SUGAR AND MOLASSES ACT (1764)
- Molasses Act had been in place since March of 1763
Colonists molasses and easily evaded the taxes
Colonists were purchasing molasses from French East Indies and producing rum with it
Foreign importation hurt British economies by crippling the molasses and rum sales of the British West Indies
- British Parliament passed the Sugar and Molasses Act on April 5, 1764
Expanded to include taxation on the importation of sugar, wine, coffee, pimiento, and calico, as well as on the exportation of lumber, iron, skins, and whalebone
Increased military presence to fully execute tax
- Colonists outraged by the act
Colonists forced to fill out tedious paperwork regarding every shipment
- Colonial economies adversely affected by act
STAMP ACT (1765)
- Britain under heavy debt in the aftermath of the Seven Years' War (1756-1763)
- Britain looked to colonists to alleviate this debt and take responsibility for the war
- British Parliament passed the Stamp Act on March 22, 1765
- Taxes imposed upon all written materials, including legal documents, newspapers, land grants, pamphlets, and even playing cards
- Colonists dissented this tax on the basis of their belief that only their own representative assemblies could tax them
- Parliament repealed the Stamp Act in 1766 in response to colonist uproar
BOSTON PORT ACT (1774)
- This act went into effect on June 1, 1774 and was written by the British parliament.
- Prime Minister Lord North was the primary author of the document.
- The act made any type of trade involving the Boston Port illegal.
- Boston was a major economic center for the colonies, and cutting it off from aquatic trade was devastating.
- The act was put into place to punish those colonists involved in the Boston Tea Party.
- The Boston Tea Party cost the East India Trading Company a large sum of money, the act economically punished