The only two other articles which come under this description are the stamp-duty on gold and silver plate, and the customs on glass plates. This latter is now, I believe, the single instance of costly furniture to be found in the catalogue of our imports. If it were wholly to vanish, I should not think we were ruined. Both the duties have risen, during the war, very considerably in proportion to the total of their produce. We have no tax among us on the most necessary articles of food. The receipts of our Custom-House, under the head of Groceries, afford us, however, some means of calculating our luxuries of the table. The articles of tea, coffee, and cocoa-nuts I would propose to omit, and to take them instead from the excise, as best showing what is consumed at home. Upon this principle, adding them all together, (with the exception of sugar, for a reason which I shall afterwards mention,) I find that they have produced, in one mode of comparison, upwards of 272,0007., and in the other mode upwards of 165,000l., more during the war than in peace.* An additional duty was also laid in 1795 on tea, another on coffee, and a third on raisins, an article, together with currants, of much more extensive use than would readily be imagined. The balance in favor of our argument would have been much enhanced, if our coffee and fruit ships from the Mediterranean had arrived, 1791 .£448,709 4 Years to 1791 £1,832,680 The additional duty imposed in 1795 produced 137,656., and in 1796, 200,107. COFFEE AND COCOA-NUTS. £170,486. Increase to 1791 £145,921. in that year 1791 .£41,194 4 Years to 1791 £144,842 Decrease to 1791 £11,195. The additional duty of 1795 in that year gave 16,775l., and in 1796, 15,3197. last year, at their usual season. They do not appear in these accounts. This was one consequence arising (would to God that none more afflicting to Italy, to Europe, and the whole civilized world had arisen!) from our impolitic and precipitate desertion of that important maritime station. As to sugar,* I have excluded it from the groceries, because the account of the customs is not a perfect criterion of the consumption, much having been reëxported to the North of Europe, which used to be supplied by France; and in the official papers which I have followed there are no materials to furnish grounds for computing this reëxportation. The increase on the face of our entries is immense during the four years of war,-little short of thirteen hundred thousand pounds. The increase of the duties on beer has been regularly progressive, or nearly so, to a very large amount. It is a good deal above a million, and is There was a new duty on sugar in 1791, which produced in 1794 234,292., in 1795, 206,932l., and in 1796, 245,024l. It is not clear from the report of the committee, whether the additional duty is included in the account given above. £1,880,478 4 Years to 1791 £7,186,234 £1,165,199. more than equal to one eighth of the whole produce. Under this general head some other liquors are included, cider, perry, and mead, as well as vinegar and verjuice; but these are of very trifling consideration. The excise duties on wine, having sunk a little during the first two years of the war, were rapidly recovering their level again. In 1795 a heavy additional duty was imposed upon them, and a second in the following year; yet, being compared with four years of peace to 1790, they actually exhibit a small gain to the revenue. And low as the importation may The additional duty of 1795 produced that year 736,8717., and in 1796, 432,6897. A second additional duty, which produced 98,165l., Iwas laid in 1796. TITI 1788 11,167 1789 1790 £ 30,697 1794 1795 1796 11,016 15,050 £49,999 1791 . .£13,282 4 Years to 1791 £32,812 Increase to 1790 £19,302. Increase to 1791 £ 17,187. In 1795 an additional duty was laid on this article, which produced that year 5,6797., and in 1796, 9,4437.; and in 1796 a second, to commence on the 20th of June: its produce in that year was 2,3251. seem in 1796, when contrasted with any year since. the French treaty in 1787, it is still more than 3000 tuns above the average importation for three years previous to that period. I have added sweets, from which our factitious wines are made; and I would have added spirits, but that the total alteration of the duties in 1789, and the recent interruption of our distilleries, rendered any comparison impracticable. The ancient staple of our island, in which we are clothed, is very imperfectly to be traced on the books of the Custom-House: but I know that our woollen manufactures flourish. I recollect to have seen that fact very fully established, last year, from the regis ters kept in the West Riding of Yorkshire. This year, in the West of England, I received a similar account, on the authority of a respectable clothier in that quarter, whose testimony can less be questioned, because, in his political opinions, he is adverse, as I understand, to the continuance of the war. The principal articles of female dress for some time past have been muslins and calicoes.* These elegant fabrics of our own looms in the East, which serve for the remittance of our own revenues, have lately been imitated at home, with improving success, by the ingenious and enterprising manufacturers of Manchester, Paisley, and Glasgow. At the same time. the importation from Bengal has kept pace with the * MUSLINS AND CALICOES. year is not in the report whence the table is taken. |