The Sugar Act of 1764 and Colonial Resistance
The Revenue Act as a Cause of the American Revolution
Of the numerous immediate causes of the American Revolution the Revenue or Sugar Act of 1764 ranks alongside the hated Stamp Act. This was particularly true in New England. Massachusetts accounted for over one-fourth of all revenue collected as taxation during the life of the Act because of the commercial importance of the Boston port. Little wonder that most surviving criticisms came from New Englanders who bore the brunt of this taxation measure. But the Sugar Act was far more than just a revenue producing measure; the act attempted to lay the groundwork for a complete overhaul of commercial and customs practices.
Why the Colonists Resisted the Sugar Act
Only the first of the more than forty articles of the Sugar Act directly addressed taxation. These included, among many other items, tax revisions regarding foreign sugars and molasses (French and Spanish), wines imported from Portugal and Spain, foreign coffee, and British produced coffee imported between colonies. Unlike interstate trade today, each colony was treated as an independent entity.
The 1764 Sugar Act actually lowered the tax revenue on imported molasses to one penny per gallon and the rate applied to both foreign molasses and British molasses. The aim was to decrease rampant smuggling and increase admiralty enforcement. This revision of the 1733 Molasses Act made the product less expensive, but New Englanders still resisted it.
At the heart of resistance lay the argument that Parliament was taxing the colonies without their consent. This same argument had been applied to the ill-conceived and unenforceable Stamp Act. Historians attribute such growing colonial resentment to salutary neglect. Writer Robert Harvey adds another reason for conflict: the colonies were “unbureaucratic” and thus resented the enforcement of the Act.
Who Benefited From the Sugar Act?
All of the revenue generated by the Act went into the British treasury. According to the detailed analysis of historian Oliver Dickerson’s study of the Navigation Acts, the Sugar Act accounted for 80-90% of all colonial revenue obtained through the various taxation measures employed between 1763 (the end of the French and Indian War) and the outbreak of Revolution.
Dickerson demonstrates that the sugar interests in England as well as Caribbean planters involved in the sugar trade received no extraordinary benefits from the Act. Rum, an important sugar-related export from the Caribbean, was already a monopoly in terms of colonial imports, a fact supported by post-Revolutionary trade figures that show that 90% of all imported rum between 1789 and 1790 came from British Caribbean planters.
Other Goals of the Sugar Act
The Act laid a framework for the reorganization of all colonial trade. This was needed as colonies spread westward and increased trade with one another. It would also be a reason why Parliament attempted to preserve a uniform currency among the colonies. Admiralty jurisdiction was extended beyond the ports to include inter-colonial commerce, notably along the expanding waterways.
The Act also increased “enumerated” goods, a significant profit benefit in the colonies. At the same time, however, enforcement provisions added new customs officials and collectors, many of whom, according the Robert Harvey, “were less disposed to be bullied by the colonists…” The perceived harshness of enforcement prompted the New York colonial Assembly to compare the Act to “tribute” paid by a subjugated people.
Results of the Sugar Act
Although the articles of the Sugar Act were not intended to brow-beat the colonists but to end smuggling, create uniformity in customs procedures and collections, and to provide enforcement, many colonists viewed the measure as oppressive, particularly in New England where smuggling was widespread.
Over two million colonists inhabited British North America in 1770. As the colonial empire grew, Parliament responded by creating what Professor Dickerson called “the legal foundation for the changed colonial empire…” The Sugar Act of 1764 was the beginning of this change.
Sources:
- Oliver M. Dickerson, The Navigation Acts and the American Revolution (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1951)
- Robert Harvey, “A Few Bloody Noses” The Realities and Mythologies of the American Revolution (New York: Overlook Press, 2002)
- Page Smith, A New Age Now Begins: A People’s History of the American Revolution Volume One (New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1976)
Dealing with Tax Collectors
|
What do you think about this article?
Comments
More in History
Latest Articles