The Sugar Duties Act 1846 (9 & 10 Vict) was a statute of the United Kingdom which equalized import duties for sugar from British colonies. It was passed in 1846 at the same time as the repeal of the Corn laws by the Importation Act 1846 (9 & 10 Vict. c. 22). The Act, combined with the recent abolition of slavery had a devastating effect on Caribbean economies, which had previously enjoyed preferential treatment in relation to import duties from the West Indies. There were in fact two Sugar Duties Acts in 1846 (c.41 and c.63), one being a replacement for the other.
With no cheap labour force and no preferential tariff protection, the plantation-owners in the British West Indies could not compete with Cuba and Brazil, where sugar was still produced using slave labour. The rise of European sugar beet as a cheap alternative to sugar cane further worsened their position. Plantation owners in the West Indies felt a sense of betrayal in relation to the legislation, as they had taken understood it to be implicit in relation to their agreement to the abolition of slavery eight years earlier that the tariff protection would remain in place as a quid pro quo.
Famous quotes containing the words sugar, duties and/or act:
“There is no sugar cane that is sweet at both ends.”
—Chinese proverb.
“If property had simply pleasures, we could stand it; but its duties make it unbearable. In the interest of the rich we must get rid of it.”
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)
“The situation is that of him who is helpless, cannot act, in the event cannot paint, since he is obliged to paint. The act is of him who, helpless, unable to act, acts, in the event paints, since he is obliged to paint.”
—Samuel Beckett (1906–1989)