we may trace up the original of that charge as high as to the
introduction of our military tenures[d]; when every tenant of a
knight's fee was bound, if called upon, to attend the king in his army
for forty days in every year. But this personal attendance growing
troublesome in many respects, the tenants found means of compounding
for it, by first sending others in their stead, and in process of time
by making a pecuniary satisfaction to the crown in lieu of it. This
pecuniary satisfaction at last came to be levied by assessments, at so
much for every knight's fee, under the name of scutages; which appear
to have been levied for the first time in the fifth year of Henry the
second, on account of his expedition to Toulouse, and were then (I
apprehend) mere arbitrary compositions, as the king and the subject
could agree. But this precedent being afterwards abused into a means
of oppression, (by levying scutages on the landholders by the royal
authority only, whenever our kings went to war, in order to hire
mercenary troops and pay their contingent expences) it became
thereupon a matter of national complaint; and king John was obliged to
promise in his _magna carta_[e], that no scutage should be imposed
without the consent of the common council of the realm. This clause
was indeed omitted in the charters of Henry III, where[f] we only find
it stipulated, that scutages should be taken as they were used to be
in the time of king Henry the second. Yet afterwards, by a variety of
statutes under Edward I and his grandson[g], it was provided, that
the king shall not take any aids or tasks, any talliage or tax, but by
the common assent of the great men and commons in parliament.
[Footnote d: See the second book of these commentaries.]
[Footnote e: _cap._ 14.]
[Footnote f: 9 Hen. III. c. 37.]
[Footnote g: 25 Edw. I. c. 5 & 6. 34 Edw. I. st. 4. c. 1. 14 Edw. III.
st. 2. c. 1.]
OF the same nature with scutages upon knights-fees were the
assessments of hydage upon all other lands, and of talliage upon
cities and burghs[h]. But they all gradually fell into disuse, upon
the introduction of subsidies, about the time of king Richard II and
king Henry IV. These were a tax, not immediately imposed upon
property, but upon persons in respect of their reputed estates, after
the nominal rate of 4_s._ in the pound for lands, and 2_s._ 6_d._ for
goods; and for those of aliens in a double proportion. But this
assessment was also made according to an antient valuation; wherein
the computation was so very moderate, and the rental of the kingdom
was supposed to be so exceeding low, that one subsidy of this sort did
not, according to sir Edward Coke[i], amount to more than 70000_l._
whereas a modern land tax at the same rate produces two millions. It
was antiently the rule never to grant more than one subsidy, and two
fifteenths at a time; but this rule was broke through for the first
time on a very pressing occasion, the Spanish invasion in 1588; when
the parliament gave queen Elizabeth two subsidies and four fifteenths.
Afterwards, as money sunk in value, more subsidies were given; and we
have an instance in the first parliament of 1640, of the king's
desiring twelve subsidies of the commons, to be levied in three years;
which was looked upon as a startling proposal: though lord Clarendon
tells us[k], that the speaker, serjeant Glanvile, made it manifest to
the house, how very inconsiderable a sum twelve subsidies amounted to,
by telling them he had computed what he was to pay for them; and, when
he named the sum, he being known to be possessed of a great estate, it
seemed not worth any farther deliberation. And indeed, upon
calculation, we shall find, that the total amount of these twelve
subsidies, to be raised in three years, is less than what is now
raised in one year, by a land tax of two shillings in the pound.
[Footnote h: Madox. hist. exch. 480.]
[Footnote i: 4 Inst. 33.]
[Footnote k: Hist. b. 2.]
THE grant of scutages, talliages, or subsidies by the commons did not
extend to spiritual preferments; those being usually taxed at the same
time by the clergy themselves in convocation; which grants of the
clergy were confirmed in parliament, otherwise they were illegal, and
not binding; as the same noble writer observes of the subsidies
granted by the convocation, who continued sitting after the
dissolution of the first parliament in 1640. A subsidy granted by the
clergy was after the rate of 4_s._ in the pound according to the
valuation of their livings in the king's books; and amounted, sir
Edward Coke tells us[l], to about 20000_l._ While this custom
continued, convocations were wont to sit as frequently as parliaments:
but the last subsidies, thus given by the clergy, were those confirmed
by statute 15 Car. II. cap. 10. since which another method of taxation
has generally prevailed, which takes in the clergy as well as the
laity; in recompense for which the beneficed clergy have from that
period been allowed to vote at the elections of knights of the
shire[m]; and thenceforward also the practice of giving ecclesiastical
subsidies hath fallen into total disuse.
