The Sun.
London, England, 1851-01-01 00:00:00

THE EXCISE DUTY ON PAPER
Mr. T. B. Crompton has written a pamphlet on
this subject, in which he thus places before the world
the arguments in favour of abolishing the tax upon
paper :
There is no existing tax (ho says) the repeal of which
would so largely increase the employment of labour
throughout Great Britain as the duty upon paper. Tho
manufacture of paper is one of the great branches of
native industry; and, in order to promote its natural ex-
pansion and healthy activity, it is most desirable to re-
move all restrictions and imposts.
It can hardly be necessary to recapitulate the multi-
farious uses to which paper i 3 applied, and the necessity
for its cheapness and abundance, which has been created
by the demands of a people increasing in civilization.
It not only forms the material for books and news-
papers, for correspondence, for writing, for wrappers,
the lining of rooms, &c., but enters in a consider-
able degree into the manufacture of a variety of
articles, which can alone be produced at a price within
the reach of general consumers, by paper being made
available for the purpose. So important has this article
become, so universal its adoption for comfort and conve-
nience, so indispensable to all, that it is almost impossi-
ble to conceive the suffering which any deficiency in its
supply would inflict upon every class, or to over-estimate
the importance to the community of every facility being
given to its production.
Some years since the excise duty upon paper was three-
pence per pound for what was called lira class, or writ-
ing and printing paper; and threehalfpence per pound
for second-class, or inferior paper, used chiefly for
wrappers, paper hangings, &e. ; but so oppressive was
this tax deemed, and so injurious to the extension of
education and general information, that, at a time when
the public finances were by no means prosperous, the
duty on first-class paper was reduced to three halfpence
per pound, by which the whole was placed on an equality.
In referring to evidence given before a Committee of
the House of Commons, it may be stated that the paper-
makers, publishers, and others who gave evidence, ex-
pressed confident anticipations that the effect of the re-
peal of the duty would be to afford considerable impetus
to the manufacture; and these observations have been
more than realised even by the partial reduction which
was made. In the year 1834, the quantity of paper charged
with duty amounted to 70,605,889 lbs.; while in the
year 1846, it amounted to 127,442,480 lbs.—an increase
of more than 80 per cent.—a proof that the stimulus, by
a reduction in the cost of only three halfpence per
pound, bad been signally effective, and sufficient to war-
rant 'the anticipations now entertained of still greater
increase by the repeal of the remaining duty.
With reference to increased employment, it will be
seen that this advantage will not apply exclusively to a
manufacturing district or town population, but also ope-
rate in a highly beneficial degree upon agricultural dis-
tricts. The paper mills are spread over most of the coun-
ties of England, giving a considerable amount of employ-
ment not only to adult labourers, male and female,
bat also to a large number of children. In one instance
it can be shown that where an extensive paper manu-
factory was established, the poor rates, which had for-
merly been very high, were reduced to almost nothing;
and many similar results of relieving agricultural bur-
dens would be the certain consequence of abolishing the
duty, because the number of mills and the amount of
business transacted would be materially augmented.
It is, therefore, to the repeal of this duty that atten-
tion is now particularly directed, on several grounds,
each of which is entitled to serious consideration, as being
for public advantage.
The most important feature of this question is, the
immense impetus which would be given to the employ-
ment of labour. It has already been shown that
the partial reduction of duty almost doubled
the amount of production ; and it is but reasonable
to suppose that the repeal of the remaining three
halfpence per lb., added to the total removal of all excise
restrictions, would stimulate consumption by reduced
cost in a still greater ratio. This of itself would bring
into demand a largely-increased amount of labour, in
the manufacture of the article, not only of men, but also
of women and children, for whom employment is not
generally to be found, particularly in rural districts,
where paper mills are commonly situated; but this is
by no means the extent of the benefit which a re-
peal of this tax would afford, for there is no description
of manufacture which, in its subsequent processes of
adaptation for the uses of man, affords so much and
such varied employment as that of paper. Indeed, it is
impossible to give even a faint idea of the thousand
ways in which both manual and mental labour is en-
gaged upon the raw material of paper, and any estimate
of the additional amount of waive industry, which
an abolition of this duty would call into exercise,
would be deemed almost incredible. Upon a daily
newspaper, consuming annually 3,000/. value in paper,
there is employment given to the extent of 15,0001. a
year; and when to the increase of labour from this
source alone, which would arise from the abolition of
the duty, there is aided the large number of publications
which would be called into being solely through the re-
duced price of the paper, which forms so material an
item in the expenditure, the advantage in this respect
would bo enormous.
