continuation), and Fowle, _The Poor Law_, are general modern
descriptions. Webb, _English Poor Law Policy_, is an historical
criticism of the system from 1834; see also Kirkman Gray,
_Philanthropy and the State_. The eighteenth century is described in
Cunningham, _Growth of English Industry and Commerce, Modern Times_;
Webb, _English Local Government, The Parish and the County_; Redlich
and Hirst, _Local Government in England_, Vol. I; Hammond, _The
Village Labourer_, c. 7; Hasbach, _The English Agricultural
Labourer_, _c._ 3 and _c._ 4, and Mantoux, _La Révolution
Industrielle_. Ashby, _The Poor Law in a Warwickshire Village_ (in
Oxford Studies in Social and Legal History, Vol. III), provides
illustrations.
Bibliographies in Hasbach and Cunningham, _op. cit._
_Contemporary_ (1) _Documentary Sources_.--The best collection of
contemporary statistics, of paupers, diet, cost, etc., in the
eighteenth century is given in Eden, The State of the Poor. The
Report of the 1834 Commission (XXVII and XXVIII) describes conditions
and the new policy. See also Report of Committees on the Poor Law,
1817 (VI) and 1819 (III), and Report of Committee on Labourers'
Wages, 1824 (VI).
(2) _Literary authorities._--Illustrations of contemporary opinion
can be found for different periods in Defoe, Giving Alms no Charity,
Reports of the Society for Bettering the Condition of the Poor
(1795-1808), Rose, Observations on the Poor Law. A municipal system
is described in Cary, The Proceedings of the Corporation of Bristol.
A general survey was made in the middle of the eighteenth century by
Burn, History of the Poor Laws, and at the end by Eden, The State of
the Poor.
1. SETTLEMENT LAW [_Statutes_, 14 _Charles II_, _c._ 12], 1662.
An Act for the better relief of the poor of this kingdom.
Whereas the necessity, number and continual increase of the poor, not
only within the Cities of London and Westminster with the liberties of
each of them, but also through the whole kingdom of England and Dominion
of Wales, is very great and exceeding burdensome, being occasioned by
reason of some defects in the law concerning the settling of the poor
and for want of a due provision of the regulations of relief and
employment in such parishes or places where they are legally settled,
which doth enforce many to turn incorrigible rogues and others to perish
for want, together with the neglect of the faithful execution of such
laws and statutes as have formerly been made for the apprehending of
rogues and vagabonds and for the good of the poor. For remedy whereof
and for the preventing the perishing of any of the poor, whether old or
young, for want of such supplies as are necessary, may it please your
most Excellent Majesty that it may be enacted ... that whereas by
reason of some defects in the law poor people are not restrained from
going from one parish to another and therefore do endeavour to settle
themselves in those parishes where there is the best stock, the largest
commons or wastes to build cottages, and the most woods for them to burn
and destroy and when they have consumed it then to another parish, and
at last become rogues and vagabonds to the great discouragement of
parishes to provide stocks where it is liable to be devoured by
strangers ... it shall and may be lawful upon complaint made by the
churchwardens or overseers of the poor of any parish to any Justice of
Peace, within forty days after any such person or persons coming so to
settle, as aforesaid in any tenement under the yearly value of ten
pounds for any two justices of the peace whereof one to be of the Quorum
of the division where any person or persons that are likely to be
chargeable to the parish shall come to inhabit, by their warrant to
remove and convey such person or persons to such parish where he or they
were last legally settled either as a native householder sojourner
apprentice or servant for the space of forty days at the least unless he
or they give sufficient security for the discharge of the said parish to
be allowed by the said Justices.
[II. Appeal to Quarter Sessions.
III. Persons allowed to go for the Harvest into another parish if they
have a certificate of settlement in their original parish.
IV. Provision for setting up workhouses in London and within the Bills
of Mortality.]
[VI. and XXIII. The President and Governors of such workhouses may set
rogues and vagrants to work in the workhouse with the consent of the
Privy Council. Justices of the Peace may sentence disorderly persons and
"sturdy beggars" to transportation not exceeding seven years.
Persons allowed to go for the harvest into another parish if they have a
certificate of settlement in their original parish.
Provision made for setting up workhouses in London and within the Bills
of Mortality. The President and Governors of such workhouses may set
rogues and vagrants to work in the workhouse. Justices of the Peace may,
with the leave of the Privy Council, sentence disorderly persons and
"sturdy beggars" to transportation not exceeding seven years.][373]
[Footnote 373: Amended by 8 and 9 Wm. and Mary, 30. Persons with
certificates from churchwardens of their parishes, acknowledging them to
be inhabitants, not to be removed from any other parish till chargeable
and then to be chargeable in the parish where the certificates were
given. Any one receiving relief to wear a badge. Also by 35 Geo. III,
101. "No poor person shall be removed ... to the place of his or her
last legal settlement, until such person shall have become actually
chargeable to the parish."]
2. DEFOE'S PAMPHLET, "GIVING ALMS NO CHARITY" [_D. Defoe, Giving Alms no
Charity, etc._], 1704.
I humbly crave leave to lay these heads down as fundamental maxims,
which I am ready at any time to defend and make out.
1. There is in England more labour than hands to perform it, and
consequently a want of people, not of employment.
2. No man in England, of sound limbs and senses, can be poor merely for
want of work.
3. All our workhouses, corporations and charities for employing the
poor, and setting them to work, as now they are employed, or any Acts of
Parliament, to empower overseers of parishes, or parishes themselves, to
employ the poor, except as shall be hereafter excepted, are, and will be
public nuisances, mischiefs to the nation which serve to the ruin of
families and the increase of the poor.
4. That it is a regulation of the poor that is wanted in England, not a
setting them to work.
* * * * *
The poverty and exigence of the poor in England is plainly derived from
one of these two particular causes,
_Casualty or Crime._
By Casualty, I mean sickness of families, loss of limbs or sight, and
any, either natural or accidental, impotence as to labour.
The crimes of our people, and from whence their poverty derives, as the
visible and direct fountains are:
1. Luxury.
2. Sloth.
3. Pride.
This is so apparent in every place, that I think it needs no
explication; that English labouring people eat and drink, but especially
the latter, three times as much in value as any sort of foreigners of
the same dimensions in the world.
* * * * *
There is a general taint of slothfulness upon our poor, there is nothing
more frequent, than for an Englishman to work till he has got his pocket
full of money, and then go and be idle, or perhaps drunk, till it is all
gone, and perhaps he himself in debt; and ask him in his cups what he
intends, he will tell you honestly, he will drink as long as it lasts,
and then go to work for more.
3. THE WORKHOUSE TEST ACT [_Statutes_, 9 _Geo. I_ _c._ 7], 1722.
An Act for amending the laws relating to the settlement, employment and
relief of the poor.
IV. And for the greater ease of parishes in the relief of the poor, be
it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, that it shall and may be
lawful for the churchwardens and overseers of the poor in any parish,
town, township or place, with the consent of the major part of the
parishioners or inhabitants of the same parish, town, township or place,
in vestry, or other parish or public meeting for that purpose assembled,
or of so many of them as shall be so assembled, upon usual notice
thereof first given, to purchase or hire any house or houses in the same
parish, township or place, and to contract with any person or persons
for the lodging, keeping, maintaining and employing any or all such poor
in their respective parishes, townships or places, as shall desire to
receive relief or collection from the same parish, and there to keep,
maintain and employ all such poor persons, and take the benefit of the
work, labour and service of any such poor person or persons, who shall
be kept or maintained in any such house or houses, for the better
maintenance and relief of such poor person or persons, who shall be
there kept or maintained; and in case any poor person or persons of any
parish, town, township or place, where such house or houses shall be so
purchased or hired, shall refuse to be lodged, kept or maintained in
such house or houses, such poor person or persons so refusing shall be
put out of the book or books where the names of the persons who ought
to receive collection in the said parish, town, township or place, are
to be registered, and shall not be entitled to ask or receive collection
or relief from the churchwardens and overseers of the poor of the same
parish, town or township; and where any parish, town or township shall
be too small to purchase or hire such house or houses for the poor of
their own parish only, it shall and may be lawful for two or more such
parishes, towns or townships or places, with the consent of the major
part of the parishioners or inhabitants, and with the approbation of any
justice of peace dwelling in or near any such parish, town or place,
signified under his hand and seal, to unite in purchasing, hiring, or
taking such house, for the lodging, keeping and maintaining of the poor
of the several parishes, townships or places so uniting, and there to
keep, maintain and employ the poor of the parishes so uniting, and to
take and have the benefit of the work, labour or service of any poor
there kept and maintained, for the better maintenance and relief of the
poor there kept, maintained and employed; and that if any poor person or
persons in the respective parishes, townships or places so uniting,
shall refuse to be lodged, kept and maintained in the house, hired or
taken for such uniting parishes, townships or places, he, she or they so
refusing, shall be put out of the collection-book, where his, her or
their names were registered, and shall not be entitled to ask or demand
relief or collection from the churchwardens and overseers of the poor in
their respective parishes, townships or places; and that it shall and
may be lawful for the churchwardens and overseers of the poor, with the
consent of the major part of the parishioners or inhabitants, to
contract with the churchwardens and overseers of the poor of any other
parish, township or place, for the lodging, maintaining or employing, of
any poor person or persons of such other parish, township or place, as
to them shall seem meet; and in case any poor person or persons of such
other parish, township or place, shall refuse to be lodged, maintained
and employed in such house or houses, he, she or they so refusing, shall
be put out of the collection-book of such other parish, township or
place, where his, her or their names were registered, and shall not be
entitled to ask, demand or receive any relief or collection from the
churchwardens and overseers of the poor of his, her or their respective
parish, township or place: provided always, that no poor person or
persons, his, her or their apprentice, child or children, shall acquire
a settlement in the parish, town or place, to which he, she or they are
removed by virtue of this act. No person or persons shall be deemed,
adjudged or taken, to acquire or gain any settlement in any parish or
place, for or by virtue of any purchase of any estate or interest in
such parish or place, whereof the consideration for such purchase doth
not amount to the sum of thirty pounds, _bona fide_ paid, for any longer
or further time than such person or persons shall inhabit in such
estate, and shall then be liable to be removed to such parish or place,
where such person or persons were last legally settled, before the said
purchase and inhabitancy therein.
VI. No person or persons whatsoever, who shall be taxed, rated or
assessed to the scavenger or repairs of the highway, and shall duly pay
the same, shall be deemed or taken to have any legal settlement in any
city, parish, town or hamlet, for or by reason of his, her or their
paying to such scavenger's rate or repairs of the highway as aforesaid;
any law to the contrary in any wise notwithstanding.
4. GILBERT'S ACT [_Statutes_, 22 _George III_, _c._ 83], 1782.
An act for the better relief and employment of the poor.
Whereas notwithstanding the many laws now in being for the relief and
employment of the poor, and the great sums of money raised for those
purposes, their sufferings and distresses are nevertheless very
grievous; and, by the incapacity, negligence, or misconduct of
overseers, the money raised for the relief of the poor is frequently
misapplied, and sometimes expended in defraying the charges of
litigations about settlements indiscreetly and unadvisedly carried
on....
VII. And be it further enacted, that it shall and may be lawful for two
justices of the peace of the limit where such poor house shall be, or be
so agreed to be situated, and they are hereby required, as soon as
conveniently may be after such agreement shall have been made as
aforesaid, upon application to them by two or more of the persons who
shall have signed such agreement, and upon producing the same to them,
to appoint one of the persons so recommended to be guardian of the poor
for each of such parishes, townships, and places, in the form contained
in the said schedule, No. VII, or to that or the like effect; and every
such guardian shall attend the monthly meetings hereby directed to be
holden, and execute the several powers and authorities given to
guardians by this act, and shall have, and is hereby invested with, all
the powers and authorities given to overseers of the poor by any other
act or acts of parliament.