[Footnote l: 4 Inst 33.]
[Footnote m: Dalt. of sheriffs, 418. Gilb. hist. of exch. c. 4.]
THE lay subsidy was usually raised by commissioners appointed by the
crown, or the great officers of state: and therefore in the beginning
of the civil wars between Charles I and his parliament, the latter,
having no other sufficient revenue to support themselves and their
measures, introduced the practice of laying weekly and monthly
assessments[n] of a specific sum upon the several counties of the
kingdom; to be levied by a pound rate on lands and personal estates:
which were occasionally continued during the whole usurpation,
sometimes at the rate of 120000_l._ a month; sometimes at inferior
rates[o]. After the restoration the antient method of granting
subsidies, instead of such monthly assessments, was twice, and twice
only, renewed; viz. in 1663, when four subsidies were granted by the
temporalty, and four by the clergy; and in 1670, when 800000_l._ was
raised by way of subsidy, which was the last time of raising supplies
in that manner. For, the monthly assessments being now established by
custom, being raised by commissioners named by parliament, and
producing a more certain revenue; from that time forwards we hear no
more of subsidies; but occasional assessments were granted as the
national emergencies required. These periodical assessments, the
subsidies which preceded them, and the more antient scutage, hydage,
and talliage, were to all intents and purposes a land tax; and the
assessments were sometimes expressly called so[p]. Yet a popular
opinion has prevailed, that the land tax was first introduced in the
reign of king William III; because in the year 1692 a new assessment
or valuation of estates was made throughout the kingdom; which, though
by no means a perfect one, had this effect, that a supply of
500000_l._ was equal to 1_s._ in the pound of the value of the estates
given in. And, according to this enhanced valuation, from the year
1693 to the present, a period of above seventy years, the land tax has
continued an annual charge upon the subject; above half the time at
4_s._ in the pound, sometimes at 3_s_, sometimes at 2_s_, twice[q] at
1_s_, but without any total intermission. The medium has been 3_s._
3_d._ in the pound, being equivalent to twenty three antient
subsidies, and amounting annually to more than a million and an half
of money. The method of raising it is by charging a particular sum
upon each county, according to the valuation given in, _A.D._ 1692:
and this sum is assessed and raised upon individuals (their personal
estates, as well as real, being liable thereto) by commissioners
appointed in the act, being the principal landholders of the county,
and their officers.
[Footnote n: 29 Nov. 4 Mar. 1642.]
[Footnote o: One of these bills of assessment, in 1656, is preserved
in Scobell's collection, 400.]
[Footnote p: Com. Journ. 26 Jun. 9 Dec. 1678.]
[Footnote q: in the years 1732 and 1733.]
II. THE other annual tax is the malt tax; which is a sum of 750000_l_,
raised every year by parliament, ever since 1697, by a duty of 6_d._
in the bushel on malt, and a proportionable sum on certain liquors,
such as cyder and perry, which might otherwise prevent the consumption
of malt. This is under the management of the commissioners of the
excise; and is indeed itself no other than an annual excise, the
nature of which species of taxation I shall presently explain: only
premising at present, that in the year 1760 an additional perpetual
excise of 3_d._ _per_ bushel was laid upon malt; and in 1763 a
proportionable excise was laid upon cyder and perry.
