EXCISE. 



sumable articles, have been burthened 

 with duties of this description. 



Excise duties were first established in 

 England in 1643, when the long parlia- 

 ment laid a tax on beer and ale in all the 

 counties within their power; and the 

 king's parliament, then sitting at Oxford, 

 imposed the like taxes on all within their 

 power, by which means these new du- 

 ties, called excise, became general. It 

 is supposed that the plan was originally 

 adopted, in consequence of its success in 

 the neighbouring commonwealth of Hol- 

 land. It was at first laid upon liquors 

 only ; and it was solemnly declared, that 

 at the end of the war all excises should 

 be abolished ; but the contest continuing 

 longer than was expected, this obnoxious 

 mode of levying money was extended to 

 bread, meat, salt, and many other articles. 

 The excise on bread and meat was after- 

 wards repealed. 



In the year 1660, two duties were im- 

 posed on English ale, amounting to 2s. 

 6d. per barrel of strong, and 6d. per bar- 

 rel of small beer ; a duty of 2d. per gal- 

 lon was also imposed on home-made spi- 

 rits. These duties were fanned till the 

 year 1684, when they were put under 

 the management of commissioners. For 

 a considerable time they yielded a reve- 

 nue that was gradually increasing, and 

 which amounted, in the year ending 

 midsummer 1688, to 786,915/. 12s. 7d. 

 Soon after the revolution several tempo- 

 rary duties were imposed on beer and 

 ale : and in 1694, the established duties 

 were 4s. 9 d. per barrel on strong, and Is. 

 3d. per barrel on small beer : the aug- 

 mentation of the revenue was not, how- 

 ever, proportionate to the increase of the 

 duties, which was attributed by Dr. Dave- 

 nant to improper management, but pro- 

 bably arose, in part at least, from the in- 

 creased temptation to evade the duties. 



Various additions to the original duties 

 were m-ude at subsequent periods, and 

 the excise being extended to candles,soap, 

 starch, hides, and other articles, it be- 

 came one of the most productive branches 

 of the public revenue ; the gross pro- 

 duce, in the year 1732, being 2,964,61 71. 

 About this time Sir Robert Walpole, 

 who was of opinion that taxes on con- 

 sumable commodities, to which every 

 citizen contributes in proportion to his 

 consumption, and which being included 

 in the price of the commodity, are in- 

 sensibly paid, constituted the most eli- 

 ble mode of raising the revenue neces- 



VOL. V. 



sary for the public service, formed a pro- 

 ject for the gradual abolition, not only of 

 the taxes on land, houses, and windows, 

 but likewise the customs, by the substi- 

 tution of productive excise duties. He 

 was influenced in the formation of this 

 scheme by a knowledge of the gross and 

 shameless frauds then daily practised in 

 the collection of the customs; and which, 

 from the very nature of those frauds, 

 and the extreme facility of committing 

 them, he had no hope to remedy : he 

 thought, therefore, that to convert the 

 greater part of the customs into duties 

 of excise, would be equally advantageous 

 to government and to the fair trader; 

 and that the excise laws might be so ame- 

 liorated, that, notwithstanding the odium 

 generally attached to them as oppressive 

 and arbitrary, no just ground of com- 

 plaint should remain. With a view, 

 therefore, to the execution of this plan, 

 he obtained a revival of the salt duties, 

 which had been repealed some years be- 

 fore ; but upon proposing, in the follow- 

 ing year, to transfer the duties on wine 

 and tobacco to the excise, so much cla- 

 mour was raised against the mea'sure, 

 that the minister, after some perseve- 

 rance, thought it prudent to relinquish 

 this favourite project. The defeat of this 

 scheme was celebrated by general re- 

 joicings, as a deliverance from the great- 

 est political danger : had it succeeded, 

 between four and five millions a year 

 would have been raised under the excise 

 system, in addition, to the excise duties 

 then subsisting: by the various duties 

 which at different times have been since 

 imposed, upwards of fifteen millions a 

 year is now raised under the excise, in 

 addition to the amount of this branch of 

 the revenue at the above period. 



The several commodities now subject 

 to excise duties are, ale and beer, cyder, 

 perry, mead, British and foreign spirits, 

 wine, vinegar, verjuice, malt, hops, salt, 

 soap, starch, candles, coffee, tea, tobacco, 

 and snuff, bricks and tiles, glass, hides 

 and skins, paper, printed goods, and 

 wire. The various rates of duty which 

 had been imposed at different times 

 were consolidated in the year 1787, when 

 other regulations were also adopted, by 

 which the produce of the revenue was 

 augmented, and the expense of collect- 

 ing it materially reduced, as appears from 

 the- rate per cent, which the expenses of 

 management amounted to in the follow- 

 ing years. 



M 