XVII. The guardians of the poor of the several parishes, townships and
places which shall adopt the provisions of this act, shall provide a
suitable and convenient house or houses, with proper buildings and
accommodations thereto, when wanted.
And, to render the provisions of this act more practicable and
beneficial, be it further enacted, that no person shall be sent to such
poor house or houses, except such as are become indigent by old age,
sickness, or infirmities, and are unable to acquire a maintenance by
their labour; and except such orphan children as shall be sent thither
by order of the guardian or guardians of the poor, with the approbation
of the visitor; and except such children as shall necessarily go with
their mothers thither for sustenance.
XXX. And, be it further enacted, that all infant children of tender
years, and who, from accident or misfortune, shall become chargeable to
the parish or place to which they belong, may either be sent to such
poor house as aforesaid, or be placed by the guardian or guardians of
the poor, with the approbation of the visitor, with some reputable
person or persons in or near the parish, township, or place, to which
they belong, at such weekly allowance as shall be agreed upon between
the parish officers and such person or persons with the approbation of
the visitor, until such child or children shall be of sufficient age to
be put into service, or bound apprentice to husbandry, or some trade or
occupation; and a list of the names of every child so placed out, and by
whom and where kept, shall be given to the visitor; who shall see that
they are properly treated, or cause them to be removed, and placed under
the care of some other person or persons, if he finds just cause so to
do; and when every such child shall attain such age, he or she shall be
so placed out, at the expense of the parish, township, or place, to
which he or she shall belong, according to the laws in being: provided
nevertheless, that if the parents or relations of any poor child sent
to such house, or so placed out as aforesaid, or any other responsible
person, shall desire to receive and provide for any such poor child or
children, and signify the same to the guardians at their monthly
meeting, the guardians shall, and are hereby required to dismiss, or
cause to be dismissed, such child or children from the poor-house, or
from the care of such person or persons as aforesaid, and deliver him,
her, or them, to the parent, relation, or other person so applying as
aforesaid: provided also, that nothing herein contained shall give any
power to separate any child or children, under the age of seven years,
from his, her, or their parent or parents, without the consent of such
parent or parents.
XXXI. And be it further enacted, that all idle or disorderly persons who
are able, but unwilling, to work or maintain themselves and their
families, shall be prosecuted by the guardians of the poor of the
several parishes, townships, and places, wherein they reside, and
punished in such manner as idle and disorderly persons are directed to
be by the statute made in the seventeenth year of the reign of his late
majesty King George the Second; and if any guardian shall neglect to
make complaint thereof, against every such person or persons, to some
neighbouring justice of the peace, within ten days after it shall come
to his knowledge, he shall, for every such neglect, forfeit a sum not
exceeding five pounds, nor less than twenty shillings, one moiety
whereof, when recovered, shall be paid to the informer, and the other
moiety to be disposed of as the other forfeitures are hereinafter
directed to be applied.
XXXII. And be it further enacted, that where there shall be, in any
parish, township, or place, any poor person or persons who shall be able
and willing to work, but who cannot get employment, it shall and may be
lawful for the guardian of the poor of such parish, township or place,
and he is hereby required, on application made to him by or on behalf of
such poor person, to agree for the labour of such poor person or
persons, at any work or employment suited to his or her strength and
capacity, in any parish, township or place, near the place of his or her
residence, and to maintain, or cause such person or persons to be
properly maintained, lodged, and provided for, until such employment
shall be procured, and during the time of such work, and to receive the
money to be earned by such work or labour, and apply it in such
maintenance, as far as the same will go, and make up the deficiency, if
any; and if the same shall happen to exceed the money expended in such
maintenance, to account for the surplus, which shall afterwards, within
one calendar month, be given to such poor person or persons who shall
have earned such money, if no further expenses shall be then incurred on
his or her account to exhaust the same. And in case such poor person or
persons shall refuse to work, or run away from such work or employment,
complaint shall be made thereof by the guardian to some justice or
justices of the peace in or near the said parish, township, or place;
who shall enquire into the same upon oath, and on conviction punish such
offender or offenders, by committing him, her, or them, to the house of
correction, there to be kept to hard labour for any time not exceeding
three calendar months, nor less than one calendar month.
XLI. And whereas it frequently happens that poor children, pregnant
women, or poor persons afflicted with sickness, or some bodily
infirmity, are enticed, taken, or conveyed by parish officers, or other
persons, from one parish or place to another, without any legal order of
removal, in order to ease the one parish or place, and to burden the
other with such poor person: for remedy thereof, be it further enacted,
that, when any guardian, or other person or persons, shall so entice,
take, convey, or remove, or cause or procure to be so enticed, taken,
conveyed, or removed, any such poor person or persons from one parish or
place to another, which shall adopt the provisions of this act, without
an order of removal from two justices of the peace for that purpose,
every person or persons so offending shall, for every such offence,
forfeit a sum not exceeding twenty pounds, nor less than five pounds.
5. SPEENHAMLAND "ACT OF PARLIAMENT" [_The Reading Mercury, May 11,
1795_], 1795.
Berkshire, to wit.
At a General Meeting of the Justices of this County, together with
several discreet persons assembled by public advertisement,[374] on
Wednesday the 6th day of May, 1795, at the Pelican Inn in Speenhamland
(in pursuance of an order of the last Court of General Quarter Sessions)
for the purpose of rating Husbandry Wages, by the day or week, if then
approved of, [names of those present]....
Resolved unanimously,
That the present state of the Poor does require further assistance than
has been generally given them.
Resolved,
That it is not expedient for the Magistrates to grant that assistance by
regulating the Wages of Day Labourers, according to the directions of
the Statutes of the 5th Elizabeth and 1st James: But the Magistrates
very earnestly recommend to the Farmers and others throughout the
county, to increase the pay of their Labourers in proportion to the
present price of provisions; and agreeable thereto, the Magistrates now
present, have unanimously resolved that they will, in their several
divisions, make the following calculations and allowances for relief of
all poor and industrious men and their families, who to the satisfaction
of the Justices of their Parish, shall endeavour (as far as they can)
for their own support and maintenance.
That is to say,
When the Gallon Loaf of Second Flour, weighing 8lb. 11ozs. shall cost
1s.
Then every poor and industrious man shall have for his own support 3s.
weekly, either produced by his own or his family's labour, or an
allowance from the poor rates, and for the support of his wife and every
other of his family, 1s. 6d.
When the Gallon Loaf shall cost 1s. 4d.
Then every poor and industrious man shall have 4s. weekly for his own,
and 1s. and 10d. for the support of every other of his family.
And so in proportion, as the price of bread rise or falls (that is to
say) 3d. to the man, and 1d. to every other of the family, on every 1d.
which the loaf rise above 1s.
By order of the Meeting,
W. BUDD, Deputy Clerk of the Peace.[375]
[Footnote 374: _Reading Mercury_, May 4, contained an advertisement of a
general meeting of justices "to limit, direct, and appoint the wages of
day labourers."]
[Footnote 375: Simultaneously the Magistrates published a recommendation
to overseers to grow potatoes, setting poor people to work and offering
them one-third or one-fourth of the crop, and to sell at 1s. a bushel;
also to get in a stock of peat, faggots, furze, etc., in the summer and
to sell at a loss in the winter.]
6. THE WORKHOUSE SYSTEM [_Eden, The State of the Poor, 1797, Vol. II,
pp. 168-9_], 1797.
_Stanhope (Durham)._
The poor have been farmed for many years: about fifteen years ago they
were farmed for 250l.; but the expense has gradually increased since
that period: the year before last, the expense was 495l., and last year
494l.; and the Contractor says that he shall lose 100l. by his last
bargain, and will not take the poor this year under 700l. Twenty-two
poor people are at present in the house, and 100 families receive weekly
relief out of it: these out-poor, the Contractor says, will cost him
450l. for the year ending at May-day next. The Poor-house was built
about fifteen years ago; it is, like most others in the hands of
contractors, in a dirty state.
_Preston (Lancashire)_[376].
The number of poor in the workhouse a few weeks ago, was as follows:--
Men 26
Women 39
Boys 47
Girls 40
---
Total 152
---
At present there are 158 or 159 in the house. The number of out-poor at
present is 70; they cost about 10l. a week.
The workhouse is built on a tolerable plan, but wants apartments for the
sick. There are 4 or 5 beds in a room: the bedsteads are made of iron,
and the beds are stuffed with chaff: white-washing and other means of
keeping the house clean, seem rather neglected. It is said that about 15
die in a year in the house. About 20 acres of land were inclosed from
the common, for the use of the house, for keeping cows horses, and pigs;
raising potatoes, etc.: this plot of ground is much improved by
cultivation. Nothing is manufactured for the use of the house. The boys
and girls are employed in weaving calicoes, till they are able to earn
their living elsewhere. Old women wind cotton; a few, who can work, are
employed in husbandry, gardening, and other occupations: no account of
their earnings could be obtained.
_St. Martin-in-the-Fields_ (_London_)[377].
The poor of this parish are partly relieved at home, and partly
maintained in the workhouse in Castle-street, Leicester Fields. There
are, at present, about 240 weekly out-pensioners, besides a considerable
number of poor on the casual list. Of 573, the number of poor at present
in the workhouse, 473 are adults and 100 children; of which 54 are boys,
21 girls, able to work, and 25 infants. Their principal employment is
spinning flax, picking hair, carding wool, etc.; their annual earnings,
on an average of a few years past, amount to about £150. It was once
attempted to establish a manufacture in the house; but the badness of
the situation for business, the want of room for workshops, and the
difficulty of compelling the able poor to pay proper attention to work,
rendered the project unsuccessful. Between 70 and 80 children belonging
to this parish are, generally, out at nurse in the country: a weekly
allowance of 3s. (lately advanced to 3s. 6d.) is paid with each child.
At 7 or 8 years of age, the children are taken into the house, and
taught a little reading, etc., for three or four years, and then put out
apprentices.
_Bulcamp_ (_Suffolk_)[378].
The poor of 46 incorporated parishes in the hundred of Blything, are
maintained in a house of industry, which is situated on an eminence in
the parish of Bulcamp. The expense of erection was 12,000l.; the house
was opened for the reception of the poor in October, 1766. The whole
annual sum, to be paid by the parishes (which was fixed at the average
of seven years' expenditure, previous to their incorporation), was
3,084l. 12s. 8d.; in 1780 half the debt was paid off, and the rates
reduced one-eighth, or to 2,699l. 1s. 1d.; in June, 1791, the whole debt
was discharged. The rates have been continued at the reduced sum of
2,699l. 1s. 1d. In 1793, the corporation found it necessary to apply to
Parliament for farther powers, relative to the binding out poor children
apprentices, which cost 350l. 15s.
The work done in this house is chiefly spinning for the Norwich
manufacture: clothes and bedding, etc., for the house, are also made at
home. The following were the last week's earnings: an account of the
annual earnings could not be procured; but it appears that they have
been about 8l. a week, or 400l. a year, for several weeks past.
Worsted spinners 4l. 3s. 1-3/4d.
Tow spinners 1l. 12s. 1d.
Sempstresses 0l. 7s. 3d.
Tailors 0l. 9s. 0d.
Knitters 0l. 8s. 0d.
Weavers 0l. 7s. 0d.
Shoemakers 0l. 16s. 0d.
-----------------
Total earnings for one week 8l. 2s. 5-3/4d.
-----------------
Number of paupers in the house in June, in each of the following years
(the average number in the year must, probably, be more), and Table of
Mortality:--
Years. No. of Persons. Deaths.
1782 297 87
1783 298 69
1784 265 76
1785 295 82
1786 143 70
1787 256 67
1788 290 52
1789 207 37
1790 192 18
1791 235 34
1792 243 9
1793 260 23
1794 270 37
--------
Average of 13 years 50-11/13
--------
The number at present in the house is 40 men, 60 women, and 255
children: total 355.
The house is very roomy and convenient. The beds are chiefly of
feathers: the dormitories and other rooms are kept very clean. More
work is done now than formerly; but owing to lowness of wages, the
receipts have decreased.
