The Sun.
London, England, 1840-10-19 00:00:00

IMPORT DUTIES,

Report of the Select Committee appointed to inquire
into the several Duties levied on Imports into the
United Kingdom, and how far those Duties are for
Protection to similar Articles, the Produce or Ma-
nufacture of this Country, or of the British Posses-
sions abroad, or whether tie Duties are for the pur-
poses of Revenue alone, and to whom several peti-
tions were referred, and who were empowered to re-
port the Miutcs of Evidence taken before them to
the House, have considered the matters to them re-
ferred, and agreed to the following Report :
The evidence is of so valuable a character, that your
Committee could hardly do justice to it in detail, unless
they were to proceed, step by step, to a complete ana-
lysis, which the advanced period of the Session will not
allow them to do. They must, therefore, confine them-
selves to reporting the general impressions they have
received, and submit the evidence to the serious consi'le-
ration of the House, persuaded that it cannot be atten-
tively examined without producing a strong conviction
that important changes are urgently required in our
Custom-house legislation.
The tariff of the United Kingdom presents neither
congruity nor unity of purpose.; no general principles
seem to have been applied.
The Schedule to the Act 3 and 4 Will. 4, c. 56, for
consolidating the Customs duties enumerates no fewer
than 1,150 different rates of duty chargeable on imported
articles, all other commodities paying duty as unenume-
rated ; and very few of such rates appear to have been
determined by any recognised standard, and it would be
difficult for any person unacquainted with the details of
the tariff' to estimate the probable amount of duty to
which any given commodity would- be- funadwubjeeted.
There are cases where the duties levied are simple and
comprehensive ; others, where they fall into details both
vexatious and embarrassing.
The tariff often aims at incompatible ends; the duties
are sometimes meant to be both productive of revenue
and for protective objects, which are frequently incon-
sistent with each other; hence they sometimes operate to
the complete exclusion of foreign produce, and in so far
no revenue can of course be received ; and sometimes
when the duty is inordinately high, the amount of reve-
nue becomes in consequence trifling. They do not
make the receipt of revenue the main consideration, but
allow that primary object of fiscal regulations to be
thwarted by an attempt to protect a great variety of
particular interests, at the expense of the revenue, and
of the commercial intercourse with other countries.
Whilst the tariff has been made subordinate to many
producing interests at home, by the sacrifice of revenue
in order to support these interests, the same principle cf
preference is largely applied, by the various discrimina-
tory duties, to the produce of our colonies, by which ex-
clusive advantages arc given to the colonial interests at
the expense of the mother country. Your Committee
would refer to the evidence respecting the articles of
sugar and coffee, as examples of the operation of these
protective duties.
Your Committee refer to a general account prepared
by the inspector of imports of the several articles im-
ported into the United Kingdom in 1838-39, stating in
separate columns the quantity imported, exported, and
retained for home consumption, with the rates of duty
chargeable on each, and whether in a raw state, par-
tially manufactured, or manufactured ; by which it
appears that 862 articles are divided into eight schedules,
which they submit to the serious consideration of the
House, viz.—
Schedule 1, containing 349 articles, producing less
than 1001. each of Customs duty, and in the aggregate,
total 8,050/.
Schedule 2, containing; 132 articles, producing from
100/. to 5001. each, total 31,6291.
Schedule 3, containing 45 articles, producing from
500/. to 1,0001. each, total 32,0661.
Schedule 4, containing 107 articles, producing from
1,000/. to 5,0001. each, total 244,7331.
Schedule 5, containing 63 articles, producing from
5,000/, to 100,0001. each, total 1,397,324/.
Schedule 6, containing 10 articles, producing from
100,000/. to 500,000/. each, total 1,838,630/.
Schedule 7, containing 9 articles, producing from
500,0001. each and upwards, total 18,575,074/.
Schedu'e 8, containing 147 articles, on which no duty
has been received, but on which there has been an ex-
cess of drawback of 5,398/.
It appears from the evidence of Mr. Porter, of the
Board of Trade, that the total amount of Customs Re-
venue received in the United Kingdom in the year
ending January, 1840, was 22,962,6101., of which total
araount,l7 articles, each producing more than 100,000/.,
produced 94i per cent., or £21,700,630
That 29 articles produced 3 9.loths per
cent., or

898,66

And that these- 46 articles produced 98
2-stha per cent., or 22,599,291
That all other articles, amounting to 144
in number, produced I 3-I:iths per cent. or 363,319

Showing that 190 articles, exclusive of