An Act of Parliament,
Passed in the Sixth Year of the Reign of His Majesty
King GEORGE the Second.     1733.

CHAP. IV.

An Act for the better securing and en-
couraging the Trade of His Majesty's Sugar Colonies in AMERICA.

WHEREAS the Welfare and Prosperity of your Majesty's
Sugar Colonies in America are of the greatest Consequence
and Importance to the Trade, Navigation and Strength
of this Kingdom: and whereas the Planters of the said Su-
gar Colonies have of late Years fallen under such great Dis-
couragements, that they are unable to improve or carry on
the Sugar Trade upon an equal Footing with the Foreign Sugar Colonies,
without some Advantage and Relief be given to them from Great-Britain;
for Remedy whereof , and for the Good and Welfare of your Majesty's
Subjects, we your Majesty's most dutiful and loyal Subjects, the Commons
of Great-Britain assembled in Parliament, have given and granted unto
Your Majesty the several and respective Rates and Duties herein after men-
tioned, and in such Manner and Form, as is herein after expressed; and do
most humbly beseech Your Majesty that it may be enacted, and be it enacted
by the King's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the Advice and Con-
sent of the Lord's Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present
Parliament assembled, and by Authority of the same, That from and after
the Twenty-fifth Day of December, One thousand seven hundred and thirty
three, there shall be raised, levied, collected and paid, unto and for the Use
of His Majesty , His Heirs and Successors, upon all Rum or Spirits of the
Produce or Manufacture of any of the Colonies or Plantations in America,
not in the Possession or under the Dominion of His Majesty, His Heirs and
Successors, which, at any Time or Times within or during the Continuance
of this Act, shall be imported or brought into any of the Colonies or Plan-
tations in America, which now are, or hereafter may be, in the Possession
or under the Dominion of His Majesty, His Heirs and Successors, the Sum
of Nine pence, Money of Great Britain, to be paid according to the Pro-
portion and Value of Five shillings and Six pence the Ounce in Silver, for