed in 1766 and replaced with a further reduced tax of one pence per gallon on all molasses imports, British or foreign. This occurred around the same time that the Stamp Act was repealed.^[10] For other uses, see Samuel Adams (disambiguation). ... This article is about the political advocate. ... Nickname: City on the Hill, Beantown, The Hub (of the Universe)1, Athens of America, The Cradle of Revolution, Puritan City, Americas Walking City Location in Massachusetts, USA Counties Suffolk County Mayor Thomas M. Menino(D) Area    - City 232. ... Merchants function as professional traders, dealing in commodities that they do not produce themselves. ... The Stamp Act of 1765 (short title Duties in American Colonies Act 1765; 5 George III, c. ...

Notes

1. ^ Miller pg. 96-99
2. ^ Gary Nash pg. 45. Middlekauff pg. 55-63.
3. ^ Middlekauff pg. 62.
4. ^ Miller pg. 100-101
5. ^ Middlekauff pg. 65.
6. ^ Middlekauff pg. 66-67.
7. ^ Miller pg. 101-102.
8. ^ Alexander pg. 24. Middlekauff pg. 67-73.
9. ^ Miller pg 149-50.
10. ^ Draper pg. 290-291

Bibliography

• Alexander, John K. Samuel Adams: America’s Revolutionary Politician. (2002) ISBN 0-7425-2114-1
• 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)
• Nash, Gary B. The Unknown American Revolution: The Unruly Birth of Democracy and the Struggle to Create America. (2005) ISBN 0-670-03420-7
• The Sugar Act. Retrieved on December 6, 2005.

External links

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