158 



England, since 1826, it is reduced so low as thirty per 

 cent. 



Manufactured silks, from their very great value in 

 proportion to their bulk and weight, like silver and 

 gold, will not bear a heavy duty on imports. Burthen- 

 some duties and imposts on silk may oppress, while they 

 serve but to enrich the smuggler, who seizes both the 

 commerce and revenu.es of the country as his own, for 

 the double character which he assumes. 



In England, under the former system of monopoly 

 and exclusion, it had never been found possible to stop 

 the prosecution of the contraband trade in silk goods. 

 And to such a perfect system had this illegal trade ar- 

 rived, that silk goods, of any and every description, 

 might be purchased in France, with the guarantee of the 

 seller, that they should be safely delivered at the very 

 house of the purchaser ; the amount thus put to hazard 

 being again insured at offices established for that pur- 

 pose in France, where legal policies of insurance were 

 to be obtained against seizure, with the same facility as 

 for protection against the dangers of the seas, or of fire. 

 These premiums varied in proportion to the degree of 

 danger which occurred, from the vigilance of the offi- 

 cers of the revenue. Of the amount thus smuggled from 

 the kingdom, no notice or report is ever entered in the 

 custom houses of France. 



According to the statements of one of the presidents 

 of the board of trade, the Right Honorable Vesey Fitz- 

 gerald, which was made before the House of Commons 

 in 1829, and on the authority of French merchants, the 

 total cost per cent, on the value for smuggling and insur- 

 ing silk goods from France into England, was as fol- 

 lows : on Gros de Naples 28 to 29 per cent.; on Satin 

 Ribbons 24 to 25 per cent.; on Sarsnet Ribbons 25 to 

 26 per cent.; on figured Gauze 28 to 29 per cent.; on 

 Blonde 12 to 13 per cent. The rates of insurance on 

 the latter article being less, so much as its value is 

 greater than that of other articles in proportion to its 



