<P> To make rum, sugarcane juice or molasses is fermented with yeast and water and then distilled in copper pot stills . The liquor was given the name rum in 1672, likely after the English slang word rumballion which meant clamor . Sugar plantation owners in the Caribbean often sold rum on discount to the naval ships so that they would spend more time close to the islands, providing protection from pirates . Rum also gained popularity in Britain as English ships brought the liquor from America across the Atlantic . </P> <P> In the 18th century, New England became one of the leading rum producers in the world . It was the colonies' only commodity that could be produced in large quantities by non-English powers and sold to the English . The French West Indies had a large supply of molasses at this time, but the area was lacking in lumber, cheese, and flour . These products were the main exports of the North American colonies, which led to a very secure business relationship between the two areas . </P> <P> Molasses was important in triangular trade . In the triangular trade, traders from New England would bring rum to Africa, and in return, they would acquire African slaves . These slaves then brought to the West Indies and sold to sugarcane plantations to harvest the sugar for molasses . Molasses was then brought from the West Indies to the colonies and sold to rum producers . </P> <P> The molasses trade experienced many problems in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries . Throughout this period, there was often never enough demand to meet the large supply of molasses that was continuing to increase . Neither England nor France had much of a market for molasses . England imported molasses mostly in the form of rum, but that was usually coming from the colonies at this time . The French islands in the West Indies were prohibited from shipping rum to France with regard to France's market for brandy . In the last decades of the eighteenth century, imports of French rum were at an all - time low . To combat this problem, many English planters on the islands developed their own local distilleries in order to deal with the large surplus of molasses . There were no specific restrictions on the English islands, so they were able to profit from the disposal . By the 1650s, many plantations on the islands had their own distilleries and were exporting rum to the mainland colonies . By the beginning of the eighteenth century, rum production was rising rapidly . </P>

What did the new englanders trade to the west indies