110 DUTIES ON AMERICAN TOBACCO. 



parts 3s., or 70 els. for what is received from us at 6 cts. ; on snuff 

 6s., and on cigars 9s. per Ib. It is not suprising that, with these en- 

 ormous duties, smuggling is extensively practiced. 120,884 cwt. of 

 tabacco, and 169,777 Ibs. of cigars paid duty in England in 1840. The 

 rate of duty naturally affects the consumption. This being, in 1841, 

 3-l-8-10ths, the consumption per head being l2-4-5ths. 



Since May, 1840, the duty in Great Britain on tobacco is about 75 

 cts. per Ib., or twelve hundred per cent, on our price : in Austria about 

 60 cts., or 1000 per cent. ; in Prussia 30A cts. per Ib., or over 500 per 

 cent. ; and in France $1 per Ib., or 1,666 2-3 per cent ! Taking there- 

 fore our annual exports at $9,225,145, the duty annually levied on 

 this article of our produce alone is $32,462,546 ; so that the tobacco 

 sells, exclusively of freight and charges, for $41,688,685, of which the 

 American farmer receives one fourth, and foreign governments three 

 fourths. This tax in England, including 50,000/., or $222,000 im- 

 posed for licenses and charges of collection, &c., at 270,000/., or $1,- 

 198,800, with the duty, as before stated, at $15,655,244, amount to 

 $17,086,044, or near two-thirds the expenses of the British navy, or 

 three-fourths the expenses of the whole government of the U. S. France 

 derives a revenue from it of $11,013,333, beside $204,490 from 2,500 

 retailers. 



This dut} r is British reciprocity in commercial trade. The labor of the 

 people of the U. S., exported to different nations, amounts annually to 

 $90,000,000, and pays an average tax of over 50 per cent., while the 

 productions of European nations annually imported into the U. States, 

 amounting to, say 100 millions per annum, are taxed not over 25 per 

 cent. Thus foreign nations receive, as revenue, from our labors and 

 agricultural products, $90,000,000, while they insist (and we comply) 

 on our receipt of their labors at little or no duly. That is, in effect, 

 our farmers pay one-half the amount of their products, for the privilege 

 of selling the remainder to European nations, and of allowing them to 

 sell us their arts at a 4th the price we pay them. Or, suppose we sell 

 them of the products of our industry, in value to them, $200,000, and 

 we receive $90,000, the difference in their favor, or in our loss, is $110,- 

 000, as duties, for the support of their governments, and we then re- 

 ceive of their arts, $90,000, on which the difference of duty is 3-4ths 

 in their favor. Thus the average duties levied by them on our pro- 

 ductions is 6 times as great as the average duties on theirs. 



We have availed ourselves of this occasion to allude to the duties 

 imposed on our agricultural products ; and what has been said applies 

 to all the staple vegetable productions of which we have spoken, and 

 of which we shall hereafter speak, though not with the same force as 

 to the staple product under consideration. The facts stated are of 

 immense importance to our country, and most intimately connected 

 with our subject, but we have not space for further remarks, nor can 