The number of deaths is very great, and, I presume, rather arises from
the number of old persons admitted into the house than from any
inattention towards the sick.
[Footnote 376: _Ibid._, p. 368.]
[Footnote 377: _Ibid._, p. 440]
[Footnote 378: _Ibid._, p. 678.]
7. TWO VARIETIES OF THE ROUNDSMAN SYSTEM OF RELIEF [_Eden, The State of
the Poor, 1797, Vol. II, p. 29 and p. 384_], 1797.
(_a_) _Winslow_ (_Buckinghamshire_)
There seems to be a great want of employment: most of the labourers are
(as it is termed), on the Rounds; that is, they go to work from one
house to another round the parish. In winter sometimes 40 persons are on
the rounds. They are wholly paid by the parish, unless the householders
choose to employ them; and from these circumstances, labourers often
become very lazy, and imperious. Children, above ten years old, are put
on the rounds, and receive from the parish from 1s. 6d. to 3s. a week.
(_b_) _Kibworth Beauchamp_ (Leicestershire)[379].
In the winter, and at other times, when a man is out of work, he applies
to the overseer, who sends him from house to house, to get employ: the
housekeeper, who employs him, is obliged to give him victuals, and 6d. a
day; and the parish adds 4d. (total, 10d. a day) for the support of his
family; persons working in this manner are called rounds-men, from their
going round the village or township for employ.
[Footnote 379: Eden, _The State of the Poor_, Vol. II, p. 384.]
8. ANOTHER EXAMPLE OF THE ROUNDSMAN SYSTEM [_Thomas Batchelor, The
Agriculture of Bedfordshire (Agricultural Surveys), 1808, pp. 608-9_],
1808.
_Bedfordshire._
The increase of population has caused a deficiency of employment, which
is so remarkable in some seasons, that a great proportion of the
labourers "go the rounds." This practice is not modern; but as it is not
supposed to be sanctioned by law, it may be proper to describe the
nature of it, and its general consequences. When a labourer can obtain
no employment he applies to the acting overseer, from whom he passes on
to the different farmers all round the parish, being employed by each of
them after the rate of one day for every 20l. rent. The allowance to a
labourer on the rounds, is commonly 2d. per day below the pay of other
labourers, which is found to be a necessary check upon those who love
liberty better than labour. Boys receive from 4d. to 6d. per day on the
rounds, the whole of which is often repaid to the farmers by the
overseers. About half the pay of the men is returned in the same manner,
and the farmers often receive in this way the amount of from 2d. to 4d.
in the pound rent, which consequently causes the apparent expense of the
poor to exceed the truth. The practice in question has a very bad effect
on the industry of the poor: they are often employed in trivial
business; the boys in particular are of little use in the winter season.
The men are careful not to earn more than they receive, and seem to
think it the safer extreme to perform too little rather than too much.
9. REPORT OF THE POOR LAW COMMISSION [_Report from Commission on the
Poor Laws, 1834 (XXVII), pp. 297, 228, 47, 261-262, 306-307_], 1834.
We recommend, therefore, the appointment of a Central Board to control
the administration of the Poor Laws; with such assistant Commissioners
as may be found requisite; and that the Commissioners be empowered and
directed to frame and enforce regulations for the government of
workhouses, and as to the nature and amount of the relief to be given
and the labour to be exacted in them, and that such regulations shall,
as far as may be practicable, be uniform throughout the country.
* * * * *
It may be assumed that in the administration of relief, the public is
warranted in imposing such conditions on the individual relieved, as are
conducive to the benefit either of the individual himself, or of the
country at large, at whose expense he is to be relieved.[380]
The first and most essential of all conditions, a principle which we
find universally admitted, even by those whose practice is at variance
with it, is that his situation on the whole shall not be made really or
apparently so eligible as the situation of the independent labourer of
the lowest class. Throughout the evidence it is shown, that in
proportion as the condition of any pauper is elevated above the
condition of independent labourers, the condition of the independent
class is depressed; their industry is impaired, their employment becomes
unsteady, and its remuneration in wages is diminished. Such persons,
therefore, are under the strongest inducements to quit the less eligible
class of labourers and enter the more eligible class of paupers. The
converse is the effect when the pauper class is placed in its proper
position, below the condition of the independent labourer. Every penny
bestowed, that tends to render the condition of the paupers more
eligible than that of the independent labourer, is a bounty on indolence
and vice. We have found, that as the poor's rates are at present
administered, they operate as bounties of this description to the amount
of several millions annually.
* * * * *
Another evil connected with out-door relief, and arising from its
undefined character, is the natural tendency to award to the deserving
more than is necessary, or where more than necessary relief is afforded
to all, to distinguish the deserving by extra allowances.[381] ... The
whole evidence shows the danger of such an attempt. It appears that such
endeavours to constitute the distributors of relief into a tribunal for
the reward of merit, out of the property of others, have not only failed
in effecting the benevolent intentions of their promoters, but have
become sources of fraud on the part of the distributors, and of
discontent and violence on the part of the claimants.
* * * * *
The chief specific measures which we recommend are:[382]--
First, that except as to medical attendance, and subject to the
exception respecting apprenticeship hereinafter stated, all relief
whatever to able-bodied persons or to their families, otherwise than in
well-regulated workhouses (_i.e._, places where they may be set to work
according to the spirit and intention of the 43rd of Elizabeth), shall
be declared unlawful, and shall cease, in manner and at periods
hereafter specified; and that all relief afforded in respect of
children under the age of 16, shall be considered as afforded to their
parents.
At least four classes are necessary:[383]--(1) The aged and really
impotent; (2) The children; (3) The able-bodied females; (4) The
able-bodied males. Of whom we trust that the two latter will be the
least numerous classes. It appears to us that both the requisite
classification and the requisite superintendence may be better obtained
in separate buildings than under a single roof.... Each class might thus
receive an appropriate treatment; the old might enjoy their indulgences
without torment from the boisterous; the children be educated, and the
able-bodied subjected to such courses of labour and discipline as will
repel the indolent and vicious.
[Footnote 380: _Ibid._, p. 228.]
[Footnote 381: _Ibid._, p. 47.]
[Footnote 382: _Ibid._, pp. 261-2.]
[Footnote 383: p. 306-7.]
10. THE POOR LAW AMENDMENT ACT [_Statutes, 4 and 5 Wm. IV, 76_], 1834.
An Act for the Amendment and better Administration of the Laws relating
to the Poor in England and Wales.
Whereas it is expedient to alter and amend the Laws relating to the
Relief of poor Persons in England and Wales: Be it therefore enacted ...
that it shall be lawful for His Majesty, His Heirs and Successors, by
Warrant under the Royal Sign Manual, to appoint three fit persons to be
Commissioners to carry this Act into execution....
XV. And be it further enacted, ... for executing the powers given to
them by this Act the said Commissioners shall and are hereby authorized
and required, from time to time as they shall see occasion, to make and
issue all such rules, orders, and regulations for the management of the
poor, for the government of workhouses and the education of the children
therein, and for the management of parish poor children under the
provisions of an Act made and passed in the seventh year of the reign of
His late Majesty King George the Third, intituled _An Act for the better
Regulation of Parish poor Children of the several Parishes therein
mentioned within the Bills of Mortality_, and the superintending,
inspecting, and regulating of the Houses wherein such poor children are
kept and maintained, and for the apprenticing the children of poor
persons, and for the guidance and control of all Guardians, Vestries,
and Parish officers, so far as relates to the management or relief of
the poor, and the keeping, examining, auditing, and allowing of
accounts, and making and entering into contracts in all matters relating
to such management or relief, or to any expenditure for the relief of
the poor, and for carrying this Act into execution in all other
respects, as they shall think proper; and the said Commissioners may, at
their discretion, from time to time suspend, alter, or rescind such
rules, orders, and regulations, or any of them: provided always that
nothing in this Act contained shall be construed as enabling the said
commissioners or any of them to interfere in any individual case for the
purpose of ordering relief.
XXVI. And be it further enacted, that it shall be lawful for the said
commissioners, by order under their hands and seal, to declare so many
parishes as they may think fit to be united for the administration of
the laws for the relief of the poor, and such parishes shall thereupon
be deemed a Union for such purpose, ... but, notwithstanding ... each of
the said parishes shall be separately chargeable with and liable to
defray the expense of its own poor, whether relieved in or out of any
such workhouse.
XXXVIII. And be it further enacted, that where any parishes shall be
united by order or with concurrence of the said commissioners for the
administration of the laws for the relief of the poor, a Board of
Guardians of the poor for such Union shall be constituted and chosen,
and the workhouse or workhouses of such Union shall be governed, and the
relief of the poor in such Union shall be administered, by such Board of
Guardians; and the said Guardians shall be elected by the ratepayers,
and by such owners of property in the parishes forming such Union as
shall in manner hereinafter mentioned require to have their names
entered as entitled to vote as owners in the books of such parishes
respectively.
11. OUTDOOR RELIEF PROHIBITORY ORDER [_11th Annual Report of the Poor
Law Commissioners, pp. 29-33_], 1844.
_Amended General Orders._--_Regulating the Belief of Able-Bodied Poor
Persons._
1. Every able-bodied person, male or female, requiring relief from any
parish within any of the said Unions, shall be relieved wholly in the
workhouse of the Union, together with such of the family of every such
able-bodied person as may be resident with him or her, and they not be
in employment, and together with the wife of every such able-bodied male
person, if he be a married man, and if she be resident with him; save
and except in the following cases:--
1st. Where such person shall require relief on account of sudden and
urgent necessity.
2nd. Where such person shall require relief on account of any sickness,
accident, or bodily or mental infirmity affecting such person, or any of
his or her family.
* * * * *
4th. Where such person, being a widow, shall be in the first six months
of her widowhood.
5th. Where such person shall be a widow, and have a legitimate child or
legitimate children dependent upon her, and incapable of earning his,
her, or their livelihood, and have no illegitimate child born after the
commencement of her widowhood.
* * * * *
7th. Where such person shall be the wife, or child, of any able-bodied
man who shall be in the service of Her Majesty as soldier, sailor, or
marine.
* * * * *
Given under our hands and Seal of Office, this 21st day of December, in
the year of our Lord 1 thousand 8 hundred and 44.
(Signed) GEO. NICHOLLS.
G.C. LEWIS.
EDWARD W. HEAD.
SECTION VI
FINANCE AND FOREIGN TRADE
1. Act abolishing Tenure by Knight Service, etc., 1660--2. Navigation
Act, 1660--3. Proposals for Free Export of Gold and Silver, 1660--4.
An Attack on the Navigation Acts, c. 1663--5. Free Coinage at the
Mint Proclaimed, 1666--6. The East India Company and the Interlopers,
1684--7. Foundation of the Bank of England, 1694--8. The Need for the
Recoinage of 1696--9. Speech by Sir Robert Walpole on the Salt
Duties, 1732--10. Pitt's Sinking Fund Act, 1786--11. The Suspension
of Cash Payments, 1797--12. Pitt's Speech on the Income Tax,
1798--13. Foreign Trade in the early Nineteenth Century, 1812--14.
Debate on the Corn Law, 1815--15. The Corn Law of 1815--16. Free
Trade Petition, 1820--17. The Foundation of the Anti-Corn-Law League,
1839--18. The Bank Charter Act, 1844--19. Debate on the Corn Laws,
1846.
This section illustrates various departments of Government policy:
taxation and revenue (Nos. 1, 9 and 12), public debts (Nos. 7 and 10),
fiscal and trade policy (Nos. 1, 2, 4, 6, 13-17, 19), the coinage (Nos.
