the doing of it. Woollen yarn and worsted
are prohibited to be exported, under the
same penalties as wool. Even white cloths
are subject to a duty upon exportation; and
our dyers have so far obtained a monopoly
against our clothiers. Our clothiers would
probably have been able to defend themselves
against it; but it happens that the greater
part of our principal clothiers are themselves
likewise dyers. Watch-cases, clock-cases, and
dial-plates for clocks and watches, have been
prohibited to be exported. Our clock-makers
and watch-makers are, it seems, unwilling
that the price of this sort of workmanship
should be raised upon them by the competition
of foreigners.
By some old statutes of Edward III. Henry
VIII. and Edward VI. the exportation of
all metals was prohibited. Lead and tin were
alone excepted, probably on account of the
great abundance of those metals; in the exportation
of which a considerable part of the
trade of the kingdom in those days consisted.
For the encouragement of the mining trade,
the 5th of William and Mary, chap. 17, exempted
from this prohibition iron, copper, and
mundic metal made from British ore. The
exportation of all sorts of copper bars, foreign
as well as British, was afterwards permitted
by the 9th and 10th of William III. chap 26.
The exportation of unmanufactured brass, of
what is called gun-metal, bell-metal, and
shroff-metal, still continues to be prohibited.
Brass manufactures of all sorts may be exported
duty free.
The exportation of the materials of manufacture,
where it is not altogether prohibited,
is, in many cases, subjected to considerable
duties.
By the 8th Geo. I. chap. 15, the exportation
of all goods, the produce or manufacture
of Great Britain, upon which any duties had
been imposed by former statutes, was rendered
duty free. The following goods, however,
were excepted: alum, lead, lead-ore, tin,
tanned leather, copperas, coals, wool, cards,
white woolen cloths, lapis calaminaris, skins
of all sorts, glue, coney hair or wool, hares
wool, hair of all sorts, horses, and litharge of
lead. If you expect horses, all these are either
materials of manufacture, or incomplete manufactures
(which may be considered as materials
for still further manufacture), or instruments
of trade. This statute leaves them
subject to all the old duties which had ever
been imposed upon them, the old subsidy,
and one per cent. outwards.
By the same statute, a great number of foreign
drugs for dyers use are exempted from
all duties upon importation. Each of them,
however, is afterwards subjected to a certain
duty, not indeed a very heavy one, upon exportation.
Our dyers, it seems, while they
thought it for their interest to encourage the
importation of those drugs, by an exemption
from all duties, thought it likewise for their
own interest to throw some small discouragement
upon their exportation. The avidity,
however, which suggested this notable piece
of mercantile ingenuity, most probably disappointed
itself of its object. It necessarily
taught the importers to be more careful than
they might otherwise have been, that their
importation should not exceed what was necessary
for the supply of the home market.
The home market was at all times likely to
be more scantily supplied; the commodities
were at all times likely to be somewhat dearer
there than they would have been, had the exportation
been rendered as free as the importation.
By the above-mentioned statute, gum senega,
or gum arabic, being among the enumerated
dyeing drugs, might be imported duty
free. They were subjected, indeed, to a small
poundage duty, amounting only to threepence
in the hundred weight, upon their re-exportation.
France enjoyed, at that time, an exclusive
trade to the country most productive
of those drugs, that which lies in the neighbourhood
of the Senegal; and the British
market could not easily be supplied by the
immediate importation of them from the place
of growth. By the 25th Geo. II. therefore,
gum senega was allowed to be imported (contrary
to the general dispositions of the act of
navigation) from any part of Europe. As the
law, however, did not mean to encourage this
species of trade, so contrary to the general
principles of the mercantile policy of England,
it imposed a duty of ten shillings the
hundred weight upon such importation, and
no part of this duty was to be afterwards
drawn back upon its exportation. The successful
war which began in 1755 gave Great
Britain the same exclusive trade to those countries
which France had enjoyed before. Our
manufactures, as soon as the peace was made,
endeavoured to avail themselves of this advantage,
and to establish a monopoly in their
own favour both against the growers and
against the importers of this commodity. By
the 5th Geo. III. therefore, chap. 37, the
exportation of gum senega, from his majesty's
dominions in Africa, was confined to Great
Britain, and was subjected to all the same restrictions,
regulations, forfeitures, and penalties,
as that of the enumerated commodities
of the British colonies in America and the
West Indies. Its importation, indeed, was
subjected to a small duty of sixpence the hundred
weight, but its re-exportation was subjected
to the enormous duty of one pound ten
shillings the hundred weight. It was the intention
of our manufacturers, that the whole
produce of those countries should be imported
into Great Britain; and in order that they
themselves might be enabled to buy it at their
own price, that no part of it should be exported
again, but at such an expense as would