Taxes and Government Meddling, What is it Good For?

          What caused the colonists in America to revolt against Great Britain, “taxation without representation,” right? As England was expanding their empire throughout the world, they were incurring a large debt in the process. In order to pay for their wars of conquest, Parliament decided to tax her loyal subjects throughout the realm. Not only this, Parliament also wanted to crack down on the colonies for trading with foreign countries, especially their enemy, the French. Naturally, British producers of specific commodities wanted to protect their markets and lobbied Parliament to tax the people and shut down the rival foreign markets.

            The colonies in New England produced all manner of goods from fruit, beef, pork, butter, cheese, etc. for the West Indian market. The fishing and lumber industries were also booming in the early 1700s in the colonies. The fishermen and lumber workers also consumed considerable amounts of rum. So, as the colonists traded with the West Indies, the New Englanders made sure to import lots of inexpensive molasses from the West Indies in order to make the much desired rum. This rum was then in turn traded for more lumber and fish.

                The British Parliament passed several laws called the Navigation Acts with the intention of controlling the market in the American colonies. One of these acts was the Molasses Act of 1733. The act called for a tax of “Five shillings and Six pence the Ounce in silver, for every Gallon” of molasses imported from foreign shores. Payment for this duty on molasses would have been detrimental to New York and Pennsylvania and ruinous to New England on a whole.

            What did colonial American business men do to protect their interests? These business men simply ignored the law and commenced smuggling operations. These business men bribed customs officials, who gladly looked the other way for some extra coin in their pockets.

            Not only was this meddling and taxation hurtful to the free market and economy of the American colonies, it also helped to develop the American attitude of resistance to British authority. This attitude and continual infringement of English common law in the colonies would build over the next several decades, which culminated in the Revolutionary War.