Chapter ONE - Weebly

can’t sell any of it the usual way. They can’t have the
casks showing up in their warehouses, and they need
people to sell them outside the usual places, where the
lobsterbacks can’t see.”
Of course. Since Parliament passed the first of the
Grenville Acts the year before, it had been illegal for
anyone in the colonies to import or sell any wine from
France or any rum from the French West Indies. The
problem was, as much as the British here in the
Americas hated the French, they still had a mighty thirst
for French wines and spirits. Since the 1730s,
American distillers had purchased smuggled molasses
from the French West Indies. Now Grenville and his
friends in Parliament had lowered the molasses tariff
and banned the import of French rum, in the hopes of
ending that illegal trade. All they had done, however,
was create a new and lucrative illegal market in spirits
from the islands.
If the customs men caught Boston merchants selling
French goods, they would confiscate what they found
and fine the merchants. But if they found someone like
Diver selling them, they would leave the merchants