Sugar Act, also called Plantation Act or Revenue Act, (1764), in U.S. colonial history, British legislation aimed at ending the smuggling trade in sugar and molasses from the French and Dutch West Indies and at providing increased revenues to fund enlarged British Empire responsibilities following the French and Indian We also wrote molasses act.
The Sugar Act was proposed by Prime Minister George Grenville. The goal of the act was to raise revenue to help defray the military costs of protecting the American colonies at a time when Great Britain's economy was saddled with the huge national debt accumulated during the French and Indian War (aka Seven Years War). Also check: tea act.
Sugar Act.Parliament, desiring revenue from its North American colonies, passed the first law specifically aimed at raising colonial money for the Crown. The act increased duties on non-British goods shipped to the colonies. Read about tea act 1773.
The act also listed more foreign goods to be taxed including sugar, certain wines, coffee, pimiento, cambric and printed calico, and further, regulated the export of lumber and iron. The enforced tax on molasses caused the almost immediate decline in the rum industry in the colonies.
The Sugar Act also increased enforcement of smuggling laws. Strict enforcement of the Sugar Act successfully reduced smuggling, but it greatly disrupted the economy of the American colonies by increasing the cost of many imported items, and reducing exports to non-British markets.
The Sugar Act: The colonists believed the Sugar Act was a restriction of their justice and their trading. The enforced tax on molasses caused the almost immediate decline in the rum industry in the colonies.
The Revenue Act of 1764, also known as the Sugar Act, was the first tax on the American colonies imposed by the British Parliament. Its purpose was to raise revenue through the colonial customs service and to give customs agents more power and latitude with respect to executing seizures and enforcing customs law.
The parliament endorsed an updated version of the Sugar and Molasses Act (1733) on April 5, 1764, which was close to terminate. The causes of the Sugar Act include the reduced tax on molasses from 6 pence to 3 pence, increased tax on imports of foreign processed sugar, and the prohibition on importing foreign rum.
The Sugar Act of 1764 mainly affected business merchants and shippers.
Instead, smuggling, bribery or intimidation of customs officials effectively nullified the law. During the Seven Years' War, known in Colonial America as the French and Indian War, the British government substantially increased the national debt to pay for the war.
In order to pay for the war debt, the King and parliament began taxing the colonists. These taxes began to make the colonists angry! Placed a tax on sugar and molasses. Georgia traded with sugar producing countries, so this tax had a small impact on the economy.
Definition of Sugar ActThe American Revenue Act of 1764, so called Sugar Act, was a law that attempted to curb the smuggling of sugar and molasses in the colonies by reducing the previous tax rate and enforcing the collection of duties.
The British government, recognizing that the American colonies had long enjoyed Britain's lax enforcement of trade laws, passed the Sugar Act in 1764. Colonial arguments that Parliament could not tax the American colonies because they were not represented in Parliament were rebuffed.
In response to the Sugar, Act colonists formed an organized boycott of luxury goods imported from Great Britain. 50 merchants from throughout the colonies agreed to boycott specific items and began a philosophy of self-sufficiency where they produce those products themselves, especially fabric-based products.
In the American colonies, the Sugar Act was especially harmful to merchants and consumers in the New England seaports. The British Stamp Act of 1765 caused more widespread and violent protests throughout the colonies, eventually leading to the first battle of the American Revolution on April 19, 1765.
In Virginia, Patrick Henry (1736-99), whose fiery orations against British tyranny would soon make him famous, submitted a series of resolutions to his colony's assembly, the House of Burgesses. These resolutions denied Parliament's right to tax the colonies and called on the colonists to resist the Stamp Act.
(Gilder Lehrman Collection) On March 22, 1765, the British Parliament passed the "Stamp Act" to help pay for British troops stationed in the colonies during the Seven Years' War. The act required the colonists to pay a tax, represented by a stamp, on various forms of papers, documents, and playing cards.
The Stamp Act, Sugar Act, Townshend Acts, and Intolerable Acts are four acts that contributed to the tension and unrest among colonists that ultimately led to The American Revolution. The first act was The Sugar Act passed in 1764. The act placed a tax on sugar and molasses imported into the colonies.
The incident was the climax of growing unrest in Boston, fueled by colonists' opposition to a series of acts passed by the British Parliament. As the mob insulted and threatened them, the soldiers fired their muskets, killing five colonists.
What caused the Boston Tea Party? Many factors including “taxation without representation,” the 1767 Townshend Revenue Act, and the 1773 Tea Act. Additionally, colonists believed Parliament did not have the right to tax them because the American colonies were not represented in Parliament.