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 | |||