3, 5 and 8), and the national Bank (Nos. 7, 11, and 18). The specimens
of revenue policy begin with the Act by which Charles II abandoned
feudal dues in exchange for a general and hereditary excise (No. 1). The
principle involved in this transaction may be compared with Sir Robert
Walpole's remarks on the question of justice in taxation (No. 9) and
with Pitt's speech on introducing the Income Tax in 1798, which also
gives a survey of the whole financial position and a defence of the
policy of paying for wars out of hand (No. 12). The opposite policy, of
war-loans, had been adopted earlier, and the French wars of the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries established the funding system. An
outline is given of the Sinking Fund by which it was supposed that this
national liability could be reduced while it was being created (No.
10). The foundation of the Bank of England (No. 7) was an important step
in the policy of national loans as well as an encouragement to the
growth of capital and capitalist industry. The French wars at the end of
the eighteenth century produced a crisis in the management of the Bank's
reserve; an official report explains the causes of the panic which led
to the suspension of cash payments and also shows the deliberate policy
by which the suspension was continued till 1819 (No. 11). This was the
first controversy of great importance on the subject of currency since
the seventeenth century, when the government of Charles II had adopted
the policy of allowing free export and free coinage of Gold and Silver
(Nos. 3 and 5). The gradual deterioration of the coinage which led to
the recoinage of 1696 is illustrated by a contemporary description (No.
8). The Bank Charter Act (No. 18) shows the financial aspect of rapid
national expansion in the nineteenth century and the method adopted to
give stability to credit by limiting the issue of unsupported paper
currency, in the period before the triumph of the cheque system.
The Navigation Act of Charles the second's reign (No. 2) formed part of
a system by which the State set itself to encourage particular
industries and took a part in the struggle for commercial leadership.
(See also Nos. 4 and 6.) The complications of this policy with
considerations of revenue and particular interests rapidly increased,
while the manufacturing export trade became more important (No. 13). A
reaction led by the Economists had begun in the latter part of the
eighteenth century. In the nineteenth century the battle raged over the
special protection successfully claimed by the Agricultural Interest in
the depression at the end of the Napoleonic wars (No. 15). The debates
and petitions (No. 14, No. 16, No. 19) bristle with the new Political
Economy. They also give an indication of the new social class created by
the Industrial Revolution and of the struggle of the landowners with the
North of England manufacturers who founded and financed the
Anti-Corn-Law League, the most successful of all political associations
for an economic object (No. 17).
AUTHORITIES
The most important modern authorities on taxation and finance are:
Dowell, _History of Taxation and Taxes_; Seligman, _The Income Tax_;
Kennedy, _English Taxation_,1640-1799: on currency and banking, Shaw,
_History of the Currency_; Andréadés, _History of the Bank of
England_; Thorold Rogers, _The First Nine Years of the Bank of
England_; Bagehot, _Lombard Street_: on commercial and fiscal policy;
Day, _History of Commerce_; Levi, _History of British Commerce_;
Hewins, _English Trade and Finance_; Beer, _The Old Colonial System_
and _British Colonial Policy_; Hertz, _The Old Colonial System_;
Ashley, _Surveys_; Cunningham, _Growth of English Industry and
Commerce, Modern Times_, and _Rise and Decline of the Free Trade
Movement_; Bruce, _Annals of the East India Company_; Holland, _The
Fall of Protection_; Morley, _Life of Cobden_; Trevelyan, _Life of
Bright_; Nicholson, _The English Corn Laws_. Smart, _Economic Annals
of the Nineteenth Century_, analyses economic debates, legislation
and conditions in the early nineteenth century.
Bibliographies in Cunningham, _op. cit._, Day _op. cit._, Cambridge
Modern History, Vols. VI and X, and Grant Robertson, _England Under
the Hanoverians_.
_Contemporary._--Parliamentary Paper, XXXV, 1869, gives a summary of
public revenue and expenditure, 1688-1869. Important documents for
financial history are contained in the seventeenth century Treasury
Papers (ed. Shaw). The Advice of the Council of Trade on the
Exportation of Gold and Silver, 1660, is in McCulloch's Collection of
Tracts on Money. The official history of the suspension of cash
payments is in the Reports of Committees on the Restriction in
Payments, 1797 (XI), on the High Price of Gold, 1810 (III), and on
Cash Payments, 1819 (III).
A collection of literary authorities on monetary questions was made
by McCulloch, "A Select Collection of Scarce and Valuable Tracts on
Money"; it includes Petty's Quantulumcunque, Isaac Newton's
Representations, etc. For contemporary opinion on taxation and
finance, see Petty, Taxes and Taxation Price; Observations on
Reversionary Payments, and The State of the Public Debts; Smith, The
Wealth of Nations, and the Speeches of Pitt (Everyman Series), and of
Cobden (edited Bright and Rogers). For foreign commerce consult The
Diary and Consultation Book of Fort St. George (ed. Pringle), and
Reports of Commons Committee on Orders in Council, 1812, together
with the pamphlet literature on Colonial policy (see Cunningham _op.
cit._ and McCulloch's Select Collection of Tracts on Commerce).
1. ACT ABOLISHING TENURE BY KNIGHT SERVICE, ETC. [_Statutes, 12 Charles
II, 24_], 1660.
It is hereby enacted that the Court of Wards and Liveries and all
Wardships, Liveries, Primer-Seizins, and Ouster-le-mains, values, and
forfeitures of marriages by reason of any tenure of the King's majesty
or of any other knight's service, and all mean rates and all other
gifts, grants, charges incident or arising for or by reason of wardships
[etc.], be taken away and discharged. And that all fines for alienation,
seizures, and pardons for alienations, tenure by homage [etc.], also
Aide pur file marrier et pur farer fitz chivalier, and all other charges
incident thereunto, be likewise taken away and discharged, as from
February 24, 1645. And that all tenures by knight's service of the King,
or of any other person and by knight service in capite, and by socage in
capite of the King, and the fruits and consequents thereof--be taken
away and discharged.
And all tenures of any Honours, manors, lands, tenements, or
hereditaments of any estate of inheritance at the common law, held
either of the King or of any other person or persons, bodies politic or
corporate are hereby enacted to be turned into free and common socage to
all intents and purposes.
[Purveyance and Pre-emption abolished.]
XIV. And now to the intent and purpose that his Majesty, his heirs and
successors, may receive a full and ample recompence--there shall be paid
unto the King's majesty his heirs and successors forever hereafter in
recompence as aforesaid the several rates [etc.] following:--
[1s. 3d. a barrel of beer sold above 6s. a barrel.
3d. a barrel of beer sold at 6s. or below 6s. a barrel.
2d. a gallon of spirits imported.
3s. a barrel of beer imported.
1d. a gallon of aqua-vitae, etc.]
2. NAVIGATION ACT [_Statutes, 12 Chas. II, 18_], 1660.
An Act for the encouraging and increasing of shipping and navigation.
For the increase of shipping and encouragement of the navigation of this
nation wherein, under the good providence and protection of God, the
wealth, safety and strength of this kingdom is so much concerned; be it
enacted by the King's most excellent majesty, and by the lords and
commons in this present parliament assembled, and by the authority
thereof, that from and after the first day of December one thousand six
hundred and sixty, and from thenceforward, no goods or commodities
whatsoever shall be imported into or exported out of any lands, islands,
plantations or territories to his Majesty belonging or in his
possession, or which may hereafter belong unto or be in the possession
of his Majesty, his heirs and successors, in Asia, Africa or America, in
any other ship or ships, vessel or vessels whatsoever, but in such ships
or vessels as do truly and without fraud belong only to the people of
England or Ireland, dominion of Wales or town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, or
are of the built of and belonging to any the said lands, islands,
plantations or territories, as the proprietors and right owners thereof,
and whereof the master and three-fourths of the mariners at least are
English.
And it is further enacted by the authority aforesaid, that no goods or
commodities that are of foreign growth, production or manufacture, and
which are brought into England, Ireland, Wales, the islands of Guernsey
and Jersey, or town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, in English-built shipping, or
other shipping belonging to some of the aforesaid places, and navigated
by English mariners, as aforesaid, shall be shipped or brought from any
other place or places, country or countries, but only from those of the
said growth, production or manufacture, or from those ports where the
said goods and commodities can only, or are, or usually have been, first
shipped for transportation, and from none other places or countries.
3. PROPOSALS FOR FREE EXPORTATION OF GOLD AND SILVER [_McCulloch, Tracts
on Money,1856, pp. 145_], 1660.
Advice of his Majesty's Council of Trade, concerning the Exportation of
Gold and Silver in Foreign Coins and Bullion.
[Concluded Dec. 11, 1660.]
... Supposing that it were of absolute necessity to restrain all money
and bullion, once imported, to be kept within this kingdom. It then came
under consideration whether either the laws hitherto made in that behalf
are, or that it be possible to make a law, adequate to prevent the
exportation thereof.
And here we were convinced, by experience, that the laws of this kingdom
(hitherto made) have been of no effect to the end thereby designed; and
looking abroad, as there are nowhere more strict and severe laws against
the exportation of coin and bullion than in Spain and France, we found
all to be to as little purpose.
We then, thirdly, enquired what loadstone attracted this metal by force
of nature to itself, against all human providence or prevention; and
soon found that it was alone the present course of trade and traffic
throughout the world....
And therefore, in the fourth place, we discovered that, as it is
impossible by any laws to restrain money and bullion against the use
that traffic finds for the same; so also the adhering to this principle
of restraining thereof discourageth, as well all natives as foreigners,
to import any money or bullion--where the exportation thereof is
forbidden them.
From whence, fifthly, the many advantages (thereby given away clearly to
the stranger from the English) present themselves; for the stranger,
knowing we must be furnished in one of these places for our occasions,
make us pay dearly for our accommodation.
So that, to wind up all that has been said, the result of the several
reasons and arguments herein summed up seemed to be this: that time and
experience instruct, and the present state of traffic throughout the
world require, that, for the increase of the stock of money in these
your Majesty's kingdoms, some way of liberty for the exportation, at
least of foreign coin and bullion, should be found out, and put in
execution; which hath produced the humble advice offered in the
preceding paper.
4. AN ATTACK ON THE NAVIGATION ACT[384] [_P.R.O. Colonial Papers, Vol.
XXXVI, No. 88_], _c._ 1663.
_To the King's Most Excellent Majesty._
_The Humble Remonstrance_ of John Bland, of London, Merchant, on the
behalf of the Inhabitants and Planters of Virginia and Maryland.
Most humbly representing unto your Majesty the inevitable destruction of
these colonies, if so be that the late Act for increase of trade and
shipping be not as to them dispensed with; for it will not only ruinate
the inhabitants and planters, but make desolate the largest, fertilist,
and most glorious plantations under Your Majesty's Dominion; the which,
if otherwise suspended, will produce the greatest advantage to this
nation's commerce and considerablest income to Your Majesty's revenue,
that any part of the world doth to which we trade. [Rejoinder to
argument that the Dutch prohibit English trade with their Indian
Dominions. The American colonies are in need of customers. Why should
the Dutch be prevented from dealing with them?]
Virginia and Maryland are colonies, which though capable of better
commodities, yet for the present afford only these, tobacco chiefly,
then in the next place corn and cattle, commodities almost in every
country whatever to be had; withal they are such commodities, that
except purchased in these plantations so cheap as not elsewhere so to be
had, none would ever go thither to fetch them, no, not we ourselves.
Which being so, then certainly it cannot stand with wisdom to hinder the
Hollanders from going thither.
Then again, if you keep thence the Hollanders, can it be believed that
from England more ships will be sent than are able to bring thence what
tobacco England will spend? If they do bring more, must they not lose
both stock and block, principal and charges?...
A further prejudice doth evidently attend the commerce by this Act, not
only in debarring Hollanders from trading to these colonies, but thereby
we do likewise debar ourselves; for, by the Act, no English ships can
load any goods in Virginia and Maryland to transport to any country but
our own territories.... I demand then, if it would not be better to let
our English ships, loading in those colonies, to go whither they please,
and pay in the places where they do trade (if it will not be dispensed
with otherwise), the same customs to your Majesty as they should have
done in England, or give bills from thence to pay it in England?
