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.,
Deputy Chairmen.
WILLIAM BALLEXY, Esq., Treasurer.
ROBERT C. CROSBIE, Esq., and JOHN SCOTT, Esq.,
Honorary Secretaries.
COMMITTEE.

George Armstrong, Esq.
Thomas Bold, Esq.
Edward Brodribb, Esq.
W. P. Bushhy, Esq.
Malcolm Corris, Esq.
C. Cottesworth, Esq.
Edward Cropper, Esq.
John Cropper, jun., Esq.
J. Crosfield, Esq.
R. Duckworth, Esq.
A. Findlay, Esq.
W. F. Foster, Esq.
11. Fry, Esq.
T. Fry, Esq.
George Grant, Esq.
W. F. Gray, Rsq.
Daniel Harrison, Esq.

J. Hosack, Esq.
A. Kelso, jun., Esq.
Harold Littledale, Esq.
Thomas Littledale, jun., Esq.
Hugh Matheson, Esq.
W. G. Molyneux, Esq.
William Potter, Esq.
W. Prowse, Esq.
William Ratbbone, Esl
William Rathbone, jun., Esq.
W. Rotheram, Esq.
(1. C. Schwabe, Esq.
T. W. Sharland, Esq.
James Steains, Esq.
J. Thomson, Esq.
Charles Turner, Esq.
James Tyrer, Esq.

Lawrence lieywerth, Esq. I
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 alse 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 urgent 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. _ . _

That the original cost of tea is very moderate, the bulk of the
qualities generally consumed varying from Sd. 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 fp 0— - At •
Otatuetle to pureness 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 five 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 suece.s.
They have mach 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. I, Exchange-buildings, 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. H. 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 -
3fr. T. Fry -
Mr. J. Thomson -
Mr. W. Foster
Mr. George Grant
Mr. Robertson Gladstone -
Mr. Smith Harrison
Mr. Joseph Crosileld
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 -
11. 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. 11. Littledale
Mr. M. F. Brownrigg -
Mr. G. Hargreaves -
Mr. Kindermann -
Mr. J. Hosack
Mr. W. J. Millard -
Miller Brothers -
Mr. E. Hall -
Mr. William Higgins
Mr. R. N. Jones -
Mr. J. A. Hulbert -
Mr. Thomas Murray
Messrs. Woodall and Jones -
Mr. Caleb A. Tate -
A Lady - -
A Lalmuring Man -
Mr. James Chesney-
Mr. John Benyen
Messrs. J. W. Cater and Co.
Mr. G. J. Wainwright -
James Alex. Scott -
Thos. Littledale, Jun.
John Wilks
A. Radcliffe
Robert Roberts, Bank-buildings

£lO 10 0
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ADDRESS of the LIVERPOOL ASSOCIA-
TION for the REDUCTION of the DUTT 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 indicate 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 stry, which at the same time confe a bonus
upon foreign competition' er„
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 fr, in the larger proportion of the Chinese population; while
it deprives the labouring classes in this country of one of the most
reedfhl 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 ire principle as it is mischievous in its results, stole 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 the 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 consumptien 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 defy to ls. 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-
des! 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
1741, the duty was reduced from 131. 18s. 7%d. per cent. and 4s. per
lb. to 381. 18s. 7%d. per cent. and Is. per lb. The consumption im-
mediately advanced nearly 50 per cent. In 1784, the duty was re-
duced. from 651. 15s. 10d. per cent. and le. Id. 4-sths per lb. to 123(
per cent. The consumption was at once more than doubled. In
1785 it was trebled, and in 1794 it was quadrupled. Since that pe-
riod the duty hes gradually advanced. Under the monopoly of the
East India Company it was 100 per cent. ; and wider 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 13slh. per head per annum for the entire popula-
tion. This is about one-fourth of the allowance usually afforded to
domestic servants in families 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 persona 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-
corporatien 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 prevent 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 indefensible and oppressive. Were
the duty reduced to la. per lb., the consumer would obtain at least
31bs, of tea for the same money that he now pays for 21bs. ; and
there is no doubt whatever that the larger quantity would be used.
As 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
moderate
of tea at Is., would at once yield a revenue of about four
millions,
according to the most computation, while the
future enlargemcnt of this source of public income might confidently
be expected.
The committee conceive it unnecessary to enlarge upon those
meerraluand social benefits that inay fairly be anticipated under the
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for sympathy and support of all classes in their efforts
fore removal.nitisve it te

Liverpool, November WILLLA.O XICOL, Chairman.
1846