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Om the Malt Tax: Feb, 



Ijandled, and v/ill enable him to discover anj error into which 

 I have fallen from inadvertency, or inability ; for I am not 

 conscious of any misrepresentation, either in point of fact, or 

 itf argument. I am, 



I. To give a short sketch of the history of the malt tax, as 

 far as regards the proportion of duty imposed on English, com- 

 pared with tJiat on Scotch malt. 



When the commissioners of the two kingdoms were em- 

 ployed in adjastlng the terms of the Union in 1706-7, the tax- 

 es on malt, and malt liquor, gave rise to considerable discus- 

 sion ; and if the matter had not been compromised, or under- 

 stood to be settled by the wording of certain articles, the Scotch 

 commissioners would not have agreed to that treaty, which has 

 been found so beneficial to both kingdoms. It is necessary to 

 state concisely both the cause of the dispute and the nature of 

 the compromise agreed to. 



Scotland had been accustomed both to a malt tax, and to a 

 tax on malt liquor, for nearly half a century before king Wil- 

 liam alone succeeded to the government, on the death of queen 

 Mary. The taiE on the ale, or malt liquor, was not generally 

 complained of, being either charged moderately, or compound- 

 ed for on reasonable terms by the publicans ; for there were no 

 common brewers in Scotland at that period. The tax on 

 malt was very generally obnoxious, as it aifected private fa- 

 milies ; not only from the amount of the tax, but by intro- 

 ducing excise officers into their houses, and because there was 

 a very great disparity between the* barley of the lowlands, and 

 the bear, or big, of the Highlands, or northern parts of Scot- 

 land. On that account, the Scotch parliament, in 1695, passed 

 an act, bv which the whole tax was imposed upon the liquor, 

 and the malt altogether exempted. The advantages of this 

 were experienced during the twelve years that elapsed from 

 the passing of this act, to the union of the two kingdoms in 

 1707. Therefore, in negociating the treaty of union, the Scotch 

 commissioners objected, i?i toto, to the imposing of any duties 

 on malt, alledging, that the best Scotch barley was much in- 

 ferior to that of England, and that the malt of the south of 

 Scotland, made from the two rowed barley, was so very much 

 superior to that which was made from the four rowed bear, or 

 big, of the northern counties, that the Scotch parliament had 

 given up all idea of taxing the grain, and had, for 12 years 

 past, laid the whole tax on the liquor. 



The 



* The barley of the Lowlands was generally raised in the south of 

 Scotlan<i before this period, and Mr Meickle was sent to Holland to 

 learn to construct a mill lor making pot barley, then called French bar- 

 ley, only tluree years after the union, viz, in 1710. 