Certainly this would be more beneficial to the commerce, and security
both for the ships and goods, and advantageous to your Majesty; for
whilst they are coming to England they might be at the end of their
intended voyages and obtain a market, which haply in England could not
be had....
If that notwithstanding what is by the foregoing particulars declared,
it may seem reasonable that the Act shall stand in force.... Then let me
on behalf of the said colonies of Virginia and Maryland make these
following proposals which I hope will appear but equitable; and I dare
undertake for them, that they will be very well satisfied, that those
few tobacconists that have engrossed that trade into their hands, shall
still continue in it without moving further against them therein.
First, that the traders to Virginia and Maryland from England shall
furnish and supply the planters and inhabitants of these colonies with
all sorts of commodities and necessaries which they may want or desire,
at as cheap rates and prices as the Hollanders used to have when the
Hollander was admitted to trade hither.
Secondly, that the said traders out of England to these colonies shall
not only buy of the planters such tobacco in the colonies as is fit for
England, but take off all that shall be yearly made by them, at as good
rates and prices as the Hollanders used to give....
By way of accommodation this I propose. Let all Hollanders and other
nations whatsoever freely trade into Virginia and Maryland, and bring
thither and carry thence whatever they please, and to counterpoise the
cheapness of their sailing, with dearness of our ships, to pay a set
duty and imposition that may countervail the same; and when what they
paid formerly will not do it, let it be doubled and trebled, as shall be
thought meet, yet still with this caution, that it may not make it as
bad as if they were totally prohibited.
In the next place, that all English ships that do go thither to trade,
and carry goods to any other country besides England, may be freed of
any custom there, more than some certain duty to the use of the
colonies....
[Footnote 384: Quoted in _The Virginia Magazine of History and
Biography_, Vol. I, pp. 142-145.]
5. FREE COINAGE OF BULLION AT THE MINT PROCLAIMED [_Statutes, 18 Chas._
II, 5], 1666.
Whereas it is most obvious that the plenty of current coins of gold and
silver of this kingdom is of great advantage to trade and commerce ...
be it enacted ... that whatsoever person or persons, native or
foreigner, alien or stranger, shall from and after the twentieth day of
December one thousand six hundred sixty and six, bring in any foreign
coin, plate or bullion of gold or silver, in mass, molten or alloyed, or
any sort of manufacture of gold or silver, into his Majesty's mint or
mints within the kingdom of England, to be there melted down and coined
into the current coins of this kingdom, shall have the same there
assayed, melted down and coined with all convenient speed, without any
defalcation, diminution or charge for the assaying, coinage or waste in
coinage: so as that for every pound troy of crown or standard gold that
shall be brought in and delivered by him or them ... there shall be
delivered ... a pound troy of the current coins of this kingdom, of
crown or standard gold.
6. THE EAST INDIA COMPANY AND THE INTERLOPERS [_Diary and Consultation
Book of Fort St. George, Ed. Pringle Series I, Vol. III, p. 49_], 1684.
_To Sir John Wetwangs, Commander of ship Royal James._
His Majesty the King of England our Sovereign Lord having granted the
Honourable East India Company full power and authority to enter into any
ship or vessel, and to make seizure of the same, that shall be found in
these parts of the East Indies, contrary to his royal will and
pleasure,[385] ... we therefore, the Agent and Council of Fort St.
George, for the said Honourable East India Company, do ... (there being
now an Interlopers' ship, the _Constantinople_, merchant, John Smith,
master, at Covelon), require you immediately to repair aboard your ship,
weigh anchor, and set sail for that port of Covelon, and there seize
upon the said Interlopers' ship and bring her into this Road of
Madras.... Dated in Fort St. George the sixth day of June, 1684.
WILLIAM GYFFORD.
JOHN BIGRIG.
ELIHU YALE.
JOHN NICKS.
JOHN LITTLETON.
JOHN GRAY.
[Footnote 385: New Charter granted Aug. 9, 1683.]
7. FOUNDATION OF THE BANK OF ENGLAND [_Statutes, 5 & 6, Wm. & Mary,
20_], 1694.
An Act for granting to their Majesties several rates and duties upon
tunnage of ships and vessels, and upon beer, ale, and other liquors,
for securing certain recompences and advantages in the said act
mentioned, to such persons as shall voluntarily advance the sum of
fifteen hundred thousand pounds, towards the carrying on the war
against France.
XIX. And be it farther enacted by the authority aforesaid, that it shall
and may be lawful to and for their Majesties, by commission under the
great seal of England, to authorize and appoint any number of persons to
take and receive all such voluntary subscriptions as shall be made on or
before the first day of August, which shall be in the year of our Lord
one thousand six hundred ninety four, by any person or persons, natives
or foreigners, bodies politic or corporate.
XX. And be it further enacted, that it shall and may be lawful to and
for their Majesties, by letters patents under the great seal of England,
to limit, direct, and appoint, how and in what manner and proportions,
and under what rules and directions, the said sum of twelve hundred
thousand pounds, part of the said sum of fifteen hundred thousand
pounds, and the said yearly sum of one hundred thousand pounds, part of
the said yearly sum of one hundred and forty thousand pounds, and every
or any part or proportion thereof, may be assignable or transferable,
assigned or transferred, to such person or persons only as shall freely
and voluntarily accept of the same, and not otherwise; and to
incorporate all and every such subscribers and contributors, their
heirs, successors, or assigns, to be one body corporate and politic, by
the name of the governor and company of the bank of England, and, by the
same name of the governor and company of the bank of England, to have
perpetual succession, and a common seal.
XXVIII. Provided, that nothing herein contained shall any ways be
construed to hinder the said corporation from dealing in bills of
exchange, or in buying or selling bullion, gold, or silver, or in
selling any goods, wares, or merchandize whatsoever, which shall really
and _bona fide_ be left or deposited with the said corporation for
money lent and advanced thereon, and which shall not be redeemed at the
time agreed on, or within three months after, or from selling such goods
as shall or may be the produce of lands purchased by the said
corporation.
8. THE NEED FOR THE RECOINAGE OF 1696 [_H. Haynes, Brief Memoirs
Relating to the Silver and Gold Coins of England (in Lansdowne MSS, 801,
British Museum_), _fs._ 33-48].
The silver money of England as well as the coins of all other countries
are liable to abuse by these three following methods:
1st, by alteration of the standard appointed by public authority.
2nd, by melting them down and converting the metal to other uses.
3rd, by exporting them into foreign countries, to carry on a trade.
And by all those methods was the whole stock of the cash of this kingdom
excessively impaired before the late grand coinage.
For 1st. the standard of our silver moneys appointed by the Government
was notoriously violated. By standard is here meant that particular
weight and fineness in the silver moneys which was settled by Queen
Elizabeth and continued all her time, and after it, through the reigns
of all her several successors down to her present Majesty, and was
lately confirmed by Act of Parliament....
These were the just weights, and the legal fineness of our silver moneys
coined with the hammer, of which sort the far greater part of the cash
of the whole kingdom did consist; but they were very liable to be
clipped and diminished in their weight, because very few of these pieces
were of a just assize when they first came out of the Mint. So many
pieces, I suppose, were by the Moneyers cut out of a bar of standard
silver, as did pretty exactly answer the pound weight Troy; and the tale
of the pieces required in that weight, by the Indenture of the Mint: but
though all the pieces together might come near the pound weight or be
within remedy; yet divers of them compared one with the other were very
disproportionable, as was too well known to many persons, who picked out
the heavy pieces, and threw them into the melting pot, to fit them for
exportation, or to supply the silver smiths.
[Pieces of hammered money, "though never clipped, did many of them in
their weight and value want or exceed the legal standard." Crowns varied
from 5s. 3d. to 4s. 9d., half-crowns from 3s. to 2s. 4d., etc.]
According to the best observation of Goldsmiths[386] and others the
clipping of our coins began to be discoverable in great receipts a
little after the Dutch war in 1672, but it made no great progress at
first for some years: and the silver moneys of Queen Elizabeth were very
little diminished.... But the yearly loss by clipping made terrible
advances every year from 1686.... In the later end of 1695[387] the
public loss upon all the clipped money then actually current (if one may
judge of the whole by the foregoing table) was at least 45 per cent. by
mere clipping and light counterfeit pieces, which upon the whole running
silver cash of the kingdom amounts to 2,250,000l.[388] ...
The whole kingdom was in a general distraction by the badness of the
silver coin and the rise of guineas, for no one knew what to trust to;
the landlord knew not in what to receive his rents, nor the tenant in
what to pay them. Neither of them could foretell the value of his moneys
to-morrow. The merchant could not foresee the worth of his wares at two
or three days distance, and was at a loss to set a price upon his goods.
Everybody was afraid to engage in any new contracts, and as shy in
performing old ones, the King subsisted his forces in foreign parts at
the disadvantage of seven or eight per cent. interest and five per cent.
premio for money borrowed here, besides the loss by the Exchange abroad:
and how to provide for the next year's expense, was a mystery.
[Footnote 386: _Ibid._ folio 38.]
[Footnote 387: _Ibid._ folio 40.]
[Footnote 388: _Ibid._ folio 48.]
9. SPEECH BY SIR ROBERT WALPOLE ON THE SALT DUTIES [_Parliamentary
History (Cobbett), Vol. VIII, Col. 943_], 1732.
_House of Commons. Debate on Sir Robert Walpole's motion for Salt
Duties. February 9, 1732._
Sir Robert Walpole stood up and spoke as follows:--
Mr. Speaker,
As there is nothing his Majesty has more at heart than the giving all
possible ease to his subjects; so, whenever he is necessarily obliged to
desire assistance from them for the immediate support of the government,
he desires that they would choose those ways and means for raising the
annual supplies, which are least burthensome to the people, and which
makes the load fall equally upon the subjects in general. When money is
to be raised for the public good, for the security of all, he thinks
that every one ought to contribute his share, in proportion to the
benefit that he is thereby to receive.
As to the manner, sir, of raising taxes upon the people, it is a certain
maxim that that tax which is the most equal and the most general, is the
most just, and the least burthensome. Where every man contributes a
small share, a great sum may be raised for the public service, without
any man's being sensible of what he pays; whereas a small sum, raised
upon a few, lies heavy upon each particular man, and is the more
grievous, in that it is unjust; for where the benefit is mutual, the
expense ought to be in common. Of all the taxes I ever could think of,
there is not one more general nor one less felt, than that of the duty
upon salt. The duty upon salt is a tax that every man in the nation
contributes to according to his circumstances and condition in life;
every subject contributes something; if he be a poor man, he contributes
so small a trifle, it will hardly bear a name; if he be rich, he lives
more luxuriously, and consequently contributes more; and if he be a man
of a great estate, he keeps a great number of servants, and must
therefore contribute a great deal. Upon the other hand, there is no tax
that ever was laid upon the people of this nation, that is more unjust
and unequal than the Land Tax. The landholders bear but a small
proportion to the people of this nation, or of any nation; yet no man
contributes any the least share to this tax, but he that is possessed of
a land estate; and yet this tax has been continued without intermission
for above these 40 years.
10. PITT'S SINKING FUND ACT [_Statutes, 26 Geo. III, 31_], 1786.
An Act for vesting certain sums in commissioners, at the end of every
quarter of a year, to be by them applied to the reduction of the
national debt.
[£250,000 is to be set apart quarterly out of the sinking fund.]
