Molasses, rum, and the Caribbean trade triangle

The Molasses Act sought to favour British Caribbean producers over suppliers in the French West Indies. Merchants bought molasses in the islands and shipped it to New England, where they sold it to distillers who made rum. They could then buy rum, furs, and sometimes lumber for sale in Europe. Furs offered strong returns, while competition from Scandinavian timber reduced the markup on colonial lumber. Manufactured goods and rum also moved from Europe to Africa within an Atlantic trading system tied to the traffic in enslaved people. Mainland merchants objected to rules that made their established French West Indian supplies prohibitively expensive. British officials, by contrast, complained that those purchases supported French islands at the expense of British possessions.