Molasses Act?

Question

Who was the Prime Minister when it was made?

Answer 1

Sir Walter Walpole (1721-1742)

Molasses Act of 1733

Answer 2

Robert Walpole,was the pm the 17th century and the first third of the 18th century the inhabitants of the 13 English colonies along the Atlantic seaboard imported molasses from the islands of the West Indies. The largest importers were the New England colonies, where molasses was used in the highly profitable business of manufacturing rum. Some of the West Indies, such as Barbados and Jamaica, belonged to England; others, such as Santo Domingo and Martinique, to Spain or France. The colonists bought their molasses from either the British or foreign sugar planters. In order to obtain a monopoly of the molasses trade, the British sugar planters of Barbados and Jamaica induced Parliament to tax heavily any molasses imported into the North American colonies from colonies belonging to a foreign power. In 1733 Parliament passed the Molasses Act, part of which imposed a duty of sixpence per gallon on foreign molasses. The act was designed to force the northern colonies either to buy from British planters or give up the manufacture of rum. The colonists protested unsuccessfully against the act and then ignored it, smuggling in supplies of molasses from the French and Spanish West Indies.