IV. Provided always, and be it enacted by the authority aforesaid, that
if at any time it should happen, that at the end of the year ending the
fifth day of January, one thousand seven hundred and eighty seven, or at
the end of any future year, computed as aforesaid, after provision shall
have been made for all payments for which monies are previously to be
set apart or issued according to the directions of this act, the said
surpluses, excesses, and overplus monies, composing the sinking fund,
shall not be sufficient to make good as well all such deficiencies as
shall have arisen during such year, as the payment of the sum of two
hundred and fifty thousand pounds then due, in every such case, the
amount of such deficiency or deficiencies, whether the same shall have
arisen in any preceding quarter or quarters within such year, or in the
quarter ending on the fifth day of January on which such year shall end,
shall not be carried forward as a charge on the said sinking fund at the
end of the next succeeding quarter, but shall be made good out of any
aids or supplies which shall be or shall have been granted by parliament
for the service of the then current year; and the amount of such
deficiency or deficiencies so to be made good, shall be issued to the
governor and company of the bank of England, in the manner hereinafter
directed, within ten days after monies sufficient to answer the same
shall have been paid into his Majesty's receipt of exchequer, on account
of any such aids or supplies.
V. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, that the monies
so set apart, at the end of any quarter of a year ending as aforesaid,
or of any year computed as aforesaid either for the payment of the sum
of two hundred and fifty thousand pounds due at the end of such quarter,
or of any part thereof, or for making good such deficiency or
deficiencies as aforesaid, shall forthwith be issued and paid to the
governor and company of the bank of England, and shall by them be placed
to an account to be raised in their books, and to be intituled, The
account of the commissioners appointed by act of parliament for applying
certain sums of money annually to the reduction at the national debt:
and that as well all such monies, as any other monies which shall be
paid to the governor and company of the bank of England by virtue of
this act, to be placed to the said account, shall be applied by the
commissioners hereinafter appointed towards the reduction of the
national debt, in the manner hereinafter directed, and to no other
intent or purpose, and in no other manner whatever.
X. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, that all monies
whatever, which shall be placed from time to time to the account of the
said commissioners by virtue of this act, shall be applied by them
either in payments for the redemption of such redeemable public
annuities as shall be at or above par, in such manner and at such
periods as shall be directed by any future act or acts of parliament, or
to the purchase of any public annuities below par in the manner
hereinafter directed.
11. THE SUSPENSION OF CASH PAYMENTS [_Reports of Committees on Bank of
England, 1797 and 1826, in Reports 1826 (III), pp. 142 and 255-256_],
1797.
The alarm of Invasion [in 1796-1797] which, when an immediate attack was
first apprehended in Ireland, had occasioned some extraordinary demand
for cash on the Bank of England, in the months of December and January
last, began in February to produce similar results in the north of
England. Your Committee find, that in consequence of this apprehension,
the farmers suddenly brought the produce of their lands to sale, and
carried the notes of the County Banks, which they had collected by those
and other means, into those banks for payment; that this unusual and
sudden demand for cash reduced the several banks at Newcastle to the
necessity of suspending their payments in specie, and of availing
themselves of all the means in their power of procuring a speedy supply
of cash from the metropolis; that the effects of this demand on the
Newcastle banks and their suspension of payments in cash, soon spread
over various parts of the country, from whence similar applications were
consequently made to the metropolis for cash; that the alarm thus
diffused not only occasioned an increased demand for cash in the
country, but probably a disposition in many to hoard what was thus
obtained; that this call on the metropolis, through whatever channels,
directly affected the Bank of England, as the great repository of cash,
and was in the course of still further operation upon it, when stopped
by the Minute of Council of the 26th of February.[389]
* * * * *
Your Committee find, that the Court of Directors of the Bank did, on the
26th October 1797, come to a Resolution, a copy of which is subjoined to
this Report.
Your Committee, having further examined the Governor and Deputy
Governor, as to what may be meant by the political circumstances
mentioned in that resolution, find, that they understand by them, the
state of hostility in which the nation is still involved, and
particularly such apprehensions as may be entertained of invasion,
either in Ireland or in this country, together with the possibility
there may be of advances being to be made from this country to Ireland;
and that from these circumstances so explained, and from the nature of
the war, and the avowed purpose of the enemy to attack this country by
means of its public credit, and to distress it in its financial
operations, they are led to think that it will be expedient to continue
the restriction now subsisting, with the reserve for partial issues of
cash, at the discretion of the Bank, of the nature of that contained in
the present Acts; and that it may be so continued, without injury to the
credit of the Bank, and to the advantage of the nation.
"_Resolved_, that it is the opinion of this Court,[390] that the
Governor and Company of the Bank of England are enabled to issue Specie,
in any manner that may be deemed necessary for the accommodation of the
public; and the Court have no hesitation to declare that the affairs of
the Bank are in such a state, that it can with safety resume its
accustomed functions, if the political circumstances of the country do
not render it inexpedient: but the Directors deeming it foreign to their
province to judge of these points, wish to submit to the wisdom of
Parliament, whether, as it has been once judged proper to lay a
restriction on the payment of the bank in cash, it may, or may not, be
prudent to continue the same?"[391]
[Footnote 389: The Minute of February 26, 1797, suspended the obligation
of the Bank of England to pay coin for its notes.]
[Footnote 390: Copy of a Resolution of the Court of Directors of the
Bank of England at a meeting on Thursday, October 26, 1797.]
[Footnote 391: The Bank of England resumed cash payments, 1819.]
12. PITT'S SPEECH ON THE INCOME TAX [_Speeches of William Pitt, edited
W.S. Hathaway, 1806, Vol. III, pp. 282-333_], 1798.
I shall begin by stating what has been voted as the amount of the supply
under the head of the services for the navy, with the exception of what
is necessary for the transport services. All these accounts have this
day been laid before us; and it appears that the total sum for the
ordinaries and extra-ordinaries of the navy and transport services
amounts to 13,642,000l., being the same sum, within a very small amount,
as was granted in the course of last session, and which I have the
satisfaction of assuring the committee is likely to prove sufficient for
the whole expenses of the navy, without leaving any necessity for
augmentation. The next head of expense is the army, in which the
estimates amount to 8,840,000l. ... Under the head of ordnance services,
including the expenses which have not been provided for, there has been
voted the sum of 1,570,000l. The next article is that of the
miscellaneous services. The plantation estimates have already been
voted, but there are other minuter parts of these services which have
not yet undergone a discussion in this house. The amount will be rather
less than it was last session. I state it [at] 600,000l. To this is to
be added the usual sum voted towards the redemption of the national
debt, above the annual million, which is 200,000l. There are other sums,
which are generally voted under the head of deficiency of grants. Among
these is a sum due for interest on treasury and exchequer bills paid
off, amounting to 565,000l.; the discount on prompt payments upon the
loan, amounting to 210,000l.; the interest on exchequer bills circulated
within the year, and charged upon the succeeding year, 300,000l.; in
addition to this, there is the deficiency of the land and malt in the
act passed two years ago, amounting to 300,000l. These sums swell the
total of the supply to 29,272,000l. This total, sir, does not differ in
any material degree from the amount of the supply of last session.
[He then estimates prospective sources of revenue:
Land and malt taxes 2,750,000l.
Lottery 200,000l.
Produce of the consolidated fund 1,500,000l.
Import and Export taxes 1,700,000l.
-------------
6,150,000l.]
The remainder of the sum is that which must be raised either by a tax
within the year, in the same manner as the assessed tax bill of last
year, or by a loan. It will be to be considered, how the committee will
divide that remaining sum between them. The sum to be provided for is
upwards of twenty-three millions. Gentlemen will recollect that, in the
debates upon the subject of the assessed taxes last session, two
fundamental principles were established as the rule by which we should
be guided in providing for the supplies for the service of the year.
These were, first, to reduce the total amount to be at present raised by
a loan; and next, as far as it was not reducible, to reduce it to such a
limit, that no more loan should be raised than a temporary tax should
defray within a limited time. In the first place, the tax acceded to by
the House last session[392] was for the purpose of providing for the
supplies of the year; and in the next place, for the purpose of
extinguishing the loan raised in that year. From the modifications,
however, which that measure underwent after its being first proposed,
the produce of it was diminished to a considerable extent. Other means
indeed were adopted to remedy the deficiency which was thus occasioned.
The voluntary and cheerful efforts which, so honourably to individuals
and to the country, came in aid of the assessed taxes, and the superior
produce of the exports and imports beyond the estimate, brought the
amount of the sums raised to that at which they had been calculated. The
different articles were estimated at seven millions and a half, and this
sum was fully covered by the actual receipts under the distinct heads.
It gives me, indeed, the most heartfelt satisfaction to state, that
notwithstanding the difficulties which the measure encountered from the
shameful evasion, or rather the scandalous frauds by which its effects
were counteracted, the total amount which was expected has yet been
realized. The meanness which shrunk from fair and equal contribution has
been compensated to the public by the voluntary exertions of patriotism.
The produce of the assessed taxes, under all the modifications, and all
the evasions, is four millions. I had taken it at four and a half after
the modifications. The deficiency is supplied by the excess on head of
voluntary contributions....
Satisfactory as it must be to review the circumstances to which we owe
those advantages, and the benefits which the mode of raising the
supplies to a considerable extent adopted last session has produced, it
is unnecessary for me to state that, however the principle may deserve
our approbation, it is still much to be desired that its effects should
be more extensive, and its application more efficient.... Every
circumstance in our situation, every event in the retrospect of our
affairs, every thing which strikes our view as we look around us,
demonstrates the advantages of the system of raising a considerable part
of the supplies within the year, and ought to induce us to enforce it
more effectually to prevent those frauds, which an imperfect criterion
and a loose facility of modification have introduced; to repress those
evasions so disgraceful to the country, so injurious to those who
honourably discharge their equal contribution, and, above all, so
detrimental to the great object of national advantage which it is
intended to promote. In these sentiments, our leading principle should
be to guard against all evasion, to endeavour by a fair and strict
application to realize that full tenth, which it was the original
purpose of the measure of the assessed taxes to obtain, and to extend
this as far as possible in every direction, till it may be necessary
clearly to mark the modification, or to renounce, in certain instances,
the application of it altogether. If then, the committee assent to this
principle, they must feel the necessity of following it up by a more
comprehensive scale and by more efficient provisions. They will perceive
the necessity of obtaining a more specific statement of income, than the
loose scale of modification, which, under the former measure, permitted
such fraud and evasion. If such a provision be requisite to correct the
abuses of a collection, to obviate the artifices of dishonesty, to
extend the utility of the whole system, it will be found that many of
the regulations of the old measure will be adapted to a more
comprehensive and efficient application of the principle. If regulations
can be devised to prevent an undue abatement, and to proportion the
burden to the real ability, means must be employed to reach those
resources which, _primâ facie_, it is impossible under the present
system of the assessed taxes to touch. While inaccuracy, fraud,
inequality, be grievances which it is desirable to remedy, it will be an
additional satisfaction, that when compelled to adopt means to prevent
the defects of which we complain, we shall be enabled likewise to
improve and to extend the benefits we have obtained. The experience
which we have had upon the subject, proves that we must correct and
remedy, in order to secure the advantages which the measure is
calculated to afford. It is in our power to make them our own. I think I
can show that whatever benefit the principle upon which we have begun to
act, is fitted to bestow, may by a liberal, fair and efficient
application, be carried to an extent far greater than has yet been
obtained, an extent equal to every object of great and magnanimous
effort, to every purpose of national safety and glory, to every
advantage of permanent credit and of increased prosperity.
Impressed then with the importance of the subject, convinced that we
ought, as far as possible, to prevent all evasion and fraud, it remains
for us to consider, by what means these defects may be redressed, by
what means a more equal scale of contributions can be applied, and a
more extensive effect obtained. For this purpose it is my intention to
propose, that the presumption founded upon the assessed taxes shall be
laid aside, and that a general tax shall be imposed upon all the leading
branches of income. No scale of income indeed which can be devised will
be perfectly free from the objection of inequality, or entirely cut off
the possibility of evasion. All that can be attempted is, to approach as
near as circumstances will permit to a fair and equal contribution....
The details of a measure which attempts an end so great and important,
must necessarily require serious and mature deliberation. At present all
that I can pretend to do is, to lay before the committee an outline of
the plan which endeavours to combine every thing at which such a measure
ought to aim. This outline I shall now proceed to develop to the
committee as clearly and distinctly as I am able.
