EXCISE. 
revenue was not, however, proportionate 
to the increase of the duties, which was 
attributed by Dr. Davenant to improper 
management, but probably arose, in part 
at least, from the increased temptation to 
evade the duties. 
Various additions to the original duties 
were made at subsequent periods, and the 
excise being extended to candles, soap, 
starch, hides, and other articles, it became 
one of the most productive branches of the 
public revenue ; the gross produce, in the 
year 1732, being 2,964,6171. About this 
time Sir Robert Walpole, who was of 
opinion that taxes on consumable commo- 
dities, to which every citizen contributes in 
proportion to his consumption, and which 
being included in the price of the commo- 
dity are insensibly paid, constituted the 
most eligible mode of raising the revenue 
necessary for the public ser vice ; formed a 
project for the gradual abolition not only of 
the taxes op land, houses, and windows, 
but likewise the customs, by the substitu- 
tion 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 ad- 
vantageous to government and to the fair 
trader ; and that the excise laws might be 
so ameliorated that, notwithstanding the 
odium generally attached to them as op- 
pressive and arbitrary, no just ground of 
complaint 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had been repealed some years before ; but 
upon proposing, in the following year, to 
transfer the duties on wine and tobacco to 
the excise, so much clamour was raised 
against the measure that the minister, after 
some perseverance, thought it prudent to 
relinquish this favorite project. The defeat 
of this scheme was celebrated by general 
rejoicings, as a deliverance from the greatest 
jpolitipal danger : had it succeeded, between 
four and five millions a year would have 
been raised under the excise system, in addi- 
tion to the excise duties then subsisting : by 
the various duties which at different times 
have been since imposed, upwards of fif- 
teen 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 im- 
posed 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 ex- 
pense of collecting it materially reduced, 
as appears from the rate per cent, which 
the expenses of management amounted to 
in the following years : 
Years. Gross Receipt. Rate per cent. 
<£. £. s. d. 
1789 8,418,611 5 10 0 
1790.. 9,054,850 5 11 0 
1791 9,808,908 5 0 4 
1792 10,113,867 4 19 10 
1793 9,412,487 5 5 7 
1794 9,964,293.. 5 0 4 
1795.. . 10,86,6,170 4 13 11 
1796 ..10,960,425 4 12 1 
The additional duties which the progress 
of the public expenditure has rendered it 
necessary to impose, have greatly increased 
the produce of the excise, and rendered it 
the most important branch of the public 
revenue. The duties which it comprehends 
are divided into the permanent consolidat- 
ed duties, the temporary war taxes, and 
the annual duties ; the latter consist of the 
old annual malt duty, and of an additional 
malt duty, which with some duties on to- 
bacco and snuff, and some custom duties, 
have, since the project for selling the land 
tax, been granted annually in lieu thereof. 
