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revenue, the means of acquiring individual income should be unrestrained, and the national exchequer supplied by taxes on the expenditure of that income.-At the end of the volume we have placed tables of the Brtish revenue and expenditure for the year ending 5th of January 1833, and shall now proceed to review the practical operation of the various taxes by which the British revenue is collected.

TAXES ON RAW MATERIALS.

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Duties on cotton, sheeps' wool, hides, skins, &c. These duties are in every sense opposed to sound principles of finance. The cotton manufacture, despite of all restrictions, produces an income of no less than 40,000,000l. per annum, from the expenditure of which the exchequer derives an annual revenue of about 7,000,0007. Exposed to powerful foreign competition, the sperity of the cotton manufacture can only be maintained by our manufacturers continuing to produce a cheaper commodity than other countries. The levy of a paltry duty of 280,000l. per annum on the raw material, is to impair this prolific source of income. Much interesting evidence was adduced before the parliamentary committee on manufactures, commerce, and shipping, as to the effect of competition by the American, Austrian, French, and Swiss manufactures, and although it mainly tended to illustrate the great present superiority of the British cotton manufacture, it was no less conclusive as to the rapid advance of cotton manufactures elsewhere. The quantity of cotton spun in France, is 310 per cent. more in 1832 than in 1812. The quantity of the raw material consumed in 1833, is about equal to the quantity consumed in Britain in 1810. Austria and Switzerland have progressed in nearly a similar degree, and have become rather exporting than importing

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nations of cotton manufactures; but it is from America that successful rivalry may be anticipated. During the year 1831, the quantity of cotton spun in the United States was no less than 67,000,000lbs. and in the year ending 30th September, 1832, her exports of cotton goods amounted to 1,229,574 dollars. When we consider that this progress has been made during a period of about twenty years, we cannot be indifferent to such a power of competition from the advantage of possessing the raw material at hand, and her contiguity to the South American states, it is probable that, at no very distant period, when, by the increase of population, the supply of labour shall become more abundant in the United States, that she will compete successfully in that part of the world with our manufacturers.

The importance of the woollen manufacture was so justly appreciated by our ancestors, that up to the year 1802, the importation of foreign wool was free of duty; and in order to insure our manufacturers a due supply of wool of home growth, and deprive the foreigner of its use, from a notion of its superior quality, the exportation was, in 1660, prohibited by a law which continued in force to the year 1825, when, from various reasons, of which perhaps the most fundamental are the admitted degeneracy of the quality of British wool, its inadaptation for the manufacture of cloth to suit the increased affluence of consumers, and by improved machinery, the prohibition has been removed, and considerable quantities of British wool have been exported, particularly to Belgium and France.†

Mr. Ewart's speech in parliament, session 1833, on the cotton trade. The quality of wool is distinguished under two general terms-long and short wool. Softness of texture is also a quality of great importance. This, Mr. Bakewell has shewn, depends on the nature of the soil on which the sheep are fed: sheep pastured in chalky districts or light calcareous soils usually produce

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hed and anarchy, and raised open defiance to the fficers who attempted to do their duty. The Reverend Mr. Chichester, in his pamphlet on the Irish Distillery Laws, says, "the Irish system seems formed for perfecting smuggling and anarchy; it has culled the evils of both savage and civilized life, and rejected all the advantages they contain." Sir Hussey Vivian, lately commander of the cavalry in Ireland, bears evidence to the harassing services imposed on the troops in the ineffectual endeavours to suppress smuggling. Mr. Hay Forbes, deputy sheriff of Perthshire, in his letter to the revenue commissioners (1822), speaks forcibly of the incalculable evils resulting from a high rate of duty on spirits: he says "The Irish system is progressing rapidly in Scotland ; the excise officers dare not do their duty, and smuggled whiskey is carried off by armed bands, in open defiance of the revenue officers." In proof of the prevalence of smuggling, Captain Munro, of Teainnich, in a letter to the committee, says, that at Tain, where there are twenty licensed public houses, not one gallon of spirits has been received within the last twelve months, with a regular permit from a licensed distillery. Upon the whole current of evidence, the committee, in 1822, recommended that the local duties on Irish and Scotch spirits should be reduced from five shillings and sixpence to two shillings; or, calculated by the imperial measure, from 6s. 7d. to 2s. 4d.; which recommendation was adopted by parliament in the Bill of 1823. The result of the alteration of the duty, in enlarging the quantity taxed, is shewn in the subjoined table.

