The Molasses Act of 1733 was an attempt by the British Parliament, under de facto Whig Prime Minister Sir Robert Walpole[1], to control the molasses trade that produced rum; a major source of income for the North American colonial markets – more so than tobacco. The act placed a high tax on any molasses that was shipped from a foreign power; i.e. not a British supplier. It was to financially ‘persuade’ North American colonists to purchase molasses only from British planters in the Caribbean. England argued precedence that the act was only an offshoot from the 1651 Navigation Act, restricting colonial trade to English ports that limited exports and imports with other nations.
Colonists traded meat, flour, and lumber for molasses, a sugar by product, supplied by West Indies sugar planters. Though some molasses was acquired from British growers, colonists preferred to do business with Dutch and mainly French West Indies sugar planters, particularly Saint Domingue (Haiti). This was due to the incredibly cheaper prices offered by French policy to which British growers could not compete. The rum in turn was sent to Africa where it was traded for captive African slaves acquired from European representatives[2]. The slaves would be shipped to the Caribbean where they were sold to plantation owners; part of what has been labeled the Triangle Trade; creating a profitable cycle of exploitation and profit.
The Molasses Act imposed a fee of six pence per gallon on foreign molasses. Prime Minister Walpole rose to power promising to reduce the tax burden on British subjects by raising revenue elsewhere. Therefore, this imposed tax served that purpose while also satisfying British West Indies growers and merchants’ concerns over financial losses. However, colonial merchants argued the real target of the act was the dismantle and destruction of the New England Rum Industry. Though colonials first protested the act’s implementation, rum merchants soon realized that instead of complying with the new act, it would be much easier to just ignore the prohibitive tax and smuggle molasses from their favored French ports. The use of smuggling was so effective, that for decades Massachusetts imported legally less than half as much molasses and rum as it exported.
Background of Rum and Industry
Christopher Columbus brought sugarcane to the Caribbean during his second 1493 voyage to the Americas. By the 18th century, sugar plantations were established throughout the Caribbean. Sugar refining at the time produced far more molasses than sugar; a thick syrup remaining after sugarcane juice is boiled and sugar crystals are extracted. It is estimated that as much as three parts molasses to four parts sugar, on average a ration of two to one, was left over. The molasses was used for table consumption, but mainly in the production of rum in which the molasses was diluted with water, fermented with yeast to create alcohol, and then distilled the liquid to concentrate the spirit.
Rum was given the name for this molasses derived spirt around 1672. It originated from the English slang word rumballion, of use in Barbados during the 1650’s, meaning a noisy melee or unruly commotion; most likely due to the effects when large amounts of the sugar-based alcohol was consumed. Sugar plantation owners were subject to harassment by pirates and sold this new spirit to naval ships so they would remain close to the islands and discourage raiding buccaneers. Rum gained popularity in Britain after English ships brought the liquor home. Rum rations to rank-and-file military units became a mainstay for Britain and European powers.
In the mid-1600’s, America was to discover the beneficial use of diluted rum, like beer, that was healthier than drinking water and provided a euphoric aftertaste. The first American distillery was established on Statin Island in 1664. Boston followed three years later with its own rum making facility; both rapidly proving successful. But beyond domestic use, there was also a huge overseas market for an expanding product produced just off the coast in Caribbean Islands. By the early 1700’s, distilleries were established all over New England producing hundreds if not thousands of gallons of the pleasant elixir; the average colonist consumed 3.7 gallons annually per head of household. By 1750, Boston, MA and Newport, RI boasted over 110 distilleries; marking rum as the leading export of American exports.
By the 1750’s, though American colonials were by-passing the Molasses Act’s main expectations, rum remained a supreme source of England’s revenue provided by her colonies. Capital Investment in the West Indian sugar industry was some £60 million in 1750, around six times the total English stake in the North American colonies.[3]
Aftermath
The Molasses Act, imposed in 1733, remained in effect for the next thirty years, though it had been mainly ineffective towards containing the colonial rum industry. It had aimed to provide a captive market for British West Indian sugar, rum, and molasses; but in fact, it encouraged a colossal illicit trade in more efficiently produced sugar-based exports from the French West Indies, which were up to forty per cent cheaper. This trade was so enormous, and British attempts to police it so ineffectual, that by the late 1750’s only 2,500 hogsheads of the molasses reached the smugglers’ haven of Rhode Island came from British sources, while 11,500 were landed illegally from Britain’s competitors. In Massachusetts alone there were no fewer than sixty-three illicit distilleries. Thus, the colonies enjoyed a huge source of illegal income in the face of an act so often cited as a terrible British imposition, yet so ineffectual as to be almost irrelevant.[4]
The later Sugar Act of 1764 was an attempt to revise the Molasses Act of 1733 by enforcing the latter’s failed restrictions. Though softening the Molasses Act by halving the 6 pence per gallon, the Sugar Act was part of a series of revenue packages (that included the 1765 Stamp Act) enacted by Prime Minister George Grenville to relieve Parliamentary debt for sending British troops to America as protection from Native American. The act enforced the previous Molasses Act by stationing a British naval squadron along the American coastline, attempting to close loop holes in smuggling molasses. Because of the effectiveness of the British navy’s assault on general smuggling, a major income for many of the most elite colonial citizens, the Sugar Act, along with the Stamp Act, was fiercely protested resulting in their repeals in 1766.
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Of Similar Interest on Revolutionary War Journal
REFERENCE
McCusker, John J. Rum and the American Revolution: The Rum Trade and the Balance of Payments of the Thirteen Continental Colonies. 1989: Garland Press, New York, NY.
Atkinson, Rick. The British Are Coming: The War for America, Lexington to Princeton, 1775-1777. 2019: Henry Holt and Company, New York, NY.
Harvey, Robert. A Few Bloody Noses; The Realities and Mythologies of the American Revolution. 2001: John Murray Publishers, London, UK; 2003: In USA, Overlook Press & Peter Mayer Publishers, Woodstock, NY.
Phillips, Kevin. 1775: A Good Year for Revolution. 2013: Penguin Publishing Group, New York, NY.
Endnotes
[1] Whig Sir Robert Walpole was the longest serving Prime Minister in Great Britain’s history; 1721 – 1742. His ministry was marred with corruption and bribery; some scholars writing it was common for the time. Jailed in 1712 for corruption, he carried his former practice into the House of Commons; filling office positions with those who owed their loyalty and patronage to the prime minister. This ensured Whig dominance but led to accusations of widespread corruption. Despite these scandals, Walpole is recognized for providing stability and financial management, creating a stable, though more corrupt, political landscape.
[2] These slave holding centers, managed by European Companies along the coastal rivers, were called ‘factories.’ Mainly Muslem slavers brought captured victims to these factories to be traded for guns, ammunition, and supplies. The slaves were then exchanged for rum arriving from New England ports, especially Rhode Island (which grew into one of the largest trading centers of African slaves). The rum was then shipped to European ports for a tidy profit.
[3] Harvey, pg. 13.
[4] Ibid., pg. 23.