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NOTE 7. Molasses and the American Revenue Act

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Volume 3, Chapter 7, Molasses and the American Revenue Act

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Of all the mercantilist measures that had not been enforced before 1763, perhaps the

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most important was the Molasses Act of 1733. This act had provided for a prohibitive duty

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of six pence a gallon, amounting to 100 percent, on the import of foreign molasses in order

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The Mellassus trade was vital to the North, which could sell its staples in the West Indies in exchange for molasses.

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The molasses could be used either as a sweetener or to produce rum, which could be then sold at home or exported.

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The illegal molasses trade was largely with the French West Indies, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Saint-Domingue.

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The illegal molasses trade was largely with the French West Indies, Guadeloupe, Martinique,

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San Domingo, and the Dutch West Indies, Suriname, St. Eustatius.

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Of all the illegal commerce, the molasses trade was the most benevolently indulged by

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the customs officials.

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Domestic vessels were openly permitted to import foreign molasses on payment of a negligible

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The duty, most of which was pocketed personally by the officials, as well as fresh fruit and

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wine, directly from Southern Europe. The duty charged in this way usually amounted to less

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than a half penny per gallon. This open indulgence put the molasses trade on a footing far different

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from that of most imports from Europe or the East Indies, which had to be smuggled secretly.

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In the Seven Years' War, attempts were made, especially by Pitt, to suppress trading with

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the enemy, but the molasses trade also flourished with the islands captured from the French

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in the later years of the war.

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In March 1763, Charles Townsend, new president of the Board of Trade, attempted to lower

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the official molasses duty to two pence a gallon, and to enforce it strictly, in order

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to be able to tax the colonies.

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We have seen, however, that Parliament rejected the plan, and the old salutary indulgence

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from molasses was quickly resumed. The post-war salutary neglect, alas, proved short-lived.

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In the first place, Parliament decided, in May 1763, to use a good part of the British

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Navy as a powerful instrument of enforcement of the trade laws. As an incentive to the

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The naval officers, the ships and cargos seized by them for illegal trade, were now to be

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sold by the courts at auction, with the proceeds divided equally between the officers themselves

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and the Crown.

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Twenty British warships with over 2,000 men were assigned to this task.

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Absentee colonial customs officers were ordered back to America to assume their posts, and

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The colonial governors, as well as the commander-in-chief, were ordered to render all possible assistance.

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At first it seemed to the relieved merchants that the molasses trade would still be indulged,

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and John Temple, the chief customs officer for the northern colonies, gave reassurances

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to that effect. But the customs commissioners dashed these hopes in November by threatening

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In response, Temple, at the end of the year, gave notice that customs officials would board

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all the vessels in the West Indian trade to execute fully the Molasses Act of 1733. Governor

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Francis Bernard of Massachusetts wrote that this notice caused a greater alarm in America

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and had the French capture of Fort William Henry six years before. And not only the merchants,

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but the rest of the public began to denounce customs officers for restricting the natural

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rights and liberties of the people. The term Tory now came into common use to designate

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the advocates of imperial aggrandizement over America. The British West Indies planters,

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in contrast were highly gratified, especially since they made sure that their own illegal

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trade with the Spanish West Indies would continue to be indulged.

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The Molasses Act was scheduled to expire in 1764, and so the Massachusetts merchants took

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the opportunity to bring pressure against renewal of the law. The merchants and traders

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Legislators of Boston, Salem, Plymouth, and Marblehead petitioned the Massachusetts legislature

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in December against renewal, and a committee of Boston merchants presented a detailed economic

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argument against the duty, particularly concerned with a Massachusetts fisherman whose low-grade

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product depended on the West Indies market. The Massachusetts legislature backed up the

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in the Motion Against Renewal, and stressed that a lower duty, strictly enforced, would

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introduce the dangerous principle of parliamentary taxation of the colony's trade.

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The previous laws were deemed trade restrictions, rather than revenue measures, as Townsend's

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proposal would be.