*See speech in Parliament, Session 1829.

imports from that country became difficult: concurrent with the decline of importations from the Peninsula, a new source of supply sprung up in Saxony and the Austrian states. Circumstances seemed to dictate to every manufacturing state the policy of encouraging by every means the produc

In the early part of the present century, the King of Spain, Charles IV., presented to the late king (then elector of Saxony) a small flock of merino sheep. These were husbanded with great care, and every effort made to nationalize the breed in Germany, and improve the quality of the fleece. The first attempts made were not propitious as to the entire preservation of the quality of the wool, and but little attention was paid to the subject in the neighbouring states. By the great injury done to the Spanish flocks during the Peninsular war, the price of fine wool greatly increased, and it was found that a slight improvement in the quality of German wool would add very considerably to its value. Thus the practice of housing the sheep was adopted, together with a change in the food- -corn being given to them during the greater portion of the year. In 1812, a small parcel of German wool, weighing twenty-eight pounds, was imported into this country; and the quality being approved, larger supplies were sought at high prices, when the peace of 1814 opened a more intimate international communication. On the continent, the growth of fine wool, which rapidly progressed in Saxony, began to excite the emulation of the landholders in the neighbouring states, and the merino breed of sheep spread rapidly in Silesia, Bohemia, and other parts of the Austrian dominions, where the same care was manifested in improving, or rather preserving, the quality of the fleece. In 1814, the supplies of wool from Germany became large, being no less than 3,432,456 pounds. Every year brought an accession of supply, and in 1825 no less than 28,799,661 pounds were imported into British ports. The mania for speculation in that year had, however, induced a larger import than the quantity annually produced warranted, and in the years 1826-7-8, the quantity brought from Germany was less. In 1833, the imports amounted to 25,370,106 pounds; which, being the fair proportion of the clip exported, seems to offer a rational presumption that the supplies in future years will expand. This extension of the growth of fine wool in Germany seems concurrent with the diminution of its growth in the Peniusula, on which we were formerly dependent. The British imports of Spanish wool in 1800 amounted to 7,794,748 pounds, and in 1814, to 9,234,991 pounds. Since this, the dawning year of the import of German wool, the quantity imported from Spain has rapidly declined; being in 1827, 4,349,643 pounds; and in 1833, 3,339,150 pounds. Thus German and Australian wool (of which latter description we shall presently speak), has, to a great extent, superseded the use of

shed and anarchy, and raised open defiance to the officers who attempted to do their duty. The Reverend Mr. Chichester, in his pamphlet on the Irish Distillery Laws, says, "the Irish system seems formed for perfecting smuggling and anarchy; it has culled the evils of both savage and civilized life, and rejected all the advantages they contain." Sir Hussey Vivian, lately commander of the cavalry in Ireland, bears evidence to the harassing services imposed on the troops in the ineffectual endeavours to suppress smuggling.* Mr. Hay Forbes, deputy sheriff of Perthshire, in his letter to the revenue commissioners (1822), speaks forcibly of the incalculable evils resulting from a high rate of duty on spirits: he says "The Irish system is progressing rapidly in Scotland; the excise officers dare not do their duty, and smuggled whiskey is carried off by armed bands, in open defiance of the revenue officers." In proof of the prevalence of smuggling, Captain Munro, of Teainnich, in a letter to the committee, says, that at Tain, where there are twenty licensed public houses, not one gallon of spirits has been received within the last twelve months, with a regular permit from a licensed distillery. Upon the whole current of evidence, the committee, in 1822, recommended that the local duties on Irish and Scotch spirits should be reduced from five shillings and sixpence to two shillings; or, calculated by the imperial measure, from 6s. 7d. to 2s. 4d.; which recommendation was adopted by parliament in the Bill of 1823. The result of the alteration of the duty, in enlarging the quantity taxed, is shewn in the subjoined table.

See speech in Parliament, Session 1829.

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