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When the colonists learned of this proposal, they protested. Pennsylvania merchants, for example, objected on the ground that the English sugar planters were unwilling to buy colonial products in quantities sufficient to pay for the sugar and molasses desired by the colonists. They frankly acknowledged that they had been trading with the foreign islands simply because it was only there that they could dispose of their surplus food supplies and lumber. Another protest laid before Parliament went to the heart of the matter by declaring that the ability of the colonies to buy manufactured goods from England depended in large part on their trade with the foreign islands where they received money for their products. It pointed out that this trade "centers in Great Britain, by means of the Balance of Trade; For their Industry chiefly centers in this, viz. to make Returns to Great Britain to purchase its Manufactures; and the more they are enabled to make Remittances home, the greater their Demand will be of those Commodities."

When the colonists learned of this proposal, they protested. Pennsylvania merchants, for example, objected on the ground that the English sugar planters were unwilling to buy colonial products in quantities sufficient to pay for the sugar and molasses desired by the colonists. They frankly acknowledged that they had been trading with the foreign islands simply because it was only there that they could dispose of their surplus food supplies and lumber. Another protest laid before Parliament went to the heart of the matter by declaring that the ability of the colonies to buy manufactured goods from England depended in large part on their trade with the foreign islands where they received money for their products. It pointed out that this trade "centers in Great Britain, by means of the Balance of Trade; For their Industry chiefly centers in this, viz. to make Returns to Great Britain to purchase its Manufactures; and the more they are enabled to make Remittances home, the greater their Demand will be of those Commodities."

In spite of these and other protests, Parliament in 1733 imposed a tax on rum, molasses, and sugar imported from foreign islands into the continental colonies; nine pence on each gallon of rum, six pence on each gallon of molasses, and five shillings on each hundredweight of sugar.

In spite of these and other protests, Parliament in 1733 imposed a tax on rum, molasses, and sugar imported from Dutch, Spanish, and French West Indian possessions into the continental colonies; nine pence on each gallon of rum, six pence on each gallon of molasses, and five shillings on each hundredweight of sugar.

==Effect on Trade==

==Effect on Trade==