THE MALT TAX 255 



50 per cent, additional during the Crimean War, it remained 

 until repealed on the 30th September, 1880." 



At the time it was repealed " It was a tax on malt at the rate 

 of 2s. 7d. per bushel, and 5 per cent, (a small addition made in 

 1840) when produced from barley, and at the rate of 2s. and 5 per 

 cent, when produced from the inferior kind of barley grown in 

 Scotland or Ireland called bear or bigg. 



" The regulations for securing the duty on malt must at one time 

 have been very vexatious to the trade ; but the numerous attempts 

 at fraud prove that the Tax was much evaded and required strict 

 supervision. In 1825 the prosecutions of maltsters numbered 

 3467 ; but in 1834 they had fallen to 690. 



" There can be no doubt that the double tax of a Malt and Beer 

 Duty, which was in force till the latter was repealed in 1830, 

 was felt to be oppressive, and led brewers to resort to unmalted 

 grain and cheap saccharine substances to escape the tax on malt. 

 The maltster had thus to work at a disadvantage, and resorted 

 to fraud that he might sell his malt more cheaply to the 

 brewer. 



" The former Beer Duty being 10s., the Malt Duty brought 

 the tax up to 15s. 4d. per barrel on beer at the strength of 1057. 

 which is now charged 6s. 3d., and there was also the tax on hops 

 and a high Licence Duty."* 



There had been many objections raised to the tax before 

 the Chambers were founded. Thus, a Select Committee 

 of the House of Lords sat in 1846. A deputation of 

 agriculturists waited upon Lord John Russell in 1847. 

 Papers advocating its repeal were read before the Farmers' 

 Club in January, 1847, in February, 1849, and February, 

 1863. A non-party Anti-Malt Tax Association was esta- 

 blished in 1860 in the Eastern Counties, and this example 

 was followed in some twenty others. A working-men's 

 Anti-Malt Tax Association was started in Manchester about 

 the same time. In. debates on the Corn Laws the tax was 

 often referred to. Thus (Hansard, 1839, page 685), Sir James 

 Graham said : " He was convinced that if they repealed the 

 Corn Laws the malt tax would not survive a single year." 

 Sir Robert Peel (page 774) : " As a farmer, to the Free Traders, 

 I would say, let me manufacture and consume my own malt 

 untaxed. Can you deny the justice of this appeal ? "' Mr. 

 Villiers (page 357) : "Of this he was sure, that all those who 

 were now injured by the existence of the Corn Laws, would 



* Report of Inland Revenue Commissioners (C. 4474), 1885, page 20. 





