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What was the goal and purpose of the Molasses Act?

What was the goal and purpose of the Molasses Act?

The British law that imposed tax on molasses, sugar and rum imported to American colonies from non-British foreign colonies. The objective was to protect the position of British suppliers in American market against cheaper Spanish and French goods.

What did the Sugar Act do to molasses?

The Sugar Act reduced the rate of tax on molasses from six pence to three pence per gallon, while Grenville took measures that the duty be strictly enforced. The enforced tax on molasses caused the almost immediate decline in the rum industry in the colonies.

Why was molasses so important?

In fact, molasses was the most important sweetener in the United States until the 1880s, because it was cheaper than refined sugar. The remaining molasses was either distilled into rum or exported to the mainland colonies where it was also distilled into rum.

What was the effect of the Sugar Act?

The Sugar Act also increased enforcement of smuggling laws. Strict enforcement of the Sugar Act successfully reduced smuggling, but it greatly disrupted the economy of the American colonies by increasing the cost of many imported items, and reducing exports to non-British markets.

What was the main purpose of the Sugar Act?

Sugar Act, also called Plantation Act or Revenue Act, (1764), in U.S. colonial history, British legislation aimed at ending the smuggling trade in sugar and molasses from the French and Dutch West Indies and at providing increased revenues to fund enlarged British Empire responsibilities following the French and Indian …

How did colonists respond to the Molasses Act?

The American colonists protested the act, claiming that the British West Indies alone could not produce enough molasses to meet the colonies’ needs. The American colonists feared that the act’s effect would be to increase the price of rum manufactured in New England, thus disrupting the region’s exporting capacity.

What was Sugar Act?

Why was molasses important to the thirteen American colonies?

The colonies had to pay heavy taxes on certain imported goods. Why was molasses important to the thirteen American colonies? The colonists needed molasses to make rum, a valuable export. The West Indies gave the colonies the chance to trade with other countries.

What was the main point of Thomas Paine’s Common Sense and how did he support this idea?

Paine’s brilliant arguments were straightforward. He argued for two main points: (1) independence from England and (2) the creation of a democratic republic. Paine avoided flowery prose. He wrote in the language of the people, often quoting the Bible in his arguments.

Who imposed the Molasses Act?

In an ongoing effort to control commerce in its North American colonies , the British Parliament passed the Molasses Act in 1733. It imposed heavy duties on any molasses, sugar, or rum imported by the colonies from non-British West Indies (islands in the Caribbean).

Why was the Molasses Act important?

The purpose of the Molasses Act was to make more money for Great Britain by controlling trade among its colonies. The British government wanted to force the American colonists to only buy molasses from the British West Indies rather than the French West Indies.

Which act placed tax on molasses?

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 imports of molasses from non- English colonies .

What was the sugar and molases Act?

Molasses Act, (1733), in American colonial history, a British law that imposed a tax on molasses, sugar, and rum imported from non-British foreign colonies into the North American colonies. The act specifically aimed at reserving a practical monopoly of the American sugar market to British West Indies sugarcane growers,…