577 



home consumption last year was 194,132 lbs. ; the amount of duty 

 paid on them was £21,913. In our Customs' tariff there are two dis- 

 tinct rates of duty on nutmegs : bd. per lb. on what are called * wild 

 nutmegs' and 2.9. Gd. on * all other nutmegs,' Now the fact is, though 

 the Boards of Trade and Customs cannot or will not be made to un- 

 derstand it, that there is no such thing as a wild aromatic nutmeg. 

 All the nutmegs of commerce are of one, and that of a cultivated spe- 

 cies. It so happens, however, that some nutmegs are round and others 

 oblong, though both are produced from the same species of plant, both 

 cultivated in the same gardens, and both sold for the same price in 

 the English market. Our Custom-house has, notwithstanding, de- 

 cided that all nutmegs of a roundish form shall be called cultivated 

 nutmegs, and subject to a duty of 2.9. Qd. per ft., while all of longish 

 form shall be called ' wild,' and subject only to a duty of bd. per ft. 

 The consequence is that the Dutch (nutmegs are a government mo- 

 nopoly in the Dutch settlements) pick out all the long nutmegs for the 

 English market, and thus contrive to get them introduced at the low 

 duty of bd. per ft., while our own nutmegs of Singapore and Penang 

 are obliged to pay 2s. Qd. per ft. It is ascertained that upwards of 

 200,000 of long nutmegs have been shipped at Batavia, and are at 

 this moment actually on their way to this country. This quantity 

 exceeds the total consumption of 1851 ; it will be admitted at the 

 duty of bd. per ft., and will exclude from the English market the nut- 

 megs of Penang and Singapore, on which 2*. Qd. must be paid. The 

 price of nutmegs (long and round) is about \s. \0d. per ft.; the Dutch 

 grower pays a duty of 22 or 23 per cent, on his when imported into 

 this country, the English grower a duty of 136 per cent. The eva- 

 sion of duty, which the regulations of the Board of Customs enables 

 the Dutch to effect, may this year diminish the revenue from nutmegs, 

 from £21,913 to £4,250. 



" It is unnecessary for our present purpose to go through the whole 

 catalogue of spices. Enough has been said to show the mischievous 

 and anomalous character and tendency of the present duties on spices. 

 Pepper, the poor man's spice, is exorbitantly taxed, while the spices 

 of the rich are comparatively exempted. Heavy duties on nutmegs 

 imported from any but Dutch possessions impede the extension of 

 their cultivation in countries where our trade would be benefited by 

 increasing the number of commodities for the British market. The 

 complexity of the Custom-house accounts, the number of Custom- 

 house officers, is increased by the levying of small amounts of a duty 

 on a great number of articles, each yielding a small amount of revenue. 

 VOL. IV. 4 E 