* * * * *
The next point for consideration then, is the mode of contribution which
shall be adopted. On this head it is my intention to propose that no
income under 60l. a year shall be called upon to contribute, and that
the scale of modification up to 200l. a year, as in assessed taxes,
shall be introduced with restriction. The quota which will then be
called for ought to amount to a full tenth of the contributor's income.
The mode proposed of obtaining this contribution differs from that
pursued in the assessed taxes, as instead of trebling their amount, the
statement of income is to proceed from the party himself.
[A detailed estimate of income from different sources follows. One-fifth
is deducted to allow for the remission of taxation on incomes under 60l.
and graduation under 200l. from 1/120 to 1/10.]
For the sake of greater clearness I will recapitulate the heads in the
same order that I have followed:--
The land rental, then, after deducting one-fifth,
I estimate at 20,000,000l.
The tenant's rental of land, deducting two-thirds
of rack rent, I take at 6,000,000l.
The amount of tythes, deducting one-fifth 4,000,000l.
The produce of mines, canal navigation, etc.,
deducting one-fifth 3,000,000l.
The rental of houses, deducting one-fifth 5,000,000l.
The profits of professions 2,000,000l.
The rental of Scotland, taking it at one-eighth
of that of England 5,000,000l.
The income of persons resident in Great Britain
drawn from possessions beyond seas 5,000,000l.
The amount of annuities, from the public funds,
after deducting one-fifth for exemptions
and modifications 12,000,000l.
The profits on the capital employed in our
foreign commerce 12,000,000l.
The profits on the capital employed in domestic
trade, and the profits of skill and industry 28,000,000l.
------------
In all 102,000,000l.
------------
Upon this sum a tax of 10 per cent. is likely to produce 10,000,000l. a
year, and this is the sum which is likely to result from the measure,
and at which I shall assume it.
* * * * *
I trust that it will not be necessary for me to go into any detail of
argument to convince the committee of the advantages of the beneficial
mode adopted last session, of raising a considerable part of the
supplies within the year.... It will be manifest to every gentleman on
the slightest consideration of the subject, that, in the end, the
measure of raising the supplies within the year is the cheapest and the
most salutary course that a wise people can pursue; and when it is
considered that there is a saving of at least one-twelfth upon all that
is raised, gentlemen will not suffer a superstitious fear, and jealousy
of the danger of exposing the secrecy of income, to combat with a
measure that is so pregnant with benefits to the nation. If gentlemen
will take into their consideration the probable duration of peace and
war, calculated from the experience of past times, they will be
convinced of the immeasurable importance of striving to raise the
supplies within the year, rather than accumulating a permanent debt. The
experience of the last hundred, fifty, or forty years, will show how
little confidence we can have in the duration of peace, and it ought to
convince us how important it is to establish a system that will prepare
us for every emergency, give stability to strength, and perpetual
renovations to resource. I think I could make it apparent to gentlemen
that in any war, of the duration of six years, the plan of funding all
the expenses to be incurred in carrying it on, would leave at the end of
it a greater burden permanently upon the nation than would be sustained,
than they would have to incur for the six years only of its continuance,
and one year beyond it, provided that they made the sacrifice of a tenth
of their income. In the old, unwise, and destructive way of raising the
supplies by a permanent fund, without any provision for its redemption,
a war so carried on entails the burden upon the age and upon their
posterity for ever. This has, to be sure, in a great measure, been done
away and corrected, by the salutary and valuable system which has been
adopted of the redemption fund. But that fund cannot accomplish the end
in a shorter period than forty years, and during all that time the
expenses of a war so funded must weigh down and press upon the people.
If, on the contrary, it had at an earlier period of our history been
resolved to adopt the present mode of raising the supplies within the
year; if, for instance, after the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, the scheme
of redemption had been adopted and persevered in to this time, we should
not now, for the seventh year of the war, have had more to raise from
the pockets of the people than what we have now to pay of permanent
taxes, together with about a fourth of what it would be necessary to lay
on in addition for this year. Fortunately, we have at last established
the redemption fund: the benefits of it are already felt; they will
every year be more and more acknowledged; and in addition to this it is
only necessary, that instead of consulting a present advantage, and
throwing the burden, as heretofore, upon posterity, we shall fairly meet
it ourselves, and lay the foundation of a system that shall make us
independent of all the future events of the world.[393]
[Footnote 392: The Triple Assessment, based on the individual's previous
payment to the various taxes on expenditure which Pitt had grouped
together as the Assessed Taxes.]
[Footnote 393: The income tax was recast in 1803, when Schedules of
different sources of income, instead of a general return, were
introduced. It was again revised in 1806. In 1816 it was repealed. Peel
reintroduced it in 1842 for three years, and it then became permanent.]
13. FOREIGN TRADE IN THE EARLY NINETEENTH CENTURY [_Committee on Orders
in Council, Reports 1812 (III)_, _pp._ 38, 40, 41, 132-133, 522-523],
_c._ 1812.
[Evidence of Joseph Shaw, Chairman of Birmingham Chamber of Foreign
Commerce and exporter of hardwares.]
Have you had occasion to make any estimate, founded upon your own
inquiries, of the number of workmen employed in the Birmingham
manufactory[394]--and the neighbouring towns? I never particularly
estimated for the whole of them, but in the year 1808 I took an estimate
of the people employed in the American trade.... Those that could be
ascertained to be (as nearly as could be) exclusively employed in the
American trade were 50,000, exclusive of the nail trade, which employed
from twenty to thirty thousand [of whom two-thirds were engaged in the
American trade].
* * * * *
Can you state to the Committee, from your observation, what proportion
the foreign trade generally bears to the trade for home consumption?...
I should think it was considerably more than one half, including the
United States.
Do you think it would amount to two-thirds? I should think not far from
it.... Do you think the foreign trade is equal to two-thirds of the
whole manufacture?--When the foreign trade is the same as in the year
1810, not in its present state; it is now very different....
* * * * *
To what cause do you ascribe the diminution of your trade to the
Continent?--The risk of sending goods into many ports of the Continent
is too great....
* * * * *
Then it is the French, Berlin, and other decrees that have produced this
diminution of your trade to the Continent?--To my own particular trade.
I cannot say how it is as to others.
[Evidence of John Bailey, exporter and home factor of Sheffield goods.]
What are the principal articles manufactured at Sheffield?--They are
very numerous, I can present a list of them to the House; the principal
articles are cutlery, files, edged tools, saws, and a great variety of
other heavy articles.
* * * * *
Can you speak to the population of Sheffield, and such parts of the
neighbouring parishes as are concerned in the Sheffield
manufacture?--The population of the parish of Sheffield, as returned by
the overseers in the year 1811, was 53,000 odd; but including those
parts of parishes in which Sheffield goods are manufactured, the
population amounts to 60,000 at least.
Can you tell what proportion of hands are employed in manufacturing for
the American market?--For the American market, about 4,000 male adults,
and 2,000 women and children, making a total of 6,000.
* * * * *
How many do you estimate are employed in manufacturing for the home
trade?--Six thousand male adults, and one thousand women and children.
How many do you calculate are employed in the remaining parts of the
Sheffield trade, namely, manufactures for the foreign market, exclusive
of the American?--Two thousand male adults, and one thousand women and
children.
This last market includes Spain and Portugal?--Spain, Portugal, the West
Indies, South America, and Canada, with some few other parts.
What proportion does the American market bear to the home market, as
far as regards the Sheffield goods?--The American exports amount, as
nearly as I have been able to ascertain, to one-third of the whole
manufactures of Sheffield; the home trade to, I think, three-sixths.
[He adds that the American trade had been affected by the Orders in
Council and the Non-importation Act of the United States. The home trade
with towns in the American trade had been injured also. Goods to the
value of £400,000 were waiting in Sheffield and Liverpool warehouses.]
* * * * *
[Evidence of Robert MacKerrell, London merchant, dealing in cottons and
muslins, and manufacturer of Paisley.]
Can you inform the Committee what the state of the trade was in the
years 1808, 1809, 1810, and 1811?--In 1807 we felt the whole effect of
the Berlin decree, we were entirely excluded from the Continent; I speak
with regard to my own transactions and those of a vast number of my
friends. We had in 1807, and previous to that, trades to the South of
Europe, particularly in Portugal, which were uninterrupted, but which
were likewise put an end to by the French invasion in November of that
year. In 1808 the trade revived considerably; a great quantity of our
goods, and of English merchandise, was introduced into the Continent
through Heligoland; considerable exports were made to the Baltic; the
trade in the Mediterranean increased very considerably; a very great
trade was opened to this country in consequence of the Royal Family of
Portugal removing to the Brazils, which likewise made an opening to
Spanish South America. In 1809 the trade through Heligoland was most
extensive; Bonaparte had his hands full with the Emperor of Germany and
with the Spaniards, and had no time to attend to the coast; the trade
during that year I may say was uninterrupted. The trade to the
Mediterranean increased very much; the quantity of goods taken out that
year greatly exceeded any previous year, for reasons that at that time
we could not account for. The trade to the Brazils was equally extensive
with the year before, vast exportations took place to South America, and
in general, trade in the line in which I am engaged was reckoned a fair
trade; the markets were never heavy.
[The Orders in Council increased the English export trade to the South
of Europe, and Africa and the Levant were supplied with English
substitutes for Continental cottons and linens.]
What has been the state of your trade for the last eighteen months, and,
as far as you have been informed, of the country in general?--The state
of the trade during the last eighteen months has been depressed; for the
last twelve months it has been recovering, but for the six months
previous it was very much depressed indeed.
To what do you attribute that depression?--We attribute the depression
of trade which took place to the effect of the Berlin and Milan decrees.
[Northern Europe, the Baltic, etc., were shut against English trade, and
English ships were sequestered even in Swedish ports.]
[Footnote 394: Brassfounding, hardware, plated ware, jewellery, etc.]
14. DEBATE ON THE CORN LAW [_Parliamentary History, 1st Series, Vol.
XXIX, Cols. 798-818_], 1815.
_House of Commons. February 17, 1815._
_The State of the Corn Laws._
The _Hon. Frederick Robinson_ immediately rose.... He had never
disguised from himself, and he was not ashamed to confess it, the
extreme difficulty, as well as the extreme importance, of this question.
He could not, however, but feel that the prejudices on this subject had,
from further inquiry, been very much removed. But, above all, he was
happy to see that the misrepresentations, for so he thought they were,
with respect to the motives of those who supported this measure, and
with reference to the effects which it was likely to produce, were done
away with. There did not now exist in the public mind the feeling by
which it was before influenced. It was not now supposed that the object
sought to be accomplished by the alteration of the corn law was the mean
and base and paltry one of getting, for a particular class of society, a
certain profit at the expense of the rest. "For my part," said Mr.
Robinson, "I declare to God, if I thought this was the motive which
actuated any individual who supported the alteration; and, above all, if
I conceived that such would be the effect of the measure, no
consideration on earth could tempt me to bring it forward." ...
* * * * *
... The general result of his reasoning was, in the first place, that
it was quite impossible for us safely to rely on a foreign import. If
they so did, a necessary result would be a diminution of our own
produce, which would become more and more extensive every year, and
consequently call for a greater annual supply from foreign countries--a
supply which must progressively increase as the agriculture of the
kingdom became less encouraged; and that, when the fatal moment arrived,
the system of foreign supply would prove completely illusory.
The next point to be considered was the extent to which protection
should be given. That was a point on which, undoubtedly, a difference of
opinion was most likely to prevail. Some gentlemen would be for going
considerably higher than others. Many thought the prohibition ought to
be carried to a price considerably above that, without he obtained which
it was conceived the agriculturalist could not cultivate. Others would
wish that it should be placed much lower; and contend that because a
particular species and degree of burden was likely to be removed, the
protecting price ought to be much reduced. Now he would be inclined to
agree to the first of these propositions, if the necessary effect of it
would not be to bring up the price of corn to the highest possible rate,
within the limits of the sum at which importation should commence. This
certainly might be the case at the first moment, but he believed the
ultimate result would not be so. He thought the final effect of the
system would be to give such a powerful support to our own agriculture
as would greatly increase the general produce of the country. It would
excite a strong competition between the different parts of England, and
between England and Ireland; so that the growth of corn, if Providence
blessed us with favourable seasons, would be sufficiently large to
afford an ample supply for the people of this country, and would enable
them to be fed at a much cheaper rate, in the long run, than could be
effected by the adoption of any other system.
