The excise duty on soap was first imposed in Great Britain in 1711, when it was fixed at 1d. per pound. It was raised in 1713 to 1½d. per pound; and again, in 1782, when hard and soft soap were first distinguished, the former being rated at 2¼d., and the latter at 1¾d. per pound. In 1816, that on hard soap was increased to 3d. per pound. But since May 31, 1833, the duty has been 1½d. per pound on hard soap, and 1d. per pound on soft. In 1839, the number of soap manufacturers in England was 177; in Scotland 19; and in Ireland 183. Each requires an annual license, costing 4l.
An allowance of duty is made on soap used in the woollen, silk, flax, and cotton manufactures, which in 1841 was granted on 10,190,160 pounds of hard, and 9,090,184 pounds of soft soap; the allowances amounting to 78,112l. In the same year the net amount yielded by the soap-duty to the public revenue was 815,864l. Ireland is not subject to the soap-duty.
The soap-maker was formerly subjected to an arbitrary and vexatious interference from the excise; but of late years the regulations have been greatly improved, and there is now no superintendence of the process of manufacture, which may be conducted in any way and of any material.]
FOOTNOTES
[231] Plin. xviii. 12, sect. 51, p. 475.
[232] It is beyond all doubt that the words sapo and σάπων were derived from the German sepe, which has been retained in the Low German, the oldest and original dialect of our language. In the High German this derivation has been rendered a little more undistinguishable by the p being changed into the harder f. Such changes are common, as schap, schaf; schip, schiff, &c.
[233] De Simplicibus Medicaminibus, p. 90, G.
[234] According to Aretæus De Diuturnis Morbis, ii. 13, p. 98, soap appears to have been formed into balls.
[235] Mart. xiv. 27. This soap acquired the epithet of Mattiacum from the name of a place which was in Hesse.