Sugar Duties Acts 1846

The Sugar Duties Acts 1846 (9 & 10 Vict. cc. 41 & 63) were statutes of the United Kingdom which equalized import duties for sugar from British colonies. They were 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 acts, combined with the recent abolition of slavery, had a devastating effect on the profits of the Caribbean plantocracy, which had previously enjoyed reduced import duties. The Sugar Duties Act 1846 (c. 63) was a replacement for the Sugar Duties Act 1846 (c. 41).

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 sugarcane further worsened their position. Plantation owners in the West Indies felt betrayed by the legislation, as they had understood that the tariff protection would remain in place as a quid pro quo for their agreement to the abolition of slavery eight years earlier.