The Express.
London, England, 1849-05-29 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, TUESDAY EVENING, MAY 29, 1849.

THE TEA DUTY.

The Liverpool Financial Reform Association thus
continue their examination of the tea trade:—
The argaments urged in favour of • reduction of the tee
duty, by the House of Commons committee of 1847, sad by
the witnesses which that committee examined, ere ergommts
bearing with equal troth, and far greater force, in roar of
the abolition of the duty.
It was proved that a reduction of the tax of 2s. 21d. per lb.
to le. would increase consumption of tea in Britain, and
facilitate the sale of British manufactures in China. But by
the same proofs the free import of tea would effect those
desirable rettJts sooner, and in • larger proportion of in-
onian than the relative proportions of the puma high sad
the proposed low duty.
Evidence was addsod to prove that which not even the
most obstinate unbeliever in free trade denies or doubts,
namely, that tea is preferable to intoxicating liquors; that
sodalcomfort, moral dignity, and intellectual strength arise
and are extended through society wherever temperance
lea& the way ; that tea is the genius of temperance, carry-
ing with it a tippler life wherever it entire 11 featly, and
dislodges that thitf and tyrant which at mensal' away the
brains and the money ; that tea is restrained in its regene-
rating minion by the heavy tax upon its use ; and that tf the
tax were reduced it would Do more diciest as a moral
agent for good. But hew much more would the abolition
of the tax enlarge the moral agency of this u of life ?
Let us glance et some of the evidence. Fine, at the proofs
given by commercial witnesses that the tea duty is en over-
-1 powering enemy to the extension of British exports to Chins.
Mr. Robert Gardner stated,—" 1 am a spinner and mann
facterer, and have been • considerable shipper to China."
"What have you felt to be the operation of the duty on
your transactions?"
I think it is man injurious; oar trade is limited only by
our returns. As to the capabilities and disposiions of tbe
' Chinese I believe that if they had the means of paying for
I them they' would take nearly all the goods that we could
manufacture in Lancashire." _ _

