Fascinating moments in public finance history

I have lately been reading a lot of American history. Currently working my way through Andrew Roberts' The Last King of America: the misunderstood reign of George III, page 112-113 excerpted below.

On 19 March 1763, on Charles Townshend's proposal, a Bill was introduced to reduce the duty on West Indies molasses, in order to help Rhode Island rum distillers. Back in 1733, the Molasses Act had imposed a deliberately prohibitive duty of sixpence per gallon on the importation of all foreign (effectively French West Indian) molasses into Britain and the British colonies. Because British West Indies plantations did not produce enough molasses to satisfy the huge North American demand for rum, it had led to widespread smuggling into the thirteen colonies: merchants would bribe corrupt customs officials roughly a penny a gallon to underreport the quantity of molasses on board their ships by a factor of ten.*

The asterisked footnote particularly intrigued me:

*Although they lied to the Revenue, the merchants insured their ships for the correct amount, which is how historians were able to spot the discrepancies.

The Molasses Act had been intended to harm not the American rum industry but the French West Indian planters. It had initially been passed for five years and was regularly extended, and after coming before the Commons' Expiring Laws' Continuance Commitee on 9 March it was decided ten days later to renew it for another year, only with Charles Townshend's amendment to reduce the duty to twopence. ... This two-thirds reduction was proposed 'the more effectually to secure the payment of it.' British ministers believed it was necessary to control colonial smuggling which had become so well established in America that iwas considered almost customary. Agents of the American colonies argued that the duty ought to be set at one penny, which Thomas Hutchinson, Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts, reported to London 'would be generally agreeable to the people here, and the merchants would readily pay it.'

The Lieutenant Governor's assertion seems quite plausible, given that the merchants were already paying one cent per gallon in bribes! Of course, the corrupt customs officials might not be too happy with the improved compliance, since their lucrative bribes would dry up if tax compliance improved. However, Townshend did not heed this and stuck with the two-pence proprosal. The book goes on:

Charles Townshend made 'heavy complaints' in his speech to the House of Commons Ways and Means Committee about 'the state of our revenues in North America', which at that time amounted to less than the 7,000 pounds it cost to collect. The King's response to Townshend's proposal to reduce the molasses duty by two-thirds was to complain vociferously.