The Sun.
London, England, 1847-01-05 00:00:00

No. 16,941.

ASSOCIATION FOR THE REDUCTION
OF THE DUTY ON TEA.
WILLIAM NICOL, Esq., Chairman.
CHRISTOPHER RAWSON, Esq., and HENRY WINCH, Esq.,
Dei.uty Chairmen.
WILLIAM BALLEMY, Esq., Treasurer.
ROBERT C. CROSBIE, Esq.. and JOHN SCOTT, Esq.,
Honorary Secretaries.
COMMITTEE.

George Armstrong, Esq
Thomas Bold, Esq.
Edward Brodribb, Esq.
W. P. Bushby, Esq.
Malcolm Cores, Esq.
C. Cottesworth, Esq.
Edward Cropper, Esq.
John Cropper, jun., Esq.
J. Crostleltl, Esq.
It. Duckworth, Esq.
A. Findlay, Esq.
W. F. Foster, Esq.
R. Fry, Esq.
T. Fry, Esq.
George Grant, Esq.
W. F. Gray, Rsq.
Daniel Harrison, Esq.
Lawrence Heywerth, Esq_
In announcing the formation of this Association, the Committee
feel that little introduction from them is necessary to ensure from
the public their hearty concurrence and support, seeing the benefit
which would accrue to all classes of the community from the realisa-
tion of the object they have in view.
It has long been the conviction of philanthropists, that the obtain-
ing for the poor, at a moderate price, a beverage so wholesome as
tea, would be an inestimable boon, not merely on account of its com-
fort as an article of daily use, but especially on account of its
tendency to promote social feeling and temperance, with all the
domestic and orderly habits consequent thereupon.
Ample experience has also convinced the merchants engaged in
the tea trade with China, as well as those engaged in the tea trade at
home, that our export trade with the Chinese is in danger, and
that, to-preserve it, there is the most argent necessity for a large
reduction of the present high duty on tea.
The Committee earnestly request attention to the following con-
siderations on this important subject :
That pressing, as this duty does, most heavily on the lower kinds,
it prevents the use of tea amongst the most numerous class of our
countrymen. _ _ _ _

J. Houck, Esq.
A. Kelso, Jun., Esq.
Harold Littiedale, Esq.
Thomas Littledale, jun., Esq.
Hugh Matheson, Esq.
W. G. Molyneux, Esq.
William Potter, Esq.
W. Prowse, Esq.
William Rathbohe, Es l .
WiMain Rathbonc, jun., Esq.
W. Rotheram, Esq.
G. C. Schwabe, Esq.
T. W. sharland, Esq.
James Steains, Esq.
J. Thomson, Esq.
Charles Turner, Esq.
James Tyrer, Esq.

That the original cost of tea is very moderate, the bulk of the
qualities generally consumed varying from Bd. to 2s. per lb., and
that its consumption is restricted by no indisposition on the part of
the public to purchase it, but by its high price, caused solely by the
present oppressive duty.
That there is scarcely a limit to the capacity or disposition of the
Chinese to purchase our manufactures.
That while;as already stated, our duty on tea ranges from 200 to
400 per cent., the Chinese admit our imports at an ad valorem duty
of live per cent.
That this impolitic duty materially limits our exports to China, and
seriously interferes with the employment of labour.
_ _ _

The Committee feel confident-that a similar increase to that which
has taken place in the consumption of coffee, by the material reduc-
tion of the duty, may be anticipated from a proportionate reduction
of the duty on tea.

That thereby the consumption of tea would be greatly augmented,
and the revenue correspondingly benefited.

The Committee feel assured that there will hardly be found a
single opponent to the justice of their claim, and that it only requires
the hearty co-operation of the public to ensure success.
They have much pleasure in annexing a list of subscriptions
already received, and they respectfully solicit the assistance of the
public in furtherance of the object of the Association.
Subscriptions will be received by the treasurer, or any member of
the Committee.

WILLIAM NICOL, Chairman.
No. 1, Exchange-bulldings, Nov. 2, 1846.
SUBSCRIPTIONS.