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Connecticut merchants, led by Gurdon, Saltonstall and Jared Ingersoll, filed a petition against

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Enforcement or Renewal of the Molasses Act. In the March session of the legislature sent

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a protest to England. A committee of Philadelphia merchants asked the same of the Pennsylvania

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legislature, but the agitation came too late to have any effect. Many merchants helped

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organize the opposition by writing to associates or correspondents in the colonies. The most

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The most fully developed example was a letter of January 1764 written by a committee of

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Boston merchants to merchants in Rhode Island and Connecticut rousing them to the cause.

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The merchants called on their fellows to unite our endeavors and to defeat the iniquitous

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schemes of the West India interest, these overgrown West Indians. The letter inspired

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The Legislature decided to send to England a remonstrance, which constituted the first

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official American protest against renewal of the Molasses Act.

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The remonstrance pointed out that Rhode Island did a flourishing trade in molasses, importing

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In January 1764, New York merchants, inspired by a letter from Nicholas Brown of Providence,

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chose a committee that issued a proclamation against enforcement of the molasses duty.

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The committee pointed to the wide West Indian market for New York agricultural staples and

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to the manufacturer from molasses of beer and rum, the latter vital to the Indian trade.

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The merchants' protest was later approved by the New York legislature and sent to England.

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During February, New York and Philadelphia merchants were also in correspondence about

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joining New England's protest, and a committee of Philadelphia merchants petitioned the Pennsylvania

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Assembly to oppose the renewal. This movement of pressure by merchants in the northern colonies

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was the first case of inter-colonial pressure on England in behalf of colonial rights and

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and Liberties. It was, however, totally unsuccessful. In fact, by the time the pressure was fairly

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underway, the Crown had introduced the American Revenue Act, also called the Sugar Act, in

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the spring of 1764. The London agents of the northern colonies, including Jasper Maudwit

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from Massachusetts and Richard Jackson from Pennsylvania and Connecticut were remarkably

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quiet, being willing to settle for a duty of two pence and thus to abandon the principle

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of no English taxation upon the colonies. But the Revenue Act, as introduced in March

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and passed quickly in April, to take effect at the end of September, imposed the crushing

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Newcastle's continuing duty of three pence a gallon on foreign molasses and promised a

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rigorous enforcement.

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The Revenue Act passed easily because of Newcastle's continuing anxiety not to alienate Pitt and

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thus to keep a united opposition.

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A few members of parliament mildly urged reduction of the duty to two pence, but only John Husk,

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An MP from Malden, who had spent his early life in New England, opposed the American

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Revenue Act in Toto.

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Husk, it should be noted, had been newly elected the previous year by the agitation of the

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radical John Wilkes movement.

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An important factor in the abject collapse of British opposition to the new molasses

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duty was the failure of the London agents of northern colonies to press opposition in

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in principle to the molasses duty. They confined their opposition to urging a somewhat lower

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duty. Particularly grave was the defection of Richard Jackson, who also held the critically

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influential post of private secretary to Prime Minister Grenville. Richard Jackson was an

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old and close friend of Benjamin Franklin, and the two had co-authored an important imperialist

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and the First Pamphlet during the War with France.

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As an old friend and a member of the Pennsylvania Assembly's Committee of Correspondence,

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Franklin embodied the American position as far as Jackson was concerned.

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Yet Franklin raised no protest over the Revenue Act or against stationing a standing army in the colonies.

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Indeed, Franklin went so far as to welcome the steady protection and security of a British

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standing army. Franklin also reacted blithely to the plans to tax the colonies. In fact,

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he even offered a helpful suggestion for a tea tax for raising revenue from America.

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Much of the responsibility for Jackson's attitude and for the easy passage of the New

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New Sugar Act must therefore be laid at the door of Benjamin Franklin.

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Franklin's soft attitude toward the Crown and imperialism was certainly not unconnected

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with his own bureaucratic post as Deputy Postmaster General of the American Colonies, or with

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his son Williams' royal appointment as Governor of New Jersey.