THE perpetual taxes are,
I. THE customs; or the duties, toll, tribute, or tariff, payable upon
merchandize exported and imported. The considerations upon which this
revenue (or the more antient part of it, which arose only from
exports) was invested in the king, were said to be two[r]; 1. Because
he gave the subject leave to depart the kingdom, and to carry his
goods along with him. 2. Because the king was bound of common right to
maintain and keep up the ports and havens, and to protect the merchant
from pirates. Some have imagined they are called with us customs,
because they were the inheritance of the king by immemorial usage and
the common law, and not granted him by any statute[s]: but sir Edward
Coke hath clearly shewn[t], that the king's first claim to them was by
grant of parliament 3 Edw. I. though the record thereof is not now
extant. And indeed this is in express words confessed by statute 25
Edw. I. c. 7. wherein the king promises to take no customs from
merchants, without the common assent of the realm, "saving to us and
our heirs, the customs on wools, skins, and leather, formerly granted
to us by the commonalty aforesaid." These were formerly called the
hereditary customs of the crown; and were due on the exportation only
of the said three commodities, and of none other: which were stiled
the _staple_ commodities of the kingdom, because they were obliged to
be brought to those ports where the king's staple was established, in
order to be there first rated, and then exported[u]. They were
denominated in the barbarous Latin of our antient records,
_custuma_[w]; not _consuetudines_, which is the language of our law
whenever it means merely usages. The duties on wool, sheep-skins, or
woolfells, and leather, exported, were called _custuma antiqua sive
magna_; and were payable by every merchant, as well native as
stranger; with this difference, that merchant-strangers paid an
additional toll, _viz._ half as much again as was paid by natives. The
_custuma parva et nova_ were an impost of 3_d._ in the pound, due from
merchant-strangers only, for all commodities as well imported as
exported; which was usually called the alien's duty, and was first
granted in 31 Edw. I[x]. But these antient hereditary customs,
especially those on wool and woolfells, came to be of little account
when the nation became sensible of the advantages of a home
manufacture, and prohibited the exportation of wool by statute 11 Edw.
III. c. 1.
[Footnote r: Dyer. 165.]
[Footnote s: Dyer. 43. _pl._ 24.]
[Footnote t: 2 Inst. 58, 59.]
[Footnote u: Dav. 9.]
[Footnote w: This appellation seems to be derived from the French word
_coustum_, or _coutum_, which signifies toll or tribute, and owes it's
own etymology to the word _coust_, which signifies price, charge, or,
as we have adopted it in English, _cost_.]
[Footnote x: 4 Inst. 29.]
THERE is also another antient hereditary duty belonging to the crown,
called the _prisage_ or _butlerage_ of wines. Prisage was a right of
_taking_ two tons of wine from every ship importing into England
twenty tons or more; which by Edward I was exchanged into a duty of
2_s._ for every ton imported by merchant-strangers; which is called
butlerage, because paid to the king's butler[y].
[Footnote y: Dav. 8. _b._ 2 Bulstr. 254.]
OTHER customs payable upon exports and imports are distinguished into
subsidies, tonnage, poundage, and other imposts. Subsidies are such as
were imposed by parliament upon any of the staple commodities before
mentioned, over and above the _custuma antiqua et magna_: tonnage was
a duty upon all wines imported, over and above the prisage and
butlerage aforesaid: poundage was a duty imposed _ad valorem_, at the
rate of 12_d._ in the pound, on all other merchandize whatsoever: and
the other imports were such as were occasionally laid on by
parliament, as circumstances and times required[z]. These distinctions
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 customs.
[Footnote z: Dav. 11, 12.]
BY these we understand, at present, a duty or subsidy paid by the
merchant, at the quay, upon all imported as well as exported
commodities, by authority of parliament; unless where, for particular
national reasons, certain rewards, bounties, or drawbacks, are allowed
for particular exports or imports. Those of tonnage and poundage, in
particular, were at first granted, as the old statutes, and
particularly 1 Eliz. c. 19. express it, for the defence of the realm,
and the keeping and safeguard of the seas, and for the intercourse of
merchandize safely to come into and pass out of the same. They were at
first usually granted only for a stated term of years, as, for two
years in 5 Ric. II[a]; but in Henry the fifth's time, they were
granted him for life by a statute in the third year of his reign; and
again to Edward IV for the term of his life also: since which time
they were regularly granted to all his successors, for life, sometimes
at their first, sometimes at other subsequent parliaments, till the
reign of Charles the first; when, as had before happened in the reign
of Henry VIII[b] and other princes, they were neglected to be asked.
