CREATING A MONOPOLY 271 



The large brewers are men of wealth, who will support us, 

 and are therefore deserving fellows ; it will be to their and 

 our advantage if we make brewing an impossible business 

 for the small men. Owing, however, to the absurd scruples 

 of some of our less enlightened followers, it is impracticable 

 to forbid any person except he be wealthy to engage in brew- 

 ing, so it must be done indirectly. We will therefore put 

 Avhat we will call a " deemed duty " on the malt which shall 

 be paid by the brewer in any event, and upon any extract 

 made over and above the amount covered by the " deemed 

 duty " we will (after allowing a 4 per cent, free) charge a 

 pro rata duty. The large brewers, with their plant and skill, 

 can always produce more extract from a bushel of malt than 

 the small man with inferior plant, and so he will be unable 

 to compete with the wealthier brewer, who will get the full 

 deemed amount of extract and enjoy the 4 per cent, allowance, 

 which the small brewer will not get. The small brewer, not 

 being able to get extract up to the deemed amount per bushel, 

 will pay duty upon extract he has not produced. This will 

 drive out the small men. Further, the friendly relations 

 which have hitherto existed between the brewing trade and 

 the agriculturist constitute a formidable interest which must 

 be destroyed. At present the brewer buys the product of 

 the British farmers. If the brewers can be made to purchase 

 their raw material from the foreigner those who once were 

 friends will become foes. Then having broken up this 

 powerful combination, and incidentally given the farmers 

 a heavy blow, we will confiscate the property of the brewers 

 by raising the banner of "no tied houses." In doing this, 

 we shall only have to direct attention to the way in which 

 beer has been adulterated to cause the brewers to lose all 

 popular support. 



Whether this reasoning was at the back of their minds or 

 not, that is what has happened. When the curious alter- 

 native method of levying the duty (as set out in Sections 11, 

 12, 13) is considered, and the fact is recalled that the regu- 

 lations made under this and later Acts by the Inland Revenue 

 Authorities are not available to the public, it is difficult to 