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In addition to the three pence duty on molasses, the American Revenue Act of 1764 provided

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for a continued duty on foreign raw sugar and an increased rate on refined sugar, higher

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import duties on foreign textiles, coffee and indigo, much higher duties on Madeira

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and Canary wines, double duties on foreign goods imported from England, prohibition of

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Imports of Foreign Rum or French Wines and the addition of iron, hides, whale parts,

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raw silk and potash and pearl ash to the enumerated list imposed by the Navigation Acts.

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A particularly important provision crippled the inter-colonial trade.

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No goods could be shipped from one American colony to another without a detailed registration

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with and permission from a Royal Customs Officer. Furthermore, every vessel had to

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put up an expensive bond on each trip for paying duty on foreign molasses. The requirement

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of a detailed registration and listing of goods, or coquet, imposed particular hardships

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on small vessels engaged in local trade. Chief Justice William Allen of Pennsylvania wrote

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in November 1764 of the plight of a typical owner of a small boat on the Delaware River

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carrying a load of wood for iron from New Jersey to Philadelphia. He now was forced

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to go 40 miles out of his way to the nearest custom house to make out his manifest, the

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charge of which in his traveling makes this burden intolerable. Before the Revenue Act,

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All vessels carrying non-enumerated products in the coastal trade had not been forced to

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gain customs clearance.

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The Cockett requirement also permitted Britain to begin the enforcement of the Restrictive

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Wool Act of 1699, the Hat Act of 1732, and the Salecloth Act of 1736, which had been

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virtual dead letters for many years.

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The provision of the American Revenue Act proved extremely irritating to the colonists.

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Despite the incentive of acquiring a share of the loot, naval officers had been reluctant

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to confiscate the goods of alleged smugglers, being deterred by a healthy fear of the common-law

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rule of personal liability for damages to any owner found innocent of the charge.

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and liability for arresting officers was a superb way of making governmental officials

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extremely careful about invading someone else's property. Now the Revenue Act virtually removed

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this deterrent and opened a broad channel for injustice by limiting the owner's damage

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claims to two pence if the officer could prove probable cause for the unjust seizure. And

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And if the trial judge did not certify probable cause, even a minority of the customs board

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could now reimburse the naval officer for paying damages.

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Critical to the British campaign of strict enforcement of the trade laws was the aggrandizement

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of the vice admiralty courts.

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The Act of 1696 had established vice admiralty courts for the colonies.

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These courts possessed jurisdiction over violations of the trade laws. The judges were appointed

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by the royal governors and were able to decide cases themselves without granting the accused

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the benefit of trial by jury. In the common law courts where trial was by jury, the juries

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generally acquitted smugglers and violators of the trade laws as a matter of principle.

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Before the Revenue Act of 1764, however, the Vice Admiralty Courts were not intolerably

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oppressive for the colonist.

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For one thing, the Crown decided that the Admiralty Courts did not have jurisdiction

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over enumerated products or importations of goods from Europe.

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This was firmly established by the Privy Council in 1743 in the Archibald Kennedy case.

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It was there decided that only the navigation laws prohibiting foreign ships came under

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admiralty jurisdiction. Secondly, of course, the policy of salutary neglect gave the courts

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little work in any case. The American Revenue Act changed all this. First, the law made

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crystal clear that the admiralty courts had jurisdiction over all trade and revenue law

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Violations. Second, the new law authorized the creation of a new Admiralty Court, specifically

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covering all colonial trade violations. Before 1764, each court was limited in jurisdiction

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to its own colony. At the urging of Admiral Lord Colville, commander of the British North

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The North American Fleet, a new overall admiralty court was set up in the fall of 1764 in the

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raw little military-run town of Halifax, Nova Scotia.

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Halifax was the headquarters of the North American Fleet, but remote from the center

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of American commerce.

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Dr. William Spry, husband of a niece of William Pitt, was appointed judge of the court.

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The Englishman's fry ominously contrasted to the other vice admiralty judges who were

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all American colonials.

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Lord Colville had frankly written that admiralty court judges in the major colonies might be

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influenced by the pressure of jobs or of their neighbors, but this pressure would be avoided

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by conducting trials in far-off Halifax.