And yet they were imprudently and unconstitutionally levied and taken
without consent of parliament, (though more than one had been
assembled) for fifteen years together; which was one of the causes of
those unhappy discontents, justifiable at first in too many instances,
but which degenerated at last into causeless rebellion and murder.
For, as in every other, so in this particular case, the king (previous
to the commencement of hostilities) gave the nation ample satisfaction
for the errors of his former conduct, by passing an act[c], whereby he
renounced all power in the crown of levying the duty of tonnage and
poundage, without the express consent of parliament; and also all
power of imposition upon any merchandizes whatever. Upon the
restoration this duty was granted to king Charles the second for life,
and so it was to his two immediate successors; but now by three
several statutes, 9 Ann. c. 6. 1 Geo. I. c. 12. and 3 Geo. I. c. 7. it
is made perpetual and mortgaged for the debt of the publick. The
customs, thus imposed by parliament, are chiefly contained in two
books of rates, set forth by parliamentary authority[d]; one signed by
sir Harbottle Grimston, speaker of the house of commons in Charles the
second's time; and the other an additional one signed by sir Spenser
Compton, speaker in the reign of George the first; to which also
subsequent additions have been made. Aliens pay a larger proportion
than natural subjects, which is what is now generally understood by
the aliens' duty; to be exempted from which is one principal cause of
the frequent applications to parliament for acts of naturalization.
[Footnote a: Dav. 12.]
[Footnote b: Stat. 6 Hen. VIII. c. 14.]
[Footnote c: 16 Car. I. c. 8.]
[Footnote d: Stat. 12 Car. II. c. 4. 11 Geo. I. c. 7.]
THESE customs are then, we see, a tax immediately paid by the
merchant, although ultimately by the consumer. And yet these are the
duties felt least by the people; and, if prudently managed, the people
hardly consider that they pay them at all. For the merchant is easy,
being sensible he does not pay them for himself; and the consumer, who
really pays them, confounds them with the price of the commodity: in
the same manner as Tacitus observes, that the emperor Nero gained the
reputation of abolishing the tax on the sale of slaves, though he only
transferred it from the buyer to the seller; so that it was, as he
expresses it, "_remissum magis specie, quam vi: quia cum venditor
pendere juberetur, in partem pretii emptoribus accrescebat_[e]." But
this inconvenience attends it on the other hand, that these imposts,
if too heavy, are a check and cramp upon trade; and especially when
the value of the commodity bears little or no proportion to the
quantity of the duty imposed. This in consequence gives rise 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 such cases quite ineffectual; the intrinsic value of
the goods, which is all that the smuggler has paid, and therefore all
that he can lose, being very inconsiderable when compared with his
prospect of advantage in evading the duty. Recourse must therefore be
had to extraordinary punishments to prevent it; perhaps even to
capital ones: which destroys all proportion of punishment[f], and puts
murderers upon an equal footing with such as are really guilty of no
natural, but merely a positive offence.
[Footnote e: Hist. l. 13.]
[Footnote f: Montesqu. Sp. L. b. 13. c. 8.]
THERE is also another ill consequence attending high imports on
merchandize, not frequently considered, but indisputably certain; that
the earlier any tax is laid on a commodity, the heavier it falls upon
the consumer in the end: for every trader, through whose hands it
passes, 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; otherwise he loses the use and
interest of the money which he so advances. To instance in the article
of foreign paper. The merchant pays a duty upon importation, which he
does not receive again till he sells 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 customhouse, as to a profit upon the
original price which he pays to the manufacturer abroad; and considers
it accordingly in the price he demands of the stationer. When the
stationer sells it again, he requires a profit of the printer or
bookseller upon the whole sum advanced by him to the merchant: and the
bookseller does not forget to charge the full proportion to the
student or ultimate consumer; who therefore does not only pay the
original duty, but the profits of these three intermediate traders,
who have successively advanced it for him. This might be carried much
farther in any mechanical, or more complicated, branch of trade.
