This statute, dating from the year 1733, was intended to be an
actual device for controlling the commercial relations with the
colonies. By the terms of the Act heavy duties were laid on all
the sugar, molasses, and rum which should be imported into the
colonies. The customs were exorbitant and were from the first
evaded as far as possible by the American merchants.

This may be regarded as the first actual breach of justice on the
one side and good faith on the other, as between the home
government and the American dependencies of Great Britain.

The reader will note that the question at issue was from the
first commercial. It was a question of taking something from the
colonists and of giving no equivalent, either in value or
political rights. Had the American colonists been willing to be
taxed and searched without an equivalent, then would there have
been no revolution.

It will be noted from the nature of the question that the issue,
since it was a matter of the merchants, was also a matter of the
cities. For the merchant and the city go together. With the
country folk of the pre-revolutionary era, the faultfinding and
dispute related always to political questions proper--to
questions of rights as between the king and his subjects; to
questions of institutional forms, the best method of governing,
etc.

All of these matters, however, could have been easily adjusted,
and if there were an "if" in history they would have been