Foods that Changed History by Christopher Cumo

Author:Christopher Cumo
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781440835377
Publisher: ABC-CLIO

Molasses and Congress

In 1789, molasses was the cause of what we today call congressional gridlock. That year the first Congress convened to determine how to pay the debts from the American Revolution and, more broadly, how to raise revenues in an environment in which Americans loathed the idea of an income tax. The natural idea was to turn to a tariff. Congress was intent on imposing a 4-cents–per-gallon duty on molasses from the Caribbean. Massachusetts’ delegates rose in opposition. Dependent on cheap molasses to make rum, they would not countenance the thought of paying more money for molasses. These delegates were certain that European governments in the Caribbean would retaliate with tariffs on American products, making it difficult for Massachusetts to export fish. After nearly six months’ debate Congress imposed a 2.5-cent duty per gallon on molasses, less than it had originally wanted. Congress also enacted a tariff on sugar and rum, in effect declaring war on the sugarcane plant.

In 1791, the success of the Haitian rebellion cut sugar and molasses production on the former French colony of Saint-Domingue. Saint-Domingue became Haiti and it along with the Dominican Republic comprises Hispaniola, the Caribbean island on which Columbus initially landed in October 1492. With an increase in molasses prices, Alexander Hamilton, the first U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, advised American distillers to use homegrown grains, not foreign molasses, an interesting position for a man who had been born in the Caribbean.

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