Passed on April 5, 1764, the Sugar Act (citation 4 Geo. III c. 15) was an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain, a revision to the earlier Sugar and Molasses Act of 1733, which had imposed a tax of sixpence per gallon on molasses in order to make English products cheaper than those from the French West Indies. Colonists had largely evaded the earlier tax through the seduction of local officials. The Sugar Act, passed under the leadership of British Prime Minister Lord George Grenville, reduced the tax from sixpence to threepence, but provided for the tax to be strictly enforced and expanded its scope to include wine, cloth, and other goods.

Effect on the colonies

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The Sugar Act caused local production to increase in the colonies, but colonists viewed it as taxation without representation, and it was one of the causes leading to the American Revolution. Protests against this Act led to the end of the act.

This act also allowed officers to seize goods from smugglers without going to court. The Sugar Act and the new laws to control smuggling angered the colonists.

The prime mover behind the protests to the Sugar Act was Samuel Adams. Claiming the Act to be against the British constitution, natural law, and the Massachusetts charter, and therefore void, failed to incite either the other colonies or the bulk of Massachusetts citizens to protest. Switching tactics to emotional appeals and mongering fear that future, equally unrepresented, acts would affect the broader populace (especially land owners), Adams and his supporters were able to get some moderate groundswell of protestation. This background level of dissent largely engineered by Adams helped to foment the more widespread resistance to the Stamp Act 1765.

Sources

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Acts of the Parliament of Great Britain | 1764 in law | Economic history | Laws leading to the American Revolution

Sugar Act | Sugar Act