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General Colfell's warnings were not simply hypothetical. They were based on the solid

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experience of existing Vice Admiralty Courts, which indeed were under the influence of the

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merchants and the pervasive smuggling trade. During the French and Indian War, the three

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judges who successively served in the Charleston Vice Admiralty Court were unmistakably in

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league with the merchants of the town. Charleston had arisen during the war as a center for

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for Trade with the French West Indies, to which it was nearer than any other American

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port. Not surprisingly, the vice admiralty court judge in Charleston, after 1761, was

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counselor Egerton Lee, formerly a lawyer for many of the merchants in the illegal trade

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and a close friend of the leading merchants of the town. Lee was usually able to find

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a way to rule for the accused merchant.

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In Philadelphia, Judge Edward Shippen ruled in favor of the illegal Flags of Truce method

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of trading with the enemy. In New York City, the Vice Admiralty Judge, before his death

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in 1762, was Louis Morris, Jr., who was notoriously partial to the harassed merchants, often waiving

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jurisdiction of their cases. In fact, the New York Customs officers were moved to complain

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of Morris's Partiality to their superiors in England. To these zealots, Morris was little

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better than the colonial juries of the common law courts. In 1762, Morris was succeeded

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by his son Richard, formerly a lawyer for accused merchants and a deputy admiralty judge

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in New Jersey. Rhode Island was a great and flourishing center of illegal trade, helped

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by its self-governing charter, by which the governor and all other officials, except the

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appointed royal customs officers and admiralty judges, were democratically elected.

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When the war with France began, the Rhode Island merchants decided that they could control

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the Vice Admiralty Court better, if the colony had an admiralty court of its own, rather

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than a mere branch of Massachusetts courts.

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The Rhode Islanders not only quickly obtained their own court, but even persuaded the King

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to appoint their own choice as admiralty judge, the Providence planter, Colonel John Andrews.

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When Andrews forgot his true role and shifted toward the crown, the whole Rhode Island political

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structure put pressure on Andrews and brought him into line.

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In fact, the independent and individualist Rhode Island merchants publicly proclaimed

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In Massachusetts, the former customs collector for Boston, Benjamin Behrends, cashiered for accepting payment for not enforcing the navigation laws, led the merchants during 1761 in an all-out legal attack on the admiralty courts.

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The merchants took successful action in the common law courts to hold customs officers liable for damages to property and to recover money for the sale of confiscated property.

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Thus, by 1763, the enforcement procedures of the trade acts were pleasantly lax, inefficient, and hobbled, not the least of the causes being the partiality of the admiralty judges for the merchants' problems.

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A third vital change in enforcement procedures was effected in the admiralty courts. The amazing provision that the onus of proof would henceforth lie on the accused rather than on the officer who seized his property.

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Thus, only a little more than a year after the end of the war with France, a comprehensive

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network of expanding and strengthening enforcement of the trade acts was imposed upon the colonies.

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The end of salutary neglect, revenue from molasses duties, new commodities on the enumerated

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list, use of the British Navy in force to apprehend smugglers and violators, use of

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of General Ritz of Assistance by Customs Officers in Massachusetts, a thoroughgoing expansion

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of jurisdiction of the vice admiralty courts and the establishment of an overall colonial

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admiralty court in remote Halifax, the granting of one-half of the loot from the seizure of

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the goods of the accused to the arresting naval officers, placing the burden of proof

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Remove on the defendant rather than on the arresting officer, and removing the latter's

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common law liability for damages for false arrest, and the coerced registration of bills

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of lading, cockettes, hampering small vessels in the coastal trade.

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Most of the enforcement provisions of the Revenue Act had been proposed by the commissioners

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of Customs and had been specifically drawn up by John Titan, their solicitor, and Robert

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Yeats, chief clerk in the Treasury. The only opposition within the royal bureaucracy was

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expressed by William Wood, secretary to the commissioners. Wood, an elderly holdover from

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the Newcastle era, was clearly out of step with the new dispensation of aggressive Tory

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Imperialism.