woolfells, came to be of little account, when the nation became fenfible of the advantages of a home manufacture, and prohibited the exportation of wool by statute 1 1 Edw. III. c. 1. THERE is alfo another very antient hereditary duty belonging to the crown, called the prifage or butlerage of wines; which is confiderably older than the customs, being taken notice of in the great roll of the exchequer, 8 Ric. I. ftill extant. Prifage was a right of taking two tons of wine from every ship (English or foreign) importing into England twenty tons or more; one before and one behind the mast: which by charter of Edward I was exchanged into a duty of 25. for every ton imported by merchant-strangers, and called butlerage, because paid to the king's butler . OTHER cuftoms payable upon exports and imports were diftinguished into fubfidies, tonnage, poundage, and other impofts. Subfidies were fuch as were impofed by parliament upon any of the ftaple commodities before mentioned, over and above the cuftuma antiqua et magna: tonnage was a duty upon all wines imported, over and above the prifage and butlerage aforefaid: poundage was a duty impofed ad valorem, at the rate of 12d. in the pound, on all other merchandize whatfoever; and the other impofts were fuch as were occafionally laid on by parliament, as circumftances and times required. Thefe diftinctions are now in a manner forgotten, except by the officers immediately concerned in this department; their produce being in effect all blended together, under the one denomination of the cuftoms. By these we understand, at prefent, a duty or fubfidy paid by the merchant, at the quay, upon all imported as well as exported commodities, by authority of parliament; unless where, for particular national reafons, certain rewards, bounties, or drawbacks, are allowed for particular exports or imports. Thofe of tonnage and poundage, in particular, were at first granted, as the old ftatutes (and particularly 1 Eliz. c. 19.) exprefs it, for the defence of the realm, and the keeping and fafeguard of the feas, and for the intercourfe of merchandife * Madox. hift. exch. 526. 532. y Dav. 8. 2 Bulit. 254. Stat. Eftr. 16 Edw. II. Com. journ. 27 Apr. 1689. z Dav. 11, 12. fafely fafely to come into and pafs out of the fame. They were at first usually granted only for a stated term of years, as, for two years in 5 Ric. II; but in Henry the fixth's time, they were granted him for life by a ftatute in the thirty-first year of his reign; and again to Edward IV. for the term of his life alfo: fince which time they were regularly granted to all his fucceffors, for life, fometimes at the firft, fometimes at other fubfequent parliaments, till the reign of Charles the firft; when, as the noble historian exprefles it, his minifters were not fufficiently folicitous for a renewal of this legal grant. And yet thefe impofts were imprudently and unconftitutionally levied and taken, without confent of parliament, for fifteen years together; which was one of the caufes of thofe unhappy dif contents, juftifiable at first in too many inftances, but which degenerated at laft into causeless rebellion and murder. For, as in every other, fo in this particular cafe, the king (previous to the commencement of hoftilities) gave the nation ample fatisfaction for the errors of his former conduct, by paffing an act, whereby he renounced all power in the crown of levying the duty of tonnage and poundage, without the exprefs confent of parliament; and alfo all power of impofition upon any merchandizes whatever. Upon the restoration this duty was granted to king Charles the fecond for life, and fo it was to his two immediate fucceffors; but now by three feveral ftatutes, 9 Ann. c. 6. 1 Gco. I. c. 12. and 3 Geo. I. c. 7. it is made perpetual and mortgaged for the debt of the public. The customs thus impofed by parliament, are chiefly contained in two books of rates, set forth by parliamentary authority; one figned by fir Harbottle Grimfton, fpeaker of the house of commons in Charles the fecond's time; and the other an additional one figned by fir Spenfer Compton, fpeaker in the reign of George the firft; to which also fubfequent additions have been made. Aliens pay a larger proportion than natural fubjects, which is what is now generally understood by the alien's duty; to be exempted from which is one principal cause of the frequent applications to parliaments for acts of naturalization. a Dav. 12. c 16 Car. I. c. 8. d Stat. 12 Car. II. c. 4. 11 Geo. I. c. 7. THESE THESE Cuftoms are then, we fee, a tax immediately paid by the merchant, although ultimately by the confumer. And yet these are the duties felt least by the people; and, if prudently managed, the people hardly confider that they pay them at all. For the merchant is easy, being fenfible he does not pay them for himself; and the consumer, who really pays them, confounds them with the price of the commodity: in the fame manner as Tacitus obferves, that the emperor Nero gained the reputation of abolishing the tax of the fale of flaves, though he only transferred it from the buyer to the feller; so that it was, as he expreffes it, " remiffum magis fpecie, quam vi : quia, "cum venditor pendere juberetur, in partem pretii emptoribus "accrefcebat." But this inconvenience attends it on the other