Molasses Act

The Molasses Act ( " Melassegesetz " ) was a 1733 law passed by the British Parliament Customs Act (6 Geo II c. 13 after the counting of the Statutes at Large ), which established various import and export restrictions on the British colonies in North America and the Caribbean, particular duties on molasses.

The law came about by the pressure of the British sugar planters in the West Indies, which is increasingly found themselves on their main market New England competitors French and Dutch planters exposed and a protective tariff demanded. With the Molasses Act American importers to import duty of 6d was imposed per gallon on foreign molasses - thus about 100 % of the current value of the goods; foreign rum was occupied with an import duty of 9d.

However, the law has had too little effect, since it has been systematically circumvented by smuggling; Rhode Iceland about the colony whose economy was most dependent on the rum distillery, showed in 1744 from absolutely no customs revenue from the Melasseimport. After the end of the Seven Years' War, the Molasses Act 1764 extended by the so-called Sugar Act, which halved the import duty on 3d per gallon, but met the British efforts, these customs actually collect, massive resistance and was eventually one of the reasons for the beginning of the American Revolution.