This is a remarkable declaration, bat Mr. Gardner is
speaking the opinion of many other experienced merchants,
and ts referring to the requirements of three hundred mil-
lions of custernen, inhabitants of China. He continues :
"It has been asked why we should continue so bad a
trade; permit me to say that we never contemplated the
present eta'( of things. We took the matter as certain that,
after the Chinese had taken almost all the duty off our goods,
cur government would have 'net them with • corresponding
reduction. Anticipating this, we continued our shipments.
Sir Henry Pottinger, when be was in Manchester, spoke
mach about the facilities for extending our trade, and we
still hoped that government would have remitted part of the
duty on tea. Therefore we continued to ship not what the
Chinese could have consumed, lout to the extent we cond.
doted they had the means of paying for. In consequence,
the entire trade of 1846 has been most disastrous. There
has not only been a lees upon all the gnoda shipped in 1846,
but a great loss upon the returns. We anticipated, when
the trade was opened, a very large and beaeficial inter-
course with China, but instead of which most bosses in the
trade have suffered heavy lo sae It has been a most ruinous
trade."
The following statement of the east of calico in Manches-
ter and of tea in China is instructive ; it was referred to in
Tract N 3. 3, but will bear repetition, now thet the Associa-
tion are going more folly into the question of the tea duty :
" The runmittee," said Mr. Gardner, "have heard shirt-
less named. A piece of shirting, the cost of which, in Man-
chester, is from about 9s. Gil. tolls., according to the quality,
oriel porchste twelve pounds of the average (1111111t7 of tea.
The Chinese levy a duty upon that piece of shirting of
714.; and we levy upon the tea which we receive in ex-
change for it 26s 3d. Grey cotton shirting* Is one erten
largest artic:es of export. Yon is the next largest snide.
Upon yarn they levy a duty of near Sec-eighths of •
penny p:r lb.; 12 lbs. of average quality of yarn, or one
piece of avenge quality of shirtiep, will more than pay
for 12 lbs. of the average quality of tea. I am econinced
that a reduction of the duty might be made, if it were done
judiciously, without any loss whatever to the revenue.
" I Sad that in 1783, the duty was stout as. 84. the
lb. In speekirg of the quality and the price of tea, the
trade always alludes to one standard quality. This
standard quality, in 1793, was 7.. 6d. to Bs. the lb.. ia-
eluding the duty, which was then about 3.. 4d. In 1784,
the duty was reduced to 124 per cent. ad valorens ; conse-
quently, the price to consumers was from 3.. Bd. to 3s. 104. •
and the consumption TON in one year from 4,700,000
weight to 10,159,000 lbs.; and the year after it was
15,8-51.000 lbs. In 1795, with;ei twelve years af terwuds, the
consumption rose to 21,342,900 lbs. If the committee will
calculate they will find that the public paid more wort
for tea in 1784, at the price of 3s. 84. to 3s. 101., them they
paid the previous year, when it was 7s. 6d. to Be.
"Thee consumption of tea continued to increase more or
leas es the duty was higher or lower, till last year (1846) it
was 46,000,000 lbs. I believe if the duty were reduced
from 2.. 244. to Is. 64., the consumption would be at lent
60,000,000 les. I take it fur granted that every Found extra
consumed of tea would cause a consamption of 4 los. of
sugar. This is the grocers' calculation for families who en
in the habit of allowing two ounces of tea to eight ounces
of sugar to each servant per week. • • • I believe it
would give employment to 20,000 workpeople extra; and
to at least 60 wants errs of 400 tons each."
Mr. Gardner subsequently suggests that there should be a
further reduction of the tea duty, at the rate of
', threspeureung
year, Del it reach. s simmee per lb. Rethinks the q
used would be so much greater than it now is that there
would be no defletrecy in the revenue; hut he reckon. the
duty on sugar in his estimate, which is to be viewed not as
likely to yield a certain revenue, increasing with the con-
sumption of tea, but rather as a certain hindrance to the use
of tea. It has been proved by evidence not to be questioned,
that many of the working population, etpecially in factories,
drink their tea without sugar. Cheaper tea would indorse
them to use it more freely than at present, but sugar taxed
as now would only confirm them in the rejection ef it; am-
eequently the abolition, rather than the reduction, of the
tea and sugar duties, becomes one question. This can only
he effected by the substitution of direct taxation. Nor would
the e .ntinuaace of the sugar and part of the tea duty admit
of that large addition to the employment of chipping which
would immediately follow their repeal. Nor would the
coast-guard and custom-holm:system be lens expensive to the
public, vexatious to the importer, and &morselling to the
servants of commerce than they are now ; while the snit-
ence of the present revenue system is found to be a eafident
teases, even with legislators favourable to the entire &brew
tion of the navigation laws, for rittainirg the netrictioes
upon the coasting trade; because they my, the presence of
foreign vessels coasting on the British shores, though only te
deliver cargoes carried from foreign countries., if out of the
used homeward-bound track., would afford a cover f,r
smuggling which the revenue (sailers could not detect.
Whatever truth there is in this suppesition, it is an argument
against indirect taxation and the revenue system. We have
that commerce which is so deeply. interested in the freedom
and augmentation of shipping crippled upon both sides, and
shipping itself restricted to a limited trade under the name
of being protected. Sugar, tea, coffee, and other taxed
articles would spread fleets upon the ocean which do not yet
exist, If these taxed articles were admitted free of duty. To
ease unseen' from the bondage of the navigation laws, an
effort is mule to repeal them ; hut the revenue system is de-
clared to be inernapatible with free navigation on the crane
and the tax on near, tea, coffee, tobacco, wine, &c., demands
the continuance of the revenue system.
In another part of Mr. Gardner's evidence he is salted,—
" Have you observed the effect upon the consumption of
the working classes of a reduction of duty upon tea?"
And answers,—
" I believe it would be very great. I come a good dal
into contact with the working classes, who have manifested
greater anxiety for tea to be cheaper than they have does
tithes about corn or sugar, or any thing she. Most factory
Mods have a great taste fee it. flume seen them talc.
It without either milk or sugar. It has come into such
neiversal use became it requires no management in the
smoking; it only requires boiling water, which theyean always
obtain in a mill.'
" It has been said that the consumption of tea leads to •
nesumption of spirit'. Do you believe that to be the user
" I believe the very reverse. If it please God we have •
better trade,—that is, more work and better wager,—l think
it very probable that the consumption of tea would be double
in two years, if sold at a lower price."
He then reverts to the losses upon the tea beereelni.
through the nueertainty of commersial endusecm, eft
in
in China, sad says, " I amof opinion that if all dm las et
present in this country were sole at the Tay Itlerbeet own
rency of this day, it would leave to the importer a tine less
of 6d. per pun"
Mr. Walter Buchanan, partner in a hones in fibegow,
trading for many years to Singapore. and in the practise el
making remittances to China, stated that tea is slwsys tbe
principal means of remittance from China, and that heavy
losses had been incurred. He said, " I consider, as far eie
China is concerned, that the limit of our trade with Chime'
must be the extent to which we can consume tea and other
Chinese produce." And he added that the taste for tea woo,
in Scotland, en the increase.
Mr. Farbridge, of Blanchester, largely engaged in the trade
with China, stated,—
"I do not believe there is any possibility of a farther ex-
portation of our manufactures to China without an alteration
in the sync= of the duties; and I feet there an ao means of
sending out oar manufactures cheaper."
• " The amount to be taken by the Chimes is limited by
their power of paying ?
A. "Yes; it has got to a barter trade almost entirely."
Mr. Turner, deputy-chairman of the Esse India and
China Association of Liverpool, stated that his knowledge
of the trade was priampdly as regarded the export of
British manufactures to China ; the present position of the
trade be considered to be very unsatisfactory. Goods an
principally told for barter; if you sell goods for cult, he
esid, you sell them at a very inferior price. The barter
makes it a very lengthy trade. It is probably twelve or
fifteen months before the returns are got home; and it is six
or eight or twelve months more before those returns are
realised.
Q " Are there any other impediments to the trade betides
those you have mentioned ?"
A. " I consider that if the duty on tea were reduced, the
trade would become a much more extensive one as regards
the export of manafac'ured goods, and a more satisfactory
one. I think the probability is, that if we took a much
greater quantity of tea from the Chinese, as we should do
under a diminished duty, the consequaes would be that
they would take from us a meth larger quantity of goods.
Our friends in China, who are well acquainted with manu-
factured goods, spoke of English goods as being liked by the
Chinese, and that there was no doubt they would take a very
large quantity of our manufactures."
Almost every mercantile witness gives similar testimony
but the scientific witnesses as to the deterinrrtion of the
teas through the duty are hardly less important. We shall
present an epitome of what the chemise' said in another
'action.