Mr. C. Rawson -
Mr. H. Winch
Mr. R. C. Cresbie -
Mr. E. Brodribb
Mr. A. Kelso •
Mr. W. Prowse - • -
Mr. D. Harrison -
Mr. W. Balleny -
Mr. A. Findlay -
Mr. R. Duckworth
Mr. Steains -
Mr. J. Scott -
Mr. R. Jamieson -
Mr. J. Matheson -
Mr. C. P. Dickson -
Mr. W. Rathbone
Mr. W. Rathbone, jun. -
Mr. George Armstrong -
Mr. William Nicol -
Mr. Potter
Mr. Molyneux
Mr. R. Fry -
Mr. T. Fry -
Mr. J. Thomson -
Mr. W. Foster -
Mr. George Grant
Mr. Robertson Gladstone -
Mr. Smith Harrison
Mr. Joseph Crosfleld
Mr. T. W. Sharland
Mr. W. Retheram
Mr. James Tyrer
Mr. Thomas Bold -
Mr. J. Cropper, jun.
Mr. E. Cropper -
Mr. C. Cotesworth -
Corrie and Co.
Mr. Charles Turner -
Mr. William Earle -
Mr. Thomas Earle -
H. H.
Moffatt and Co. - -
Mr. J. Stokes
Mr. W. F. Gray -
Mr. W. P. Bushby -
Mr. Robert Lloyd -
Mr. Thomas Matheson -
Mr. G. Schwabe -
Mr. L. Hayworth -
Mr. H. Littledale
Mr. M. F. Brownrigg
Mr. G. Hargreaves -
Mr. Kindermann -
Mr. J. Hosack -
Mr. W. J. Millard -
Miller Brothers -
Mr. E. Hall -
3.rr. William Higgins
Mr. R. N. Jones -
Mr. J. A. Hulbert -
Mr. Thomas Murray
Messrs. Woodall and Jones -
Mr. Caleb A. Tate -
A Lady -
A Labouring Man -
Mr. James Chesney-
Mr. John Benyon -
Messrs. J. W. Cater and Co.
Mr. G. J. Wainwright -
James Alex. Scott -
Thos. Littledale, Jun.
John Wills
A. Radcliffe
Robert Roberts, Bank-buildings

£lO 10 0
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ADDRESS of the LIVERPOOL ASSOCIA-
TION for the REDUCTION of the DUTY on TEA.

In again calling public attention to the present oppressive and
impolitic tax upon tea, the Association are anxious to give promi•
nence to those facts which indicat, the necessity for an immediate
reduction of the duty.

The conclusion of the treaty with China encouraged confident
expectations of the extension of our trade with that empire. It was
reasonably anticipated that the low rate of duty imposed by its
Government upon British manufactures would be reciprocated by a
corresponding liberality in the admission of the staple production of
the Chinese for the use of ourselves. The elements of agricultural
industry essential to the production of tea,—the fertile and exten-
sive territory, and the superabundant population of China, esti-
mated at above 350,000,000,—are capable of enlarging its supply in
a ratio at least equal to that in which the machinery of our manu-
facturers can increase the production of fabrics required for exporta-
tion. Our imports of tea from China have never yet reached four
per cent. of the entire production of that country, according to the
best calculation.

It is, however, a notorious fact, that the expectations thus cherished
have been disappointed. The merchants are exposed to heavy losses
in the importation of teas, which are now selling in the British
markets at prices below their current value in China ; while at the
same time our manufactures are selling in China for less than the
cost of their production here. The population at large are unbenefited
by any practical result accruing from a treaty that has left behind it
a tax upon British ind G stry, which at the same time confe a bonus
upon foreign competition•
There is no difficulty in ascertaining the cause of so disastrous an
issue. The pressure of an impost, unprecedented in any other tariff,
cripples the operations of our merchants, and excludes our manu-
factures tom the larger proportion of the Chinese population ; while
it deprives the labouring classes in this country of one of the most
needful articles of domestic comfort. The foreign policy of our Go-
vernment has achieved a brilliant success ; but its results are marred
and counteracted by the incongruous arrangements of the Home
Exchequer. The chief export of China is brought in abundance to
our shores, only to accumulate in our warehouses. A tax, as
anomalous in ibs principle as it is mischievous in its results, stops at
once the tide of commercial prosperity and the pervading currents of
social civilization.

