...but I wonder how long it would have taken the world to discover rum if it hadn’t been for the barrels of molasses fermenting on their way back to the U.K.?
That really is a moot point LL. You're proclaiming that had the "Empire" not brought molasses back to the U.K, then the World would not have discovered the joys of rum for a lot longer. It reads like some propaganda Kitchener would be slathered all over: 'Join the Navy and get d rum now! You'd be murd not to! Britain needs alcoholics!'
I'm pretty sure the Cypriots would have a say in the matter?
But for the sake of (as you seem to think it is the only one in existence) Caribbean Rum as I believe that is the "rum" you mean...my Grandfather always told me it originated in Brazil. Well the process of it.
Your statement saying it was discovered, whilst the molasses fermented on their way back to Blighty is complete fantasy. It was being mass produced in the sugar plantations much before any ships took it back. No doubt, if the Brazil theory is accurate it would have been present across much of the Americas already and no doubt a Mediterranean version was already rife across much of Southern Europe.
But don't let that cloud your judgement.
Did you drink it Chubbs?