* * * * *
_Mr. Philips_ professed himself equally inclined either to proceed with,
or defer the discussion, as might be most agreeable to the wishes of the
House. Several members calling out "Go on," he began by stating his
entire concurrence in the opinion of the right hon. gentleman who had
moved the resolutions, that this was not a question on which the
interests of the commercial and agricultural classes were at variance,
but one in which those interests, when fairly and liberally considered,
would be found to accord; for no resolution upon it calculated to
promote the general prosperity of the country could be adopted without
materially benefiting both classes. But if this were not the case, if
the question were one in which the interests of two or more descriptions
of our fellow-subjects were opposed, he should say that it was the duty
of parliament not to legislate for the advantage of one class in
contradistinction to, or at the expense of another, but to legislate for
the benefit of the whole community. Looking at the question under the
influence of this principle, he could not help feeling and expressing
some surprise at the occasion of their present deliberations. What was
the object of their deliberations? To provide a remedy for the low price
of corn. That which all ages and countries had considered as a great
national benefit was now discovered to be a great evil, against which we
were imperiously called to legislate in self-defence. The real object of
the resolutions, however disguised and disavowed, was to raise the price
of corn. [Here Mr. Robinson expressed his dissent.] Mr. Philips
proceeded to say that this not only was their object, but if that object
were not attained, the advocates of the resolutions would regard them as
nugatory. The right hon. gentleman must at least allow that their object
was to raise the present price of grain; but he contended that
moderation and uniformity of price would be their ultimate effect. It
did seem somewhat inconsistent, on the part of the hon. gentleman, to
tell the House that the effectual way to lower price was to acquiesce in
a measure expressly intended to raise it. But how are this moderation
and uniformity of price to be produced? By contracting the market of
supply. Thus, while in all other instances moderation and uniformity of
price are found to be in proportion to the extent of the market of
supply, in the instance of corn they are to be in proportion to the
limitation of it: and in a commodity peculiarly liable to be affected by
the variation of seasons, moderation and uniformity of price, and
abundance, are to be attained by preventing importations from foreign
countries correcting the effect of varieties of climate, and of a scanty
harvest in our own. To him it appeared that no measure could be better
calculated to produce directly opposite consequences.
* * * * *
In considering the relation between the price of provisions and of
labour, Mr. Philips observed that it was necessary to distinguish the
countries and the trades from which examples were taken. In a new
country where the value of land is extremely low, and agriculture
rapidly progressive, in a new and thriving manufacture, the price of
labour may be so high in proportion to that of the necessaries of life
as to be little affected by their fluctuations.... But this state of
things cannot exist in old manufactures, such as those generally
established in this country, where competition has reduced profits, and
that reduction of profit has brought the wages of the labourer to a
level with his subsistence in tolerable comfort. In such manufactures if
you raise the price of provisions without proportionately raising that
of labour, to what privations and evils must you necessarily expose the
labourer! He was ready to admit with the noble lord[395] that, _ceteris
paribus_, the immediate effect of a high advance of provisions might
probably be a reduction of the price of labour; because labourers being
desirous of obtaining the same comforts that they had been used to,
might be stimulated to more diligence. They might work sixteen hours a
day instead of ten, and thus the competition for employment being
increased among the same number of workmen, without any increase of
demand, the price of labour might fall. But will any person contend that
this state of affairs can long continue? The labourer must go to the
parish, or turn to some more profitable employment, if by chance any can
be found, or he must emigrate, or work himself out by overstrained
exertion. The proportion being then altered between the demand for
labour and the supply, its price will rise. This effect sooner or later
must happen, but till it has actually taken place how dreadful must be
the situation of the labourer!
* * * * *
Having thus shown both by reasoning and by reference to facts, that the
price of provisions must ultimately and on the average regulate that of
labour, he proceeded to show the effect that an advance of provisions
must have on our manufacturing interests. And here Mr. Philips said that
he wished on such topics, to reduce his reasoning as much as possible to
numerical calculation. He would suppose, for the sake of argument,
without at all entering into the enquiry, that three-fifths, or 60 per
cent. of the labourer's wages were spent in provisions, and that
provisions were 80 per cent. dearer here than they were in France, or
any manufacturing country on the continent. By multiplying 60 by 80, and
dividing by 100, the committee would see that the excess of the price of
labour here above that of France would, from these datas, and according
to his reasoning, be 48 per cent. He wished the committee to consider
what must be the effect of such an excessive price of labour employed in
our manufactures, when compared with the low price of labour employed in
the manufactures of France, and what an advantage it must give to the
French manufacturers in their attempts to rival us on the continent.
* * * * *
[After quoting Malthus] he observed that there were two ways of
equalising subsistence and population, one by increasing food, the other
by limiting population, and warned the committee against being led into
measures whose tendency might be to produce that effect in the latter
way. Why (said Mr. Philips) should a commercial and manufacturing
country like this have such a jealousy and dread of the importation of
corn? An importation of corn cannot take place without a corresponding
export of commodities on which British industry has been employed. The
export will increase your wealth, that wealth will increase your
population, and that increased population will produce an increased
demand for your agricultural produce.... Mr. Philips observed that no
country in the world was so interested as this in establishing the
principle of free trade, because no other country could profit equally
by the general recognition of that principle. Foreign nations,
mistaking, like the advocates of the regulation before the committee,
the circumstances which have operated against our wealth for the causes
of it, are now following our example. They are prohibiting or imposing
restraints on the import of our fabrics, in order to encourage their own
manufactures, from which they will receive inferior fabrics at a higher
price. Let us convince them, by an example, of their mistake. Let us
convince them that by leaving industry and enterprise unfettered, and by
allowing capital to take its natural and voluntary direction, we are
persuaded that the true interests of this country and of every other
will be most effectually promoted.
Mr. Philips proceeded to say that Great Britain was geographically a
commercial country, that commerce had stimulated her agriculture rather
than agriculture had stimulated her commerce. It had given wealth to her
people, and diffused fertility over her soil. Take care, said he, that
in attempting to change the natural character of your country, you do
not stop the progress of national prosperity....
[Footnote 395: Lord Lauderdale in evidence before a committee of the
House of Lords.]
15. THE CORN LAW OF 1815 [_Statutes, 55 Geo. III, 26_]
An Act to amend the laws now in force regulating the Importation of
Corn.
[Corn may at all times be imported and warehoused free of duty.]
III. And be it further enacted, that such foreign corn, meal or flour,
shall and may be permitted to be imported into the said United Kingdom,
for home consumption, under and subject to the provisions and
regulations now in force, without payment of any duty whatever, whenever
the average prices of the several sorts of British corn, made up and
published in the manner now by law required, shall be at or above the
prices hereafter mentioned; that is to say, whenever wheat shall be at
or above the price of eighty shillings per quarter; whenever rye, pease
and beans shall be at or above the price of fifty-three shillings per
quarter; whenever barley, beer or bigg shall be at or above the price of
forty shillings per quarter; and whenever oats shall be at or above the
price of twenty-seven shillings per quarter.
IV. And be it further enacted, that whenever the average prices of
British corn so made up and published shall respectively be below the
prices hereinbefore stated, no foreign corn, or meal, or flour made from
any of the respective sorts of foreign corn hereinbefore enumerated,
shall be allowed to be imported into the United Kingdom for the purpose
of home consumption, or taken out of warehouse for that purpose.
V. And be it further enacted, that the average price of the several
sorts of British corn, by which the importation of foreign corn, meal or
flour, into the United Kingdom shall be regulated and governed, shall
continue to be made up and published in any manner now required by law;
but that if it shall hereafter at any time after the importation of
foreign corn, meal or flour shall be permitted, under the provisions of
this Act, appear that the average prices of the different sorts of
British corn respectively in the six weeks immediately succeeding the
fifteenth day of February, the fifteenth day of May, the fifteenth day
of August and the fifteenth day of November in each year, shall have
fallen below the prices at which foreign corn, meal or flour may be,
under the provisions of this Act, allowed to be imported for home
consumption, no such foreign corn, meal or flour shall be allowed to be
imported into the United Kingdom for home consumption from any place
between the rivers Eyder and Bidassoa, both inclusive, until a new
average shall be made up and published in the London Gazette for
regulating the importation into the United Kingdom for the succeeding
quarter.
16. FREE TRADE PETITION[396] [_Commons Journals, Vol. LXXV._], 1820.
The Petition, etc.,
Humbly sheweth
That foreign commerce is eminently conducive to the wealth and
prosperity of a country, by enabling it to import the commodities for
the production of which the soil, climate, capital, and industry of
other countries are best calculated, and to export in payment those
articles for which its own situation is better adapted.
That freedom from restraint is calculated to give the utmost extension
to foreign trade, and the best direction to the capital and industry of
the country.
That the maxim of buying in the cheapest market and selling in the
dearest, which regulates every merchant in his individual dealings, is
strictly applicable as the best rule for the trade of the whole nation.
That a policy founded on these principles would render the commerce of
the world an interchange of mutual advantages, and diffuse an increase
of wealth and enjoyments among the inhabitants of each State.
That, unfortunately, a policy the very reverse of this has been, and is,
more or less, adopted and acted upon by the Government of this and of
every other country....
That the prevailing prejudices in favour of the protective or
restrictive system may be traced to the erroneous supposition that every
importation of foreign commodities occasions a diminution or
discouragement of our own productions to the same extent, whereas it may
be clearly shown that although the particular description of production
which could not stand against unrestrained foreign competition would be
discouraged, yet, as no importation could be continued for any length of
time without a corresponding exportation, direct or indirect, there
would be an encouragement, for the purpose of that exportation, of some
other production to which our situation might be better suited, thus
affording at least an equal, and probably a greater, and certainly a
more beneficial employment to our own capital and labour.
* * * * *
That, among the other evils of the restrictive or protective system, not
the least is, that the artificial protection of one branch of industry,
or source of production, against foreign competition, is set up as a
ground of claim by other branches for similar protection, so that if the
reasoning upon which these restrictive or prohibitory regulations are
founded were followed out consistently, it would not stop short of
excluding us from all foreign commerce whatsoever. And the same train of
argument, which, with corresponding prohibitions and protective duties,
should exclude us from foreign trade, might be brought forward to
justify the re-enactment of restrictions upon the interchange of
productions (unconnected with public revenue) among the kingdoms
composing the union, or among the counties of the same kingdom.
That an investigation of the effects of the restrictive system at this
time is peculiarly called for, as it may, in the opinions of your
petitioners, lead to a strong presumption that the distress which now so
generally prevails is considerably aggravated by that system, and that
some relief may be obtained by the earliest practicable removal of such
of the restraints as may be shown to be most injurious to the capital
and industry of the community, and to be attended with no compensating
benefit to the public revenue.
That a declaration against the anti-commercial principles of our
restrictive system is of the more importance at the present juncture
inasmuch as, in several instances of recent occurrence, the merchants
and manufacturers in foreign States have assailed their respective
Governments with applications for further protective or prohibitory
duties and regulations, urging the example and authority of this
country, against which they are almost exclusively directed, as a
sanction for the policy of such measures. And certainly, if the
reasoning upon which our restrictions have been defended is worth
anything, it will apply in behalf of the regulations of foreign States
against us. They insist upon our superiority in capital and machinery,
as we do upon their comparative exemption from taxation, and with equal
foundation.
That nothing would more tend to counteract the commercial hostility of
foreign States than the adoption of a more enlightened and more
conciliatory policy on the part of this country.