drawbacks has become a much less simple
matter than it was at their first institution.
Upon the exportation of some foreign
goods, of which it was expected that the importation
would greatly exceed what was necessary
for the home consumption, the whole
duties are drawn back, without retaining even
half the old subsidy. Before the revolt of our
North American colonies, we had the monopoly
of the tobacco of Maryland and Virginia. We
imported about ninety-six thousand hogsheads,
and the home consumption was not supposed
to extend fourteen thousand. To facilitate
the great exportation which was necessary, in
order to rid us of the rest, the whole duties
were drawn back, provided the exportation
took place within three years.
We still have, though not altogether, yet
very nearly, the monopoly of the sugars of
our West Indian islands. If sugars are exported
within a year, therefore, all the duties,
upon importation are drawn back; and if
exported within three years, all the duties,
except half the old subsidy, which still continues
to be retained upon the exportation of
the greater part of goods. Though the importation
of sugar exceeds a good deal what is
necessary for the home consumption, the excess
is inconsiderable, in comparison of what
it used to be in tobacco.
Some goods, the particular objects of the
jealousy of our own manufacturers, are prohibited
to be imported for home consumption.
They may, however, upon paying certain duties,
be imported and warehoused for exportation.
But upon such exportation no part of
these duties is drawn back. Our manufacturers
are unwilling, it seems, that even this
restricted importation should be encouraged,
and are afraid lest some part of these goods
should be stolen out of the warehouse, and
thus came into competition with their own.
It is under these regulations only that we can
import wrought silks, French cambrics and
lawns, calicoes, painted, printed, stained, or
dyed, &c.
We are unwilling even to be the carriers of
French goods, and choose rather to forego a
profit to ourselves than to suffer those whom
we consider as our enemies to make any profit
by our means. Not only half the old subsidy,
but the second twenty-five per cent. is
retained upon the exportation of all French
goods.
By the fourth of the rules annexed to the
old subsidy, the drawback allowed upon the
exportation of all wines amounted to a great
deal more than half the duties which were at
that time paid upon their importation; and it
seems at that time to have been the object of
the legislature to give somewhat more than
ordinary encouragement to the carrying trade
in wine. Several of the other duties, too,
which were imposed either at the same time
or subsequent to the old subsidy, what is called
the additional duty, the new subsidy, the one-third
and two-thirds subsidies, the impost
1692, the tonnage on wine, were allowed to
be wholly drawn back upon exportation. All
those duties, however, except the additional
duty and impost 1692, being paid down in
ready money upon importation, the interest of
so large a sum occasioned an expense, which
made it unreasonable to expect any profitable
carrying trade in this article. Only a part,
therefore of the duty called the impost on
wine, and no part of the twenty-five pounds
the ton upon French wines, or of the duties
imposed in 1745, in 1763, and in 1778, were
allowed to be drawn back upon exportation.
The two imposts of five per cent. imposed in
1779 and 1781, upon all the former duties of
customs, being allowed to be wholly drawn
back upon the exportation of all other goods,
were likewise allowed to be drawn back upon
that of wine. The last duty that has been
particularly imposed upon wine, that of 1780,
is allowed to be wholly drawn back; an indulgence
which, when so many heavy duties
are retained, most probably could never occasion
the exportation of a single ton of wine.
These rules took place with regard to all
places of lawful exportation, except the British
colonies in America.
The 15th Charles II, chap. 7, called an act
for the encouragement of trade, had given
Great Britain the monopoly of supplying the
colonies with all the commodities of the growth
or manufacture of Europe, and consequently
with wines. In a country of so extensive a
coast as our North American and West Indian
colonies, where our authority was always
so very slender, and where the inhabitants
were allowed to carry out in their own ships
their non-enumerated commodities, at first to
all parts of Europe, and afterwards to all
parts of Europe south of Cape Finisterre, it
is not very probable that this monopoly could
ever be much respected; and they probably at
all times found means of bringing back some
cargo from the countries to which they were
allowed to carry out one. They seem, however,
to have found some difficulty in importing
European wines from the places of
their growth; and they could not well import
them from Great Britain, where they
were loaded with many heavy duties, of which
a considerable part was not drawn back upon
exportation. Madeira wine, not being an
European commodity, could be imported directly
into America and the West Indies,
countries which, in all their non-enumerated
commodities, enjoyed a free trade to the island
of Madeira. These circumstances had probably
introduced that general taste for Madeira
wine, which our officers found established
in all our colonies at the commencement