The Sun.
London, England, 1846-12-07 00:00:00

EFFECTS OF RAILWAYS UPON

AGRICULTURE.
The following are extracts from the evidence of James
Smith, E-q , e f Deanston), given before the Select
Committee of the House of Commons on Railway Acts
Enactments—the minutes of the testimony adduced be
for, which Committee have just been issued, pursuant to
an order of that House, dated the 25th of August last.
The extracts in question relate to the fffects of the fa-
cilities afforded by railway conveyance to agricultural
improvement :
Have you had occasion to consider the facilities afforded
by railway conveyance to agricultural improvements ?
Yes. I have.
Will you state generally what you consider has been
the result ?—I have observed upon those lines that have
been in existence for some years, over which I have had
occasion to travel, that a very great agricultural im-
provement of the lands in the neighbourhood has been
the result, arising mainly from the cheapness and facility
of transports ; and I have drawn out some tables to illus
trate that. I have one table taking a farm or 200 acres
and a six course shift ; the committee are aware that
there are different shifts of rotation, and that some lards
suit best to be cultivated upon oi:e. and some upon the
other. I have taken this farm upon the six course shift.,
which is most suitalle for the bulk of the medium land of
Englar d and Scotland ; I have supposed that farm to be
in most full cultivation, thoroughly improved, and to be
both arable and pasture. I have taken the quantities
of green and dairy produce and cattle, and every
thing which I can conceive will be exported from
that farm ; and it amounts to 148 tons. I have
then taken away the imports, consisting of store cattle to
be fed, lime and other matters, such as guano, and the
different chemical manures which are now being intro •
duced ; and also seed, because the shifting of seed in a
good farm is always attended to ; and I have supposed
that this weight shall be transported upon an average 15
miles, which I thick is a very low estimate. The quan-
tity imported will be 197 tons ; making altogether, of
imports and exports, 346 tons 14 cwt.
That is all for 15 miles ?—Yes. Then I have taken
the expense of transport by railway at Id. per ton per
mile; on some railways it is considerably higher, and on
some lower, but in the present advanced state of railways
we may fairly assume that to be the general rate.
For the produce transported, and the manure brought
to the land ?—Yes ; taking it upon the average that I
have taken, and also taking the number of persons that
will travel to market, and in ♦arious ways, at Id. per
mile, the whole amount of charge of carriage for imports
and exports is 401. Bs. 9d. By the old mode of convey-
ance the expense would have been, assuming 6d. per ton
per mile for the goods, which I find to be as low as you
can carry it by the old mode, 1421. 16s. 3d.
That is for the same distance?—Yes.
On what principle do you assume 6d. to have bees the
charge by the ordinary roads?—l speak from my own
experience of thirty years. I have had a great deal to
do with carting, both for agricultural produce and
manufacturing produce, and I have found that I could
never get it done under 6d. a ton in England; it costs
rather more than that.
In giving an account of the produce of a farm, you
deduct for home consumption?—Yes, I do.

amount to more than one-third of a penny for five hun-
dred miles, so that you may have meat nearly as cheap
in London as you have it in Inverness. There is another
great advantage arising from this easy and cheap mode
of transit; which is, that the little country butchers who
purchase lots of cattle and sheep for the consumption of
the town or village in which they may live, always find
among those lots a few that are of too good a quality for
the consumption of their particular district; and if they
are enabled to send them to a great distance to a more
wealthy part of the country, they not only supply those
rich communities with the superior article that they
want, but they can supply it at a cheaper rate; and again,
this enables them to sell the medium and inferior animal
at a lower rate to the consumer in the country; so that
the rich population of towns are benefited, and the poor
of the district where the animals are killed are very
much benefited.
Is there not a demand :in large towns for picked
joints ?—There frequently is, and I know, from the in-
quiries I made in Yorkshire for the Direct Northern
Railway, that the butchers are contemplating, when that
railroad communication shall be worked out, to send the
surplus of their better joints to the London market,
which will enable them to sill the inferior parts to the
working classes at a lower price.
In short, quick conveyance enables them to dispose of
the whole animal in the best market ?—Yes.
By the former mode of conveyance there was no pcs •
sibility of carrying killed meat any great distances ?
It was quite impossible. There is another treat advan-
tage in killing the animal in the country districts ; the
offal or inward parts of the animal are available to the
working classes of the district, and there is an immense
quantity available for manure, which when brought to
those large towns is a nuisance ; in the country it is
of great value.
Have you anything to add in explanation upon the
points upon which you have row been examined ?
I have several tables to give in illustrating the different
points upon which I have been examined. I have no
doubt that railroads will do more for communicating
intelligence amongst the general community than even
the press has done, inasmuch as seeing a thing is much
more than hearing of a thing, and there will be much
greater progress made in the diffusion of improvement
by railroads than by any other means.

