The Express.
London, England, 1849-11-23 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, FRIDAY EVENING, NOVEMBER 23, 1849.

THE FINANCIAL REFORM

INDIRROT TAXATION.

SECTION ITILS PV 713 Z

lIIT Till

TAUS Ott PAPIA, SIWSPAPW, AND ADVlernsaa.--_
The paper duty is as old one the warn of Eileen and
Frame Mem, with its kindred tames thersce at
thrtiosime, end as windows—tam ea tho anent
gems an light of the eno—th soap, leather. soles ab.
salute amemartes of life, it was inpoon to raise mosey to
Pay one nears to •1 humble the King of Trans.," Louts
lIV., se the MIMS& paean the. wan 13p le UNthete-
writing. ealined. plig parse. eardboads. sa
sill
beards wen denemithesd lbsiodate piper, an poll IL the
lb. duty, as lea per mt., unless maaubetund
tarred reps., without the ter Wog 'enviously to
which MSS tho paper was dethathmen -Mean dies, sod
paid lid. pots.. er 14e. per out. iffillmede or
of Wilma eltheiaMap
made lma material se the sethaLeinee paps;
216. per lb., or 21e. per ewt. thinly. Oa the Mee el
paper the tax was from 26 to 36 per that., to VS per nat sal
the ethemat.
In 1836 the duty was attend to its present rata of lid.
lb. on all paper, gad the restriction oa the use of maariale
abolished. The duty of lid. pee square yard oa pa t
printed or stained was then repaelwi, to the great rifer of
that branch of baser,. Indeed, the repeal of that thetnow
ties to industry has emost created • new breath of taaaa-
future, to the employment of many hang, to the beauti-
fying of dwelling-n, and the reffinemeat of domain
taste. The reed duty still been • proportioa of 60 pre
out. oa thane paper, gush ea the grocer weighs sad thargee
with the posed of saga, and from 7 to 20 per *nth on
lighter kinds in common use. Oa the lightest of all, that
mode for Bank of Bogland noise, the duty is infialteeintally
low ; to
ships'eathing paper, which is wed thteasively for
laying cm bottoms seder copper, it is 100 per coat.
The question has been somewhat sneeringly asked by
more than one Chathellor of the Ezehermer, wart &paw
them have waited en them to seek the drelltlen el the dry
on paper: " Bow moth cheaper mad a Mgr neempaper, se
• letter and omelette, or • IMO* mark bon, as she wrapper
of • pound weight of gam be tank to the methane by the
abeam of the duty?" The answer is, that the absence of
dote might act admit of a »Motion of prise as a slain
arti,de ; bat it meld determine whether the proprietor ell a
newspaper could earry oa bum= with or within' • rear
amain pent—whether he might afford to *Mk mem en-
genglie hmehl, or literature, to print en beer paper—
' eml k wend Morrow whether mem brembes d kothonte.
the sow la being,would exist or not. In KIM SPlMS4akillh
Es Genoa taw has been enforced lately oriel dip-
' , for weighing that heavy and streag paper thelispea-
for ounsmoditios such as rigor with the artiste rellatki.
Bet ens-half of the pries whisk the doorkeeper pays floe
that paper is a war tax, takes by geseremses from
the paper maker, while thadiereklie pspentisa Si the
other half of its act to the the/Myth to Mammas to
the paper maker, for looses sustain in hie badmen
the Excise obstructions, or of mho profit, exacta=
noised' Minium to wham the duty thaetioally gives a
monopoly of the paper trade, and who, except the govelf•
meat and its adherents, are lte only persona that, as • elm,
oppose the repeal of the paper tax. They enjoy • lama
treat it at the espouse of the paper manufacturers and the
public, thus:
The wholesale stationer knows that once in every pan
of six week., on an appointed day, the paper milker mut
pay theduty on the paper sold during the previous six
weeks. Except a very few makers, they are compelled, by
uneasily, to sell, and realise cash. The wholesale at :tither
buys nothing during the six weeks, but awaits the day, and
almost the hour, which be knows will trios the paper maker
to tall. Tee papas made must be sold; mosey (in the
thee of thane paper) must be obtained to pay the inexorable
revenue collector to-morrow, equal, or nearly, to the anneal
doll the wages of labour, coat of materials I
umd, rates and
ordinary taxes, Interest on capital lair, sled in maohlury sod
materials and interest on capital required to meet the snip
with punCluality, else the whole works will be stopped by
immediate distraint. To stop once from such • caws, le to
be stopped far ever. Tie paper mill must go on to-atomor,
and the next six weeks to provide for the deity payable at
the earl of that time, upon the paper made during ela week.,
petite/Hog to-day, this day included. On and on, oath *going,
and the debt of • six weeks' duty, incurred, the mill must go,
the maker most sell, and the wholesale stationers will only
give such a pries as a man, who must sel, must take. One
with an independent capital might withhold his supply Iron
the market for the, or two, or more periods of six weeks;
but the necessities of them makers who have not an inde-
pendent capital, the greater number in the trade, have
already axed the pries, gad he must take it. The whnesale
purchaser is also the merchant who sopplies, is moat owes,
the raw material. In all eases he does is to the needy
man, and declines to buy paper or advance money for the
terrible to morrow of the revenue Alone, unless part the-
cunt be taken in rags or old ropes at his own price. The
motions of the number of those wholesde stationers gives
them the easy power of combination. The paper to:
forces the trade into their hands—they combine—the paper
msksrs on one hand and the public on the other, suffer
from their monopoly. They alone, of all traders in paper,
defend the continuance of the duty.
In the ease of each a manufactory as one in Lancashire,
supply's', it I. believed, • half or more of all lb. sewn
pap rs is the kingdom, neither the sale of the manufactured
article, nor the purchase of the raw material, are through
the wholesale stationer. Cotton watts, the article tied, is
directly carried from the .pinning factories to the paper mill,
sad Ohs ,apply to the newspaper is sent out in like manor ;