Under such circumstances, it is almost as easy to predict the future
as to review the past A losing trade can never be a permanent one.
The discouraging results of this year's imports will curtail the ship-
ments of the next. Comparative scarcity, and proportionately high
prices, will follow. The professed intention of the financial measures
of Government for some time past has been to cheapen the necessa-
ries of life. In this country tea occupies a more prominent place
among those necessaries than in any other. Under tiro operation of
any uniform and reasonable system of taxation, it would, therefore,
have been recognised as a primary object for the ameliorative inter
position of Government. On the contrary, however, the Legislature
of the country in which it is most extensively consumed is the last
to recognise its importance in the civil and social economy of the
state. The British Government has afforded every facility for its
supply to other countries, where it is little more than an occasional
luxury, and has impeded its consumption among ourselves, where its
use is indispensable.

The necessities of the Exchequer, the only plea advanced in pallia-
tion of an impost so obviously indefensible, is one which will not
bear examination. There is no reason to apprehend that the reduc-
tion of the ditty to Is. per pound would leave a deficit of any import-
ance. The immediate result of such a change would unquestionably
be the liberation of a larger quantity from bond than had ever been
taken out during the same period before. If any temporary pres-
sure upon our finances existed, it would thus be promptly relieved.
There is no room to doubt that in the further course of time the gra-
dual increase of consumption would enlarge the revenue upon a sure
and satisfactory basis. This is not a gratuitous conjecture, but a
reasonable deduction from the result of similar changes in the duties
on coffee and sugar ; and, above all, it is confirmed by the only two
existing precedents of a reduction in the tax upon tea itself. In
1744, the duty was reduced from 131. 18s. 7V. per cent. and 4s. per
lb. to 38/. 18s. 74d. per cent. and Is. per lb. The consumption im-
mediately advanced nearly 50 per cent. In 1784, the duty was re-
duced from i5l. 15e. 10d. per cent. and la. Id. 4-sths per lb. to 12y,
per cent. The consumption was at once more than doubled. In
1785 it was trebled, and is 1794 it was quadrupled. Since that pe-
riod the duty has gradually advanced. Under the monopoly of the
East India Company it was 100 per cent. ; and muter a system of in-
dividual enterprise and competition, it is nearly 200 per cent. Every
reduction in the price of the article has, however, been followed by
an increase in its consumption.
The present consumption of tea in this country amounts to an
average of about I%lb. per head per annum for the entire popula-
tion. This is about one-fourth of the allowance usually afforded to
domestic servants in familes of the middle classes ; it is less than
one-half of the quantity consumed in the Channel Islands, where all
intoxicating beverages are far cheaper than in this country; and it
is scarcely one-sixth of the proportion used in Australia, by a popu-
lation whose physical requirements will appear to most persons less
favourable to its use. Whatever test may be applied to our present
consumption, it will evidently appear to be restricted by the artificial
limits of price, and not by any objection to the qualities and proper-
ties of the article. A careful examination of these will justify the
conclusion that it is adapted more than any ether beverage for in-
corporation with every description of diet, and for use at every
meal ; that it is suited to every variety of physical constitution,
and adequate to sustain every description of mental or corporeal
exercise.

The present duty amounting to two-thirds of the cost of the most
serviceable descriptions of tea, it is evident that the dealers require,
In order to cover their investments in its purchase, three times the
profit which would repay them, were the article free of duty. The
public have thus to pay a tax upon a tax; the magnitude of the im-
post, in the first instance, being indefeasible and oppressive. Were
the duty reduced to Is. per lb., the consumer would obtain at least
31bs, of tea for the seine money that lie now pays for 2lbs. ; and
there is no doubt whatever that the larger quantity would be used.
Is the consumption of every pound of tea involves that of 51bs. of
sugar, the extra duty on the latter, added to that on the increased
quantity of tea at Is., would at once yield a revenue of about four
millions, according to the most moderate computation, while the
future enlargement of this source of public income might confidently
be expected.
The committee conceive it unnecessary to enlarge upon those
moral and social benefits that may fairly be anticipated under the
operation of a more equitable impost. They are persuaded that the
removal of those restrictions which now impede the use of a cheap
and Salubrious beverage would be highly conducive to the happiness
and well-being of the community, by encouraging habits of tem-
perance and domestic comfort, and by supplying practical dissua-
gives from crime. They regard the burden of the tax as now
pressing upon the energies of the entire population, under what-
ever character these may be beneficially developed ; and they there-
fore invite the sympathy and support of all classes in their efforts
for its removal.

WILLIAM NICOL, Chairman.
LlTCriaini, NOTOInbe, 1846.