Sugar Act
04/05/1764 AD decreed
It arrives in the colonies at a time of economic depression.
It was an indirect tax, although the colonists were well informed of its presence. A good part of the reason was that a significant portion of the colonial economy during the Seven Years' War was involved with supplying food and supplies to the British Army.
Colonials, however, especially those affected directly as merchants and shippers, assumed that the highly visible new tax program was the major culprit.
As protests against the Sugar Act developed, it was the economic impact rather than the constitutional issue of taxation without representation that was the main focus for the colonists.
New England ports especially suffered economic losses from the Sugar Act as the stricter enforcement made smuggling molasses more dangerous and risky. Also they argued that the profit margin on rum was too small to support any tax on molasses. Forced to increase their prices, many colonists feared being priced out of the market.
The British West Indies, on the other hand, now had undivided access to colonial exports. With supply of molasses well exceeding demand, the islands prospered with their reduced expenses while New England ports saw revenue from their rum exports decrease.
Also the West Indies had been the primary colonial source for hard currency, or specie, and as the reserves of specie were depleted the soundness of colonial currency was threatened
Subjects Who or What decreed?
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England Nation -
George III of the United Kingdom (George William Frederick) King of the United Kingd...
Objects To Whom or What was decreed?
Events in 1764 MORE