et even her the price is regulated, not by the wholesome
law of demand tad supply, bat by cottontail of the duty.
Nor do the public gain the advantage in redaction of pd e
which would be presumed at a canary glean of this
branch of the subject; the public can gain no permanent
advantage from an unprofitable manufacture ; it cannot
continue to exist. II price falls below profit, quality
must Comm down to price ; thus, instead of that
natural law in manufactures, of improved means of
production always tending to lower prices or im-
prove qualities, the quality of paper is either deteriorated, or
it does not improve in properties to the great facilities which
mechanical and chemical mama affords for its production.
The public are geaerally familiar with the entertaining tracts
recently published by the Meson. Chamblee, of Edinburgh.
The nle of throe tracts wee all that could have been //a-
menably expected of any cheap publication; it woo enor-
mously liege, yet it did not afford • profit sufficient to in-
ducetheir continuance ; the duty on paper would have been
a handsome profit Because of that duty, the tracts timed,
aad the employment, the mores, and profit of many bun-
rinds of people ceased with them, or had to be competed
foe elsewhere, *bile the public were deprived of one supply
of chap and instructive reading.
Printers, stationers' booksellers, newsreader, book-
binders, type foundeve, artists, copperplate and litho-
graphic printers. cardmaken, paper-stamen, and paper
hangers, are all directly obstructed in their trade by
the duty on paper ; an is the author ; and b. sides the public,
for whose use paper is made, the duty is indirectly an ob.
etruetion ter the nthutry of millwrights and other ottehanics.
The pro ligi .us strain upon some of the machinery, and the
delicacy of other pasts, require the frequently applied skill
of the steehestet A few year ago the number of -manatee-
titters of paper was stated to be about 600; that number is
now condlerably reduced, and continues to decrease as the
smaller otawafecturen emetinue to fail to meet the revenue
eolltedoee through the monopolist wholesale stationer. It is
alleged with • show of probability, that the act of 1836,
whichfixes the day on which the duty is to be paid, oe the
manufacturer ruined, will, in • few more years, give the
whole paper making trade to • very Nw persons of large
capital, who may then esmbine to exact an exorbitaat price
from the public.
The stamp duty on newspapers has more advocithes than
Ina the paper duty. One says it is nothing more than a
mask to go trite by post; and size of paper considered, it is •
cheaper postage than that of a letter. Another defends the
stamps With the allegation, that they preserve the respect-
ability of the newspaper.
To the first of theme it may be answered, that • large pro-
portion of all newspapers an mold in the tome wham pub.
lished, and delivered without going into the posnoffiee. On
the purchasers of all each there is Wird a tax of 384 per
cent if the paper be 4t, or 26 per cent. if it be 6d., that cer-
tain other ponces living elsewhere my have their piper
seat tree by pod. There ammo so difficulty in devising an
ninety* label to attach as • portathestanip fat newspapers
actually seat through the past-office, whisk, by requiring a
substitute each time the same paper woe would
give more revenue to the post-office than its assumed share
of newspaper reverse taw.
The second objection to the abolition of the stamp, that
Its ahem' would entourage an inferior elm of papers, is th-
roned by • referents to America, where Dismay* no stamps,
bat the answer to this all. otitis ie—Let us look at home,
act abroad; let is examine our own aatithel tun in
podiditna iheratare. Ham not the cheep periodicals, in
wileitenseldal was the ladingingredient, daring the last
Mary yore, or after another, perished Aad have not
them Wed with instructive or innocent sanesineat
leinised in man sad circulation ? Ilafortunataly, it is
the Me that politioal dioquisitions are either mon profound
we meth pore awl free of personal vituperation, as the price of
the loons! rims. The questions of financial reform, economy
la the expenditure of public mousy, and the preservation of
reps have readiscaseed in the high-priced as well as the low-
plaid relelleala el England. In or selling at 2s. 66., in
Min M., tad ,at a fourth st are
treateder port of the
reser yew (1849), hose subjects amid personal
eroprientadose, saisquotations, and vituperative abuse of
the Winkling who advocate moony, peace, and complete
freedom to eonmerm, In • at le seldom equalled by the
obeeepross circulating betwera BaaTesettheo. Bat
the treatment of those subjects, in its style, is sot in accord-
ions, with the Briti-h national taste, nor with the taste of •
majority of throe who rood these periodicals ; the publishers
ars the led Judges of what the public like beet. One of the
meet mines* of them in Lsadon, it is reported, has lately
relieved himself Mat the unprofitable union of ea able sad
highly-paid writer, who had • natural tendency to be nun
rilous.
An ordinary newspaper pays • duty of 21 per amt on the
wee it thee. This alone, if remitted, would torma• profit
talizietit to improve the quality to meet the competition of
fresh papers—if any. The increased demand for a paper, at
81., wirch would be the price of those at Wattmeter, now
publishing with • peony sad a halfenny stamp (the latter
ice a supplement), would give a larger profit than is ob-
tained now, span from the gala of 21 pee mt. on paper.
The tondo& nom weal& be as good a property at 3td ,
without its penny and halfreany stamps as it is now at fid.
with them. In dares to which there would be the profits
on a larger sole; thrived& he 21 per cent saved oo
sad in adverthearrit 1011Wiletated revenue, for ces tithe
also the duty snot be ttlfallYL It is a chimera to see, or
allege the probability if esebeg as Wider elms et neve.
parrs Meg up, if the ere* std the dudes be removed.
The already seabird Vial "fall nal
Older lrfielldle elleriquess IfirCes7