II. DIRECTLY opposite in it's nature to this is the excise duty; which
is an inland imposition, paid sometimes upon the consumption of the
commodity, or frequently upon the retail sale, which is the last stage
before the consumption. This is doubtless, impartially speaking, the
most oeconomical way of taxing the subject: the charges of levying,
collecting, and managing the excise duties being considerably less in
proportion, than in any other branch of the revenue. It also renders
the commodity cheaper to the consumer, than charging it with customs
to the same amount would do; for the reason just now given, because
generally paid in a much later stage of it. But, at the same time, the
rigour and arbitrary proceedings of excise-laws seem hardly compatible
with the temper of a free nation. For the frauds that might be
committed in this branch of the revenue, unless a strict watch is
kept, make it necessary, wherever it is established, to give the
officers a power of entring and searching the houses of such as deal
in excisable commodities, at any hour of the day, and, in many cases,
of the night likewise. And the proceedings in case of transgressions
are so summary and sudden, that a man may be convicted in two days
time in the penalty of many thousand pounds by two commissioners or
justices of the peace; to the total exclusion of the trial by jury,
and disregard of the common law. For which reason, though lord
Clarendon tells us[g], 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 set up the excise in England, yet it
never made a part of that unfortunate prince's revenue; being first
introduced, on the model of the Dutch prototype, by the parliament
itself after it's rupture with the crown. Yet such was the opinion of
it's general unpopularity, that when in 1642 "aspersions were cast by
malignant persons upon the house of commons, that they intended to
introduce excises, the house for it's vindication therein did declare,
that these rumours were false and scandalous; and that their authors
should be apprehended and brought to condign punishment[h]." It's
original establishment was in 1643, and it's progress was gradual[i];
being at first laid upon those persons and commodities, where it was
supposed the hardship would be least perceivable, _viz._ the makers
and venders of beer, ale, cyder, and perry[k]; and the royalists at
Oxford soon followed the example of their brethren at Westminster by
imposing a similar duty; both sides protesting that it should be
continued no longer than to the end of the war, and then be utterly
abolished[l]. But the parliament at Westminster soon after imposed it
on flesh, wine, tobacco, sugar, and such 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 excise) in his letter to sir John Hotham[m], signifying, "that
they had proceeded in the excise to many particulars, and intended to
go on farther; but that it would be necessary to use the people to it
by little and little." And afterwards, when the people had been
accustomed to it for a series of years, the succeeding champions of
liberty boldly and openly declared, "the impost of excise to be the
most easy and indifferent levy that could be laid upon the people[n]:"
and accordingly continued it during the whole usurpation. Upon king
Charles's return, it having then been long established and it's
produce well known, some part of it was given to the crown, in the 12
Car. II, by way of purchase (as was before observed) for the feodal
tenures and other oppressive parts of the hereditary revenue. But,
from it's first original to the present time, it's very name has been
odious to the people of England. It has nevertheless been imposed on
abundance of other commodities in the reigns of king William III, and
every succeeding prince, to support the enormous expenses occasioned
by our wars on the continent. Thus brandies and other spirits are now
excised at the distillery; printed silks and linens, at the printers;
starch and hair powder, at the maker's; gold and silver wire, at the
wiredrawer's; all plate whatsoever, first in the hands of the vendor,
who pays yearly for a licence to sell it, and afterwards in the hands
of the occupier, who also pays an annual duty for having it in his
custody; and coaches and other wheel carriages, for which the occupier
is excised; though not with the same circumstances of arbitrary
strictness with regard to plate and coaches, as in the other
instances. To these we may add coffee and tea, chocolate, and cocoa
paste, for which the duty is paid by the retailer; all artificial
wines, commonly called sweets; paper and pasteboard, first when made,
and again if stained or printed; malt as before-mentioned; vinegars;
and the manufacture of glass; for all which the duty is paid by the
manufacturer; hops, for which the person that gathers them is
answerable; candles and soap, which are paid for at the maker's; malt
liquors brewed for sale, which are excised at the brewery; cyder and
perry, at the mill; and leather and skins, at the tanner's. A list,
which no friend to his country would wish to see farther encreased.
[Footnote g: Hist. b. 3.]
[Footnote h: Com. Journ. 8 Oct. 1642.]