A PETITION AGAINST THE EXCISE BILL (1733).
The equitable distribution of taxation is a problem which no financial minister has ever solved to the satisfaction of all the interests in the country, and Walpole, one of the ablest of financiers, was unable to effect an adjustment of the burden which would please everybody. In the reign of William III. a land-tax had been imposed to meet the expenses of the French war, and this was alleged to press heavily and unfairly on the country gentry, who demanded that the wealthy trading interests should pay more. Walpole tried a salt-tax, which, of course, was very hard on the poorer classes; and in 1733 he proposed to turn the Customs levied at the ports on wine and tobacco into an excise levied on these articles in the possession of the traders. His reason was that owing to the prevalence of smuggling the Customs did not produce as much as they ought, and he thought that the excise duties would be more efficiently collected. The proposal was violently opposed; it was stated that the necessary inspection of warehouses was a violation of liberty, and Walpole was forced to give way. The citizens of London shared the general hatred of the measure, and set forth their reasons in a petition to the House of Commons.
Source.—Document quoted by Maitland, vol. i., p. 560.
Your petitioners observe in the votes of this Honourable House, that a Bill has been brought in, pursuant to the resolutions of the sixteenth day of March, for repealing several subsidies, and an impost now payable on tobacco of the British plantations, and for granting an Inland-duty in lieu thereof.
That they presume therefore, in all humility, by a respectful application to this Honourable House, to express, as they have already done in some measure by their representation to their members, the universal sense of the City of London, concerning any further extension of the laws of excise.
That the burden of taxes already imposed on every branch of trade, however cheerfully borne, is severely felt; but that your petitioners apprehend this burden will grow too heavy to be borne, if it be increased by such vexatious and oppressive methods of levying and collecting the duties, as they are assured, by melancholy experience, that the nature of all Excises must necessarily produce.
That the merchants, tradesmen, and manufacturers of this Kingdom have supported themselves under the pressure of the excise-laws now in force, by the comfortable and reasonable expectation, that laws, which nothing but public necessity could be a motive to enact, would be repealed in favour of the trade of the nation, and of the liberty of the subject, whenever that motive should be removed, as your petitioners presume it effectually is, by an undisturbed tranquillity at home, and a general peace so firmly established abroad.
That, if this expectation be entirely taken away; if the Excise laws, instead of being repealed, are extended to other species of merchandizes not yet excised, and a door opened for extending them to all; your petitioners cannot, in justice to themselves, to the merchants, tradesmen, and manufacturers of the whole kingdom, and to the general interest of their country, conceal their apprehensions, that the most fatal blow which ever was given, will be given on this occasion to the trade and navigation of Great Britain; that great spring, from which the wealth and prosperity of the public flow, will be obstructed; the mercantile part of the nation will become not only less able to trade to advantage, but unwilling to trade at all; for no person, who can enjoy all the privileges of a British subject out of trade, even with a small fortune, will voluntarily renounce some of the most valuable of those privileges, by subjecting himself to the laws of excise.
That your petitioners are able to shew, that these their apprehensions are founded both on experience and reason; and therefore your petitioners most humbly pray, That this Honourable House will be pleased to hear them by their Counsel against the said bill.