reason,

THE

'IES

(From the Examiner.)
The question of reforming the duties on tea is at pre-
sent under agitation by the commercial community
throughout the country, and began on the 28th of last
month by a great and enthusiastic public meeting at
Liverpool.
The history of the tea duties, or as much of it as is
useful, is easily told. Under the monopoly the, public
tax was an ad-valorem one of 100 per cent., with a
favour of four per cent. for the consuMption of the poor.
On the abolition of the monopoly, thirteen years ago,
this was replaced by a duty rated to the value of the
different teas by classes. Against this rating the tea
trade mutined, and forced on the Government the exist-

ing system of an uniform rate, against which the tea
trade is again in a state of mutiny with a good deal more

The fixed duty, which has now been in operation ten
years, is 2s. 2id. per pound on teas of all, or any quality,
and is equally imposed on poor bohea, as on sup'erfine
gunpowder, or superfine flowery pekoe—equally on the
consumption of a washerwoman and the luxury of a fine
lady. The value of the lowest bohea is 2d. a pound,

and that of the finest gunpowder or pekoe 4s. 6d. a
a pound, or seven-and-twenty times as much ! The
fine lady ought to pay righteously, twenty-seven times
the tax which the washerwoman pay; but the law makes
her pay just the same sum. She pays 2s. for her
4s. 6d. worth, and the washerwoman 2s. 24d. on her two-
pence worth ! The washerwoman's tax, rate' on the
value of her consumption, exceeds 1,309 per cent., and
the tine lady's is under 48 ! The public tax now paid
by the washerwoman is near fourteen times as much as
it was before the abolition of the monopoly—and that
paid by the fine lady is less than one- half what it
was then !
This, with a vengeance, is placing small-beer and im-
perial tokay on a fiscal level. The result of the levelling
has been that the 10,000,000 lbs. of bohea consumed by
the poor, eleven years ago, have been well nigh kicked
out of the market altogether, and that there is not now,
nor has there been for some years back, a stock of bohea
in the kingdom that would suffice for a year's consump-
tion of the washerwomen of Marylebone. All this comes
of a Government listening to evil advisers !
Of the speakers at the great public meeting at
Liverpool, by far the most enlightened sentiments
were expressed by Mr. Brown, the new Member for
Lancashire, and they were such as show very clearly
that the electors of Lancashire have made a good
choice. Mr. Brown showed from one of the lectures
of Mr. Bamfield, that the poor who were consumers of
Tea amounted to 10,300,000—the middle-class consu-
mers to no more than 4,500,000, and the wealthy con-
sumers only to I,2oo,ooo—and he asked if it was to be
endured, however convenient to the merchant and the
Custom-house, that the poor and rich should pay the
same specific duty.
We are sorry to be obliged to say that Mr. Brown
stood alone in the expression of this generous, righteous,
and politic sentiment. Ile was loudly cheered, but no
man backed him, and after a great exhibition of statistic
knowledge and much talent, the meeting came to the
most lame and miserable conclusion of demanding a
swingeing reduction in the duty—a reduction of one
from 2s. 24d. to one of " one shilling"—thus leaving the
ruinous principle untouched, and throwing the whole
onus of an enormous defalcation of revenue on the Go-
vernment.
We shall show how the proposed tax would operate,
in case the Government, which is not credible; should be
so simple as to adopt it. The lowest priced Bohea is
worth 2d. a pound, and the proposed tax is an ad-valorem
duty of six hundred per cent. on it. The highest
Bohea is worth 4d., and the tax is here three hundred
per cent. If the poor should be driven to 6d. tea, the
tax is still two hundred per cent.
The tea of the middle classes may be taken at Is. a
pound, and they pay only 100 per cent. ; but this class
also drinks tea at Bd., so that the poorest of them will be
charged 150 per cent. The tea of the wealthy may be
taken at 2s. 6d., so that the wealthy are to pay but 40
per cent. ; but the upper classes also consume teas worth
4s. a pound, so that the most luxurious of them shall
only pay 25 per cent.
By this pretty invention, originating with the en-
lightened town of Liverpool, from which we had hoped
for better things, every man and woman is to pay taxes
in the inverse proportion of their means. The 12,300,000
of poor, from two to six. fold as much as the 4,500,000
who are in easy circumstances, and from five to fifteen-
fold as much as the 1,200,000 that are luxuriating in
wealth. With such a placard in their hands, Liverpool
is going to stir up the country, and enlist the sympathy
of the millions!
And of this clumsy piece of empiricism, the Govern-
ment is to be made the scape-goat. The present con-
sumption of tea is about 44,000,000 of pounds, and the
revenue which it yields is 4,800,0001. By the adoption
of the "one shilling" duty, the immediate sacrifice
of revenue will be the appalling sum of 2,600,0001.—
more than a moiety of the income tax : and to re-esta-
blish it, the consumption must rise to ninety-six millions
of pounds,—that is, must be doubled, with a surplus
above the doubling, equal to the consumption of the
United States of America I
That a very considerable increase of consumption will
be the result of the mere rude process of reducing the
duty without adjusting its incidence, is certain ; but,
striking at the very sources of consumption, the con-
sumption of the masses, that the increase will be such,
within the lives of the present generation, as to cover
the existing revenue, is what no reasonable man can
hope for.
It is in vain that the speakers at the Liverpool meet-
ing appealed to the increase which had taken place in
coffee and cocoa from reduction of duties. The fact
is that the increase in these articles has taken place at
the expense of tea, just as the consumption of hyson
and pekoe has been quadrupled at the cost of Buhea and
Twunkay. The duty on cocoa is 2d. a pound, or one-
thirteenth part that on Bohea. The duty on coffee is
4d., or less than one-sixth part of the Bohes duty. Can
any one be surprised, then, that the two first commo-
dities should have greatly increased, and that the last
should have nearly disappeared altogether.
In an article like tea, where a commodity of the value
of small-beer stands at the bottom of the scale, and one
of the value of first growth Burgundy at the top of it,
and in which the range comprehends at least sixty varie-
ties, it is obvious to common sense that any other prin-
ciple of assessing the duty than an ad valorem one must
be fraught with inequality and injustice, and equally in-
jurious, in the long rum, to the consumer, the dealer, to
commerce, and the Treasury. The experience of the
last ten years ought to be a warning to all future times.
The injurious specific duty has taken the place of the in-
jurious monopoly, and consumption and revenue have
moved at a snail's pace under both, barely keeping pace
with increase of population. We must hear no more of
specific duties on tea. " The trade" must alter its tactics.
At present, it is pursuing that course which, Adam
Smith says, merchants sometimes followed in the olden
time, when they became the most suspicious councillors
of a government.

