A HARBINGER OP THE REVOLUTION 103 



of English manufactured goods. In 1717, Prance had 

 adopted a more liberal commercial policy which enabled 

 the sugar of the French West Indies to displace the British 

 product in the European trade; further, by passing a law 

 prohibiting the importation of rum into France her colonies 

 were compelled to seek new markets for their molasses in 

 the northern English colonies. It is said that when the 

 Americans first went after their molasses they found it so 

 plentiful and cheap that the planters had been accustomed 

 to throw much of it away. 1 The prosperity of the French 

 planters interfered greatly with the English planters of 

 the sugar islands, who sent numerous protests to England 

 asking for protection. The result of the protests of the 

 planters was the passage of the Molasses Act of 1733. 



This act imposed heavy import duties on all rum, mo- 

 lasses and sugar the product of colonies other than 

 English imported into any of the American colonies. 

 The duties were so large 2 that they were practically pro- 

 hibitive. A storm of protest arose from the northern 

 colonies, who feared for the safety of their fisheries and 

 carrying trade if these exchange products were excluded 

 from the country. The provisions of the Act were sys- 

 tematically disregarded by the merchants and remained 

 largely a dead letter on the statute books. The Molasses 

 Act was to continue in force for five years ; it was renewed 

 five times, before being made perpetual by the passage of 

 the Sugar Act. During the thirty years that it remained 

 on the statute books inoperative it probably produced little 

 injury to the codfishery of New England. 



At the close of the Seven Years' War it was estimated 

 that 300,000 pounds sterling would be needed by Great 



1 Sabine, p. 135. 



2 The duty on molasses was three pence per gallon, on foreign 

 white sugar one pound two shillings per hundred weight; the im- 

 portation of rum was forbidden under heavy penalties. 



