Question

How does England’s Molasses Act mirror similar conditions in other European colonies? Summarize how mercantilism harmed and helped the British, French, and Spanish colonies in North America.
Thank you!

Answer 1

The Molasses Act of 1733, enacted by the Parliament of Great Britain, established a six pence per gallon tax on imports of molasses from non-english colonies and was intended to make foreign molasses, especially that from french colonies, more expensive than the British. Although largely bypassed in the Thirteen Colonies due to heavy smuggling, the act represented a form of further encroachment from the metropolis on the interests of the colonial economy and shed light on the colonist's lack of political representation.

This practice was not limited to the British colonial institutions in the Americas. The spanish had already established a taxation system back in 1524 that granted the crown one fifth of all income from mining in their american colonies, which was know as the 'Quinto' (Fifth, in spanish). The system was later replicated by the portuguese in the mining districts of colonial Brazil during the Minas Gerais golden rush. The french also taxed their subjects in the Antilles and New France, whose colonists paid the french Crown for each slave acquired, besides customs and other taxes on trade while not having proper means of voicing their demands besides colonial councils dominated by royal loyalists.  

Overall the colonies depended on the protection and eventual trade privileges conceded by their metropolitan overlords, which were made viable by their material contributions, but were subject to unfair taxation and lacked proper political representation. The metropolitan control over their trade links would also be a strain on the local economies as the colonies often traded among themselves despite their overlord's conflicts.