Z 44 44

aser de. • new paper cannot is sae washy are la
ass per, establiek keen sa as &densities ametient, no
muter how popular fie Okla. And it I tram advertise-
meats that the- peat ea asetsgapers, if say, arkes. New
mem main be ed a sagmke to seldom permanent
meet" sad bedew sompstieses with those established. AU
• anew% es edam degree, harmonies with the wants and
tams d die seed* public. The weekly sad the proviadal
nowegagene see now tepees& to swoosairtion with sheep
*wag psdallesh, more them they be without taxes.
USW* aao public meat, or rums of ose, to mob the
weeklevasa peeler a newspaper to the day, he gets his
wets, be bays the pinny this and the penny that, sad the
dal kr threskalipease, sad has three papas kir aid.,
laeemd dose fee 4d. or er et old.- It k worthy of
note that, while tiKweettiag man may give his Willa( kk
beer, whisk requires the OMANI et no thought to orlak,
without ea seesemiesl swap* the same sea be-
comes as assomkt whoa baying a newspaper,
or period:hal, er leek, to read ' • be begins to
tidak Is the est of buying. bemuse the article is one
he the undo of thought. Tb. mare frequently
the westing men gees to the bookshop, the bake for him-
self and 511 moiety. He goes them sow seam thus he cam
did. Unto: the paper maker and the SeWiparlif. Gad lad-
ing a higher quality of latelleenual sad lama sourkkatent
at a lower plea, he will go hi the bookshop more and more,
and to the public house lees sad km.
As to the dug of U. Id. as advertissaseats, nobody de-
ltoids it. The OkasesUor of the Esabiqaer says ha mewl
spare the mosey. Doped this there is re sagsmeat. The
Pinsasial Reform Assosiatim slier a salatitate icr tho marl,
in direct tasatioa. This duty is me of the meet Adam in
primiple. It has been salW a tax upon want. ; but it is a
tax tided at one rate apes the man who wants employmirat,
to whom empioymeat k bread to eat, sad es the man who
weals • maresioa. who weals to preserve game, who wants
to mead kis wealth is deshreyieg the ignite of the fkkl ,• and
it is a tax operating spinet those who do not advertise. Many
hundreds if persons is may town, thousands of persons In
large ease, make their wants known lees perfectly by a
leagthseed lose el time or labour, or never make them
knows rather than pay the high price of advertleisg, while
this tax 'shames. The augmentation of incomes whisk
would flew into the dike of a newspaper masequeat es the
repeal el the advertisement duty, world be a mares of power
for the Literaryimprommeat of mat paper to withstand Dam-
petitioa, is addition to the profits ee larger miss blowing
the abeam, et the stamps, and the 20 es 26 per none. saved
at paper by the repeal et the paper duty. What ressoss,
Wen ,is there for saying the respectability of newspapers
would deteriorate ? The law of libel is as powerful against
a skeet without a stamp as with one. It would remain, but
the best proteedm against Mellow literature is the national
dislike to purehase snob commodities.
P B. Besides the excise duty on the manufacture of paper,
to which dose the foregoing remarks refer, there is a custom
house duty on foreign paper of 3d. per lb., and of 2d. per lb.
additional on stained paper. Those duties are called protec-
tive, bat the British paper manufacturen repudiate them ea
protective, hardly any minion paper being el • vales to cam
pets with British, men U admitted duty trot, and esrtainly
not, if British paper were made tax free.