Why did Britain pass the Sugar Act?

British Legislation and Colonial Resistance-In 1764, in order to begin paying its war debt and to pay for the costs of maintaining troops and officials in America, the British government passed the Sugar Act. This law imposed a tax on molasses (cane sugar syrup, which was especially valuable, because it was used to distill rum) imported to North America from French colonies in the Caribbean Sea. This law actually reduced the existing tax on molasses but made clear Britain's determination to collect the tax, which had often not been paid. Those accused of violating the act by attempting to smuggle molasses into the colonies were to be tried not in a local court with a jury of their peers, but in a Vice Admiralty court (a military court, in which a judge, not a jury, would decide their guilt or innocence) located in the British colony of Nova Scotia. Some colonists believed that this tax was a reasonable regulation of the colonial economy, but others saw it as unjust taxation, designed solely to raise revenue. The Sugar Act began to sour relations between Britain and America.