hand, that thefe impofts, if too heavy, are a check and cramp upon trade; and efpecially when the value of the commodity bears little or no proportion to the quantity of the duty impofed. This in confequence gives rife also to smuggling, which then becomes a very lucrative employment: and it's natural and most reasonable punishment, viz. confiscation of the commodity, is in fuch cafes quite ineffectual; the intrinfic value of the goods, which is all that the smuggler has paid, and therefore all that he can lofe, being very inconfiderable when compared with his profpect of advantage in evading the duty. Recourse must therefore be had to extraordinary punishments to prevent it; perhaps even to capital ones: which deftroys all proportion of punishment, and puts murderers upon an equal footing with fuch as are really guilty of no natural, but merely a pofitive, offence, THERE is also another ill confequence attending high impofts on merchandize, not frequently confidered, but indif putably certain; that the earlier any tax is laid on a commodity, the heavier it falls upon the confumer in the end: for every trader, through whofe hands it paffes, must have a profit, not only upon the raw material and his own labour and time in preparing it, but also upon the very tax itself, which he advances to the government; otherwife he lofes the fe and intereft of the money which he fo advances. To in11 f. 4. 13: f Montefq. Sp. L. b. 13. c. 8. BOOK I. ftance in the article of foreign paper. The merchant pays a duty upon importation, which he does not receive again till he fells the commodity, perhaps at the end of three months. He is therefore equally entitled to a profit upon that duty which he pays at the custom-house, as to a profit upon the original price which he pays to the manufacturer abroad; and confiders it accordingly in the price he demands of the ftationer. When the ftationer fells it again, he requires a profit of the printer or bookfeller upon the whole fum advanced by him to the merchant: and the bookfeller does not forget to charge the full proportion to the ftudent or ultimate confumer; who therefore does not only pay the original duty, but the profits of these three intermediate traders, who have fucceffively advanced it for him. This might be carried much farther in any mechanical, or more complicated, branch of trade. II. DIRECTLY oppofite in it's nature to this is the excife duty; which is an inland impofition, paid fometimes upon the confumption of the commodity, or frequently upon the retail fale, which is the laft ftage before the consumption. This is doubtlefs, impartially speaking, the most oeconomical way of taxing the fubject: the charges of levying, collecting, and managing the excife duties being confiderably lefs in proportion, than in other branches of the revenue. It alfo renders, the commodity cheaper to the confumer, than charging it with customs to the fame amount would do; for the reafon juft now given, because generally paid in a much later stage of it. But, at the fame time, the rigour and arbitrary proceedings of excife-laws feem hardly compatible with the temper of a free nation. For the frauds that might be committed in this branch of the revenue, unless a ftrict watch is kept, make it neceffary, wherever it is established, to give the officers a power of entering and fearching the houses of fuch as deal in excifeable commodities, at any hour of the day, and, in many cafes, of the night likewife. And the proceedings in cafe of tranfgreffions are fo fuinmary and fudden, that a man may be convicted in two days time in the penalty of many thousand pounds by two commiffioners or juftices of the peace; to the total exclufion of the trial by jury, and difregard of the common law. For which reafon, though lord Clarendon tells us, that to his knowlege the earl of Bedford (who was made lord treasurer by king Charles the first, to oblige his parliament) intended to have fet up the excife in England, yet it never made a part of that unfortunate prince's revenue; being firft introduced, on the model of the Dutch prototype, by the parliament itself after it's rupture with the crown. Yet fuch was the opinion of it's general unpopularity, that when in 1642 "afperfions were caft by "malignant perfons upon the houfe of commons, that they "intended to introduce excifes, the houfe for it's vindication "therein did declare, that these rumours were false and scan"dalous; and that their authors fhould be apprehended and brought to condign punishment." However, it's original' establishment was in 1643, and it's progrefs was gradual; being at firft laid upon those perfons and commodities, where it was fuppofed the hardfhip would be leaft perceivable, viz. the makers and venders of beer, ale, cyder, and perry *, and the royalifts at Oxford foon followed the example of their brethren at Westminster by impofing a fimilar duty; both fides protefting that it fhould be continued no longer than to the end of the war, and then be utterly abolished'. But the parliament at Weftminfter foon after impofed it on flefh, wine, tobacco, fugar, and fuch a multitude of other commodities, that it might fairly be denominated general: in pursuance of the plan laid down by Mr Pymme (who seems to have been the father of the excife) in his letter to fir John |