THE CURRANT TRADE.

Public attention has of late been directed to the im
portations into this country of many articles of food, the
magnitude and variety of which are both striking and
curious.
The following statement of the immense and unparal-
leled importation of currants within the space of nine
weeks, with some account of the growth and production
of an article which is so especially patronised and used
by the British public, will probably prove interesting,
nut only to the consumers of plum buns, puddings, and
cakes, but also to the, wholesale and retail grocers, the
merchants who buy and import, the shipowners, the
cultivators of the fruit, and, in short, to all parties con-
cerned, which, without any licence of pen, must embrace
nearly every individual in this country.
The growth of currants is almost entirely confined to
the Morea (and merely to that part of it situated
between Patras and Corinth) and to the lonian Islands
of Zante and Cephalonia, only about one cargo being
grown in Ithaca. A small quantity is also produced near
Smyrna and in the Lipari islands, but the quality from
the two last named places is very inferior.
Currants, which are in fact grapes, grow in bunches,
some of which weigh two pounds, on short standard
trees, planted at regular intervals, in vineyards, which,
of course, vary in extent. The crops are generally ripe
by the end of July, when the bunches are carefully
cut from the trees, and spread on the ground in a part
of the vineyard which has been properly prepared.
The intense heat of the sun, in the month of August,
in Greece, suffices in a few days to dry and convert
the luscious small grapes into currants, no other
process being necessary to render them fit for packing
and shipment than merely placing them in sieves and
throwing them up into the air, to divest them of the
stalks. The drying time is one of great anxiety to tht
grower, as, in the event of rain falling while the fruit
is on the ground, it causes much deterioration, and
reduces its market value. It has been observed that
scarcely ever have three yearly crops been secured with.
out rain damage to one of them. The crops being
stored in magazine:, the next business is the fixing a
first price between the growers and the export mer-
chants, which, within the oldest memory, has almost
always been a matter of much difficulty and delay,
owing to the growers invariably asking very high prices,
while the merchants endeavoured to obtain the fruit as
reasonably as they can. Sooner or later some bu) er and
seller fix a price for a cargo, when the market opens, and
prices rise or fall according to the demand.
For many years previous to 1818, the currant trade of
England was almost exclusively in the hands of two
Hull houses, but after that period it became gradully
more divided, so that at present not only are a great
many English merchants and wholesale grocers engaged
therein, but also Greek merchants, and even the growers
themselves, have become importers on their own account.
Within the last thirty years, the fluctuations in the price
of currants have been remarkable both at the places of
growth and in England. In 1820, the price at Zante
was as high as 92 Spanish dollars per mile, or 1,0001b5.,
while in 1831 it was as low as 15 Spanish dollars per
mille. In 1821, in London, the wholesale price of
currants reached 1151. per ton, which is believed
to be the highest rate they have ever realised, while
in 1843 they were sold as low as 401. per ton. Within
the last twelve years, the duty on currants has been
twice reduced by the British Government—in the first in-
stance from 441. 6s. Bd. per ton to 221. 3s. 4d., and next.,
from 221. 3s. 4d. to 151. per ton, which, with the addi-
tional five per cent. imposed on duties by Lord John
Russell, and which has not been removed, makes the
present duty 151. 15s. per ton. A very considerable
revenue is annually derived by our Government from
the duty on currants, and which has increased since the
reduction in duty, the consumption in the United King-
dom having materially increased. Although the con-
sumers in this country have certainly benefited by the
reduction in duty to a certain extent, the cultivators of
the fruit abroad have been much greater gainers thereby,