much difference in the export of molasses from the English West
Indies to New England, because the islanders happened not to want the
fish which their French neighbours coveted. But the New Englanders could
see that the immediate result would be to close the market for their
cheaper kinds of fish, and thus ruin their trade in lumber and rum,
besides shutting up many a busy shipyard and turning more than 5000
sailors out of employment. It was estimated that the yearly loss to New
England would exceed L300,000. It was hardly wise in Great Britain to
entail such a loss upon some of her best customers; for with their
incomes thus cut down, it was not to be expected that the people of New
England would be able to buy as many farming tools, dishes, and pieces
of furniture, garments of silk or wool, and wines or other luxuries,
from British merchants as before. The government in passing its act of
1733 did not think of these consequences; but it proved to be impossible
to enforce the act without causing more disturbance than the government
felt prepared to encounter. Now in 1764 Grenville announced that the act
was to be enforced, and of course the machinery of writs of assistance
was to be employed for that purpose. Henceforth all molasses from the
French islands must either pay the prohibitory duty or be seized without
ceremony.

Loud and fierce was the indignation of New England over this revival of
the Molasses Act. Even without the Stamp Act, it might very likely have
led that part of the country to make armed resistance, but in such case
it is not so sure that the southern and middle colonies would have come
to the aid of New England. But in the Stamp Act Grenville provided the
colonies with an issue which concerned one as much as another, and upon
which they were accordingly sure to unite in resistance. It was also a
much better issue for the Americans to take up, for it was not a mere
revival of an old act; it was a new departure; it was an imposition of a
kind to which the Americans had never before been called upon to
submit, and in resisting it they were sure to enlist the sympathies of a
good many powerful people in England.

[Sidenote: The Stamp Act.]

The Stamp Act was a direct tax laid upon the whole American people by
Parliament, a legislative body in which they were not represented. The
British government had no tyrannical purpose in devising this tax. A
stamp duty had already been suggested in 1755 by W