There were many variations in the mileage duty on stage-coaches. In 1780 it was one halfpenny for every mile travelled; in 1783 it was raised to a penny; in 1797 it was twopence, while subsequent increases led up to the highest rate of all—one of fivepence halfpenny per mile for coaches licensed to carry more than ten passengers inside. It was, in part, to moderate the pressure of this tax that Shillibeer introduced the omnibus into London,[[52]] his first conveyance being a huge, unwieldy conveyance which, drawn by three horses, spread the fivepence-halfpenny mileage duty over twenty-two inside passengers.
The yield from the mileage duty was £194,559 in 1814, £223,608 in 1815 (when there was an increase of one halfpenny per mile for every coach) and £480,000 in 1835.
So long as the stage-coaches were well patronised, little or nothing was heard about all this taxation, which was, in effect, passed on to the traveller, who either paid without grumbling or else grumbled and paid. But when the railways began to divert more and more traffic from the roads, the duties in question fell with special severity on the coach proprietors, who then divided their maledictions pretty equally between the railway companies and the tax-gatherers.
The mileage duty was especially burdensome under the new conditions. Being assessed on the number of persons each coach was licensed to carry, and not on the number of passengers actually carried, it remained at the same amount whether the coaches ran full, half full or empty. The fact that the railways, which were depriving the coaches of their patrons, then paid their halfpenny per mile only on every four passengers actually conveyed became a grievance with the coach proprietors, who thought that the railways should be taxed on the same basis as themselves.
That the taxation pressed heavily on a declining business was beyond all possibility of doubt.
A petition drawn up in 1830 by proprietors of stage-coaches employed on the turnpike roads between Liverpool and various Lancashire towns showed that the taxes they paid to the Government worked out for the year as follows:—
| £00s.00d. | |
| Duty on 33 coaches | 8,455016008 |
| Assessed taxes for coach servants | 261000000 |
| Mileage duty | 5,779003004 |
| —————— | |
| Total | 14,496000000 |
In addition to this they had to pay £8005 13s. 4d. a year for turnpike tolls, while their general expenses, including horses (renewed every three years), harness, hostlers, rent of stables, hay, corn and straw, etc., but allowing for value of manure, came to £64,602 13s. 4d., their total annual expenditure thus being as follows:—
| £00s.00d. | |
| Government duty and taxes | 14,496000000 |
| Turnpike tolls | 8,005013004 |
| Expenses | 64,602013004 |
| —————— | |
| Total | £87,104006008 |
W. C. Wimberley, a coach proprietor of Doncaster, who gave evidence before the Select Committee of 1837, said that the Government taxation on a single coach, the "Wellington," running between London and Newcastle, for a period of 364 days, was as follows:—