SOME DISPUTES OF CONSEQUENCE - MACLAURIN AMONG THE MOLASSES BARRELS

In 1735 the great Scottish mathematician Colin Maclaurin wrote a 94-pa ge memoir to the Scottish Excise Commission, explaining how to find th e precise amount of molasses in barrels at Glasgow. We describe the wo rk itself, and place it in its social context by discussing the place of molasses in world trade, the increasing rationalization of tax coll ection and economic organization, the growth of public science, and th e role of all these in the rise of the 18th-century nation-state in ge neral, and of Scotland in particular. The paper is a case study illust rating the creation and use of mathematics to resolve socially divisiv e disputes by replacing arbitrary local practices with impersonally ju stifiable rules, and illuminating also the way the perceived prestige and objectivity of mathematics - and of eminent mathematicians - are u sed by political authority to quell unrest and achieve consensus.