When the war was over, Mr. Gladstone desired that the added duties on tea, sugar, and other necessaries of life, should be taken off; but on the 6th of March, 1857, "the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Sir George Lewis, announced a modification of the Budget resolutions so far as the tea duties were concerned, and proposed that the amount of the tax, which he had arranged for three years, should be applicable for one year only. Mr. Gladstone moved an amendment to the effect that after April 5, 1857, the duty should be 1s. 3d., and after the 5th of April, 1858, 1s. The amendment was negatived by 187 to 125, and the Chancellor of the Exchequer's resolution, fixing the duty at 1s. 5d. was carried." In 1865 the duty was reduced to 6d. under Mr. Gladstone's Government, and at this figure it remains. But the attention of the Chancellor of the Exchequer has recently been called to the disadvantage under which the Indian tea-industry is placed by the imposition of the English Customs duty of 6d. per lb. on all tea imports, and the object of the memorialists was to induce him to consider the expediency of abolishing or modifying this duty when framing his financial budget. It was pointed out that the Indian tea-industry is greatly in want of such relief, as evidenced by recent Calcutta reports showing the market value of the shares of the joint-stock tea companies.
Out of a total of 116 companies forty-six only gave any dividend on the crop of 1882, and of these forty-six only twenty paid over five per cent. Of the seventy which gave no dividend not a few have paid nothing for several years, and many are struggling on under the incubus of borrowed capital, with the hope of improvement in the markets, the cause of this depression being directly traceable to the heavy fall in prices during the last few years. The opinion was expressed that if the trade could be relieved of the present heavy tax of from 50 to 100 per cent. on the value, it might be fairly assumed that a reduction of, say, 4d. per lb. to the consumer would lead to a large increase in the consumption, and leave a return of the remaining 2d. per lb. more to the producer, which would in many cases prove a working profit to gardens now being carried on at a loss.
Reference was also made to the argument, of which doubtless the Chancellor of the Exchequer is aware, that inasmuch as the average value of Indian teas is higher than that of China teas, the present duty weighs more heavily on the latter, and consequently that its abolition would deprive the Indian importer of a certain amount of protection; but at the same time the opinion was expressed that a general reduction of prices to the consumer all round would induce on the part of the public a more general preference for the superior quality of the Indian produce, and that the increased demand for it thereby engendered would more than counterbalance any loss of protection which might be sustained.
As will be seen from the following table of the duties, the consumers of tea contribute very largely to the revenue of the country:—
| £. | |
| 1874 | 3,248,446 |
| 1875 | 3,568,634 |
| 1876 | 3,706,831 |
| 1877 | 3,723,147 |
| 1878 | 4,002,211 |
| 1879 | 4,162,221 |
| 1880 | 3,698,338 |
| 1881 | 3,865,720 |
| 1882 | 3,974,481 |
| 1883 | 4,230,341 |
| ————— | |
| 38,180,376 |
The annual expenditure on tea amounts to about 11,000,000l. Large as this amount appears, it sinks into insignificance when compared with the expenditure upon intoxicating drinks. During the last year it amounted to no less than 125,477,275l. There are few who would regret to see this formidable amount reduced to a fourth of its present dimensions; and no one surely will deny that if everybody drank tea, instead of alcoholic drinks, a great reform in the habits of the people would take place. Drunkenness, and its attendant evil, pauperism, would cease; plenty would take the place of poverty, joy for sadness, health for sickness; and happiness would reign throughout the land.
Reference has already been made to the fact that England stands next to China as the greatest tea-drinking nation; and it appears that the working classes consume the largest proportion of tea imported. Professor Leoni Levi compiled in 1873 an elaborate estimate of the amount of taxation falling on the working classes of the United Kingdom; and in his report he shows that from consumption of tea alone they contributed 2,200,000l. to the revenue, as against 900,000l. by the middle and upper classes. At the present time, however, the working classes contribute over 3,000,000l. as their proportion of the duty upon tea. A clearer light is thrown upon their contributions to the national exchequer by the following table showing the proportion for every pound of taxes paid from each item:—
| As falling on the Working Classes. | As falling on the Middle and Upper Classes. | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| s. | d. | s. | d. | ||
| Spirits | 7 | 5 | Local taxes, land, houses, &c. | 7 | 0 |
| Malt | 3 | 0 | Stamps | 3 | 3 |
| Tobacco | 3 | 0 | Income-tax | 3 | 0 |
| Local taxes and houses | 2 | 9 | Spirits | 1 | 10 |
| Tea | 1 | 5 | Malt | 0 | 9 |
| Sugar | 1 | 0 | Tobacco | 0 | 9 |
| Licences | 0 | 9 | Sugar and tea | 1 | 0 |
| Other taxes | 0 | 8 | Land and houses | 0 | 10 |
| Wine | 0 | 7 | |||
| Other taxes | 1 | 0 | |||
| —— | —— | —— | —— | ||
| Total £1 | 0 | 0 | Total £1 | 0 | 0 |
The Professor classes tea as a necessary, but confesses that it is difficult to define whether certain articles in daily use are necessaries or luxuries. Many articles, he points out, such as white bread, tea, sugar, which not long ago were considered luxuries, are now, with the improved condition of the people, regarded as absolute necessaries. He refers, in particular, to the effect of indirect taxes in greatly enhancing the cost of the taxed article to the consumer. "The wholesale import price of tea, for example, may be 1s. a pound, and upon this there is 6d. duty. But immediately as it passes from the importer to the dealer, and from the dealer to the retailer, the whole price, duty paid, is charged first with ten, and then with thirty per cent. to meet expenses and profits of trade, whereby the retail price is increased probably from 2s. to 3s. 6d. or 4s. per lb. This trading, therefore, constitutes so much extra tax, and it is a tax which the working classes pay to the middle and higher classes, through whose hands such articles pass." Whether we shall ever have a free breakfast-table, it is impossible to say; but if the tax on tea were abolished, it is obvious that it would be necessary to impose some other tax, probably even more objectionable.