heavily than those of the latter. This distinction
between the duties upon aliens and
those upon English merchants, which was
begun from ignorance, has been continued
from the spirit of monopoly, or in order to
give our own merchants an advantage, both
in the home and in the foreign market.
With this distinction, the ancient duties of
customs were imposed equally upon all sorts
of goods, necessaries as well as luxuries,
goods exported as well as goods imported.
Why should the dealers in one sort of goods,
it seems to have been thought, be more favoured
than those in another? or why should
the merchant exporter be more favoured than
the merchant importer?
The ancient customs were divided into
three branches. The first, and, perhaps, the
most ancient of all those duties, was that upon
wool and leather. It seems to have been
chiefly or altogether an exportation duty.
When the woollen manufacture came to be
established in England, lest the king should
lose any part of his customs upon wool by
the exportation of woollen cloths, a like duty
was imposed upon them. The other two
branches were, first, a duty upon wine, which
being imposed at so much a-ton, was called a
tonnage; and, secondly, a duty upon all
other goods, which being imposed at so much
a-pound of their supposed value, was called
a poundage. In the forty-seventh year of
Edward III., a duty of sixpence in the pound
was imposed upon all goods exported and
imported, except wools, wool-felts, leather,
and wines which were subject to particular
duties. In the fourteenth of Richard II.,
this duty was raised to one shilling in the
pound; but, three years afterwards, it was
again reduced to sixpence. It was raised to
eightpence in the second year of Henry
IV.; and, in the fourth of the same prince,
to one shilling. From this time to the ninth
year of William III., this duty continued at
one shilling in the pound. The duties of
tonnage and poundage were generally granted
to the king by one and the same act of
parliament, and were called the subsidy of
tonnage and poundage. The subsidy of
poundage having continued for so long a
time at one shilling in the pound, or at five
per cent., a subsidy came, in the language of
the customs, to denote a general duty of this
kind of five per cent. This subsidy, which is
now called the old subsidy, still continues to
be levied, according to the book of rates established
by the twelfth of Charles II. The
method of ascertaining, by a book of rates,
the value of goods subject to this duty, is
said to be older than the time of James I.
The new subsidy, imposed by the ninth and
tenth of William III., was an additional five
per cent. upon the greater part of goods.
The one-third and the two-third subsidy
made up between them another five per cent.
of which they were proportionable parts.
The subsidy of 1747 made a fourth five per
cent. upon the greater part of goods; and
that of 1759, a fifth upon some particular
sorts of goods. Besides those five subsidies,
a great variety of other duties have occasionally
been imposed upon particular sorts of
goods in order sometimes to relieve the exigencies
of the state, and sometimes to regulate
the trade of the country, according to
the principles of the mercantile system.
That system has come gradually more and
more into fashion. The old subsidy was imposed
indifferently upon exportation, as well
as importation. The four subsequent subsidies,
as well as the other duties which have
since been occasionally imposed upon particular
sorts of goods, have, with a few exceptions,
been laid altogether upon importation.
The greater part of the ancient duties which
had been imposed upon the exportation of
the goods of home produce and manufacture,
have either been lightened or taken away altogether.
In most cases, they have been
taken away. Bounties have even been given
upon the exportation of some of them. Drawbacks,
too, sometimes of the whole, and, in
most cases, or a part of the duties which are
paid upon the importation of foreign goods,
have been granted upon their exportation.
Only half the duties imposed by the old subsidy
upon importation, are drawn back upon
exportation; but the whole of those imposed
by the latter subsidies and other imports are,
upon the greater parts of the goods, drawn
back in the same manner. This growing favour
of exportation, and discouragement of
importation, have suffered only a few exceptions,
which chiefly concern the materials of
some manufactures. These our merchants
and manufacturers are willing should come
as cheap as possible to themselves, and as
dear as possible to their rivals and competitors
in other countries. Foreign materials
are, upon this account, sometimes allowed to
be imported duty-free; Spanish wool, for
example, flax, and raw linen yarn. The exportation
of the materials of home produce,
and of those which are the particular produce
of our colonies, has sometimes been prohibited,
and sometimes subjected to higher duties.
The exportation of English wool has been
prohibited. That of beaver skins, of beaver
wool, and of gum-senega, has been subjected
to higher duties; Great Britain, by the conquests
of Canada and Senegal, having got
almost the monopoly of those commodities.
That the mercantile system has not been
very favourable to the revenue of the great
body of the people, to the annual produce of
the land and labour of the country, I have
endeavoured to show in the fourth book of
this Inquiry. It seems not to have been more