It has been computed that the repeal of the paper
duty would give employment to 40,000 additional people
in London alone, besides a vast number in the country;
and to those may be added a considerable increase
in the various other persons employed in the busi-
ness of printing and puslishing, including folders,
stitchers, bookbinders, &c.; and comprising children
and adults of both sexes. There are also numerous
manufacturers, such as millboard, cardboard, papier-
meel.6, butt ma, ornaments, toys, &c., in which paper
forms the principal ingredient, and to these a still greater
stimulus would be given by the reduced cost of produc-
tion adding immensely to the employment of every
description of labour. If the consumption of paper
be traced through its various ramifications, and the
number of people be taken into consideration who
are employed upon it in other countries where the ma-
nufacture is not subject to duty, it is almost impossible
to conceive the vast amount of labour which would be
created by its application to uses from which it is now
only debarred by the duty, so that the relief from this
tax would materially augment the national resources,
and, in this point of view, produce a greater amount of
practical and positive good than any other scheme which
could by possibility be devised.
Upon this point—namely, the relation which the paper
manufacture sustains to the labour of the country—it has
been most clearly elucidated in a recent letter to Lord
John Russell, as follows t—
" This branch of trade is one of very great importance,
as supplying a field of labour to an extent far beyond
that of many others, and most astonishing when it is
considered how small in amount is the money value of
the manufactured article. There are somewhere about
500 mills in -the United Kingdom, paying an aggregate
duty to the revenue of about 800,0001. a year. There
are sixteen mills in the district around Edinburgh,
which return to the revenue about 80,0001.
a year, and the number of persons employed in these
works is about 4,000; if 4,000 workers produce paper
chargeable with duty to the extent Of 80,0001., the whole
number employed in all the 500 mills to produce the
duty of 800,0001 will be about 40,0001. Then, in this
branch of trade we have 40,000 people actually em-
ployed; and taking this at the usual calculation of four
to each individual, we arrive at this fact, that 160,000 of
the population are susteinei directly by the paper
manufacture.
" The total duty paid is 800,0001. This, on an average,
may be taken to represent 20 p< <:r cant. of the value of the
paper sold by the maker. This gives the total value of the
paper sold at 4,000,0001. Here we have, on the one
hand, the small amount of 4,000,0001. as the total value
of that article ; and, on the other, the large number of
160,000 people dependent for their daily bread on that
one branch of business, apparently so trilling in its
results. Now, how is this? Just from the fact, that
almost the whole sum (with the exception of the duty)
is distributed in labour—the material in itself being
valueless—wages and profits absorbing almost the whole.
" Important as the quantity of labour so employed
already appears, still this is not all. The number
stated are those employed directly at the various
works, but a further question arises—How many aro
indirectly employed ? Now, this is a wide question,
and embraces a great variety of labourers, workers,
and artisans. In the article of coal alone there
is a great consumption; but as the bulk of the large
mills use steam power for various purposes, it must be
very great; and I judge partly from the fact that in my
own works we use 1,700 tons yearly.* Now, consider
what a vast amount of labour is created in this particu-
lar alone for carters, railway porters, engine drivers,
stokers, miners, canal boatmen, &ea; and if the coal
proprietors of Great Britain wore to consult their
own interests they would do all that lay in their
power to promote the prosperity of the paper
manufacture. Then, as the wear and tear on paper-mill
machinery is very great, consider what must be the
amount of labour in this department amongst mill-
wrights, engineers, machine-makers, brass-founders,
plumbers, Sec. Then, again, the large amount of tonnage
in constant transit from the mill to the various ware-
houses in London, Manchester, Liverpool, Dublin, Edin-
burgh, Glasgow, &c. Think, then, of the number of car-
ters, shore-porters, shipping-clerks, seamen, &c., so em-
ployed, and all involved in the shipping and carrying
interests. Besides all this tonnage to the warehouses,
think of the raw material in the same way in con-
stant transit to the mills, involving again similar
labour to that just adverted to. Then, again, as ma-
chinery wears out and has to be replaced, the amount
of new buildings and repairs this involves, and the me-
sons, bricklayers, plasterers, carpenters, glaziers, &c.,
this department of labour demands; and having done so,
put all these items together, and I am sure there are at
least as large a number of our population employed in-
directly by our paper manufacture as there are directly;
and if so, there will thus be a population of about
320,000 dependent for their daily bread on the prospe-
rity of the paper trade.
"But this does not exhaust the labour question. Think
on the trades in connexion with, and dependent on, the
paper trade—the stationers with all their assistants, the
booksellers and publishers in all their diversity, the prin-
ters and their mighty news of pressmen and compositors,
the typefounders with their skilled workmen, the
printing-ink makers, the bookbinders, the toolmakers,
the goldbeaters, the leather merchants, and a host too
numerous to mention, and, instead of having a popula-
tion of 320,000 depending on papermaking for their
daily bread, there is at least a :population of half a
million directly or indirectly interested, in a pecuniary
sense, in the prosperity of this branch of manufacture."
GRIEVANCES OP PAPER MANUFACTURERS.
Without entering into the general question of compe-
tition as affecting the comparative position of the honest
man trading upon his own capital and the fraudulent
man trading upon credit with a certain prospect
of the Bankruptcy Court, it will be found that this tax
pres3es with peculiar hardships upon the former class.
A document which was published last year by au-

'` The writer knows one manufacturer who consumes
not less than fifteen thOUssuti lON Klutially.