Star.
London, England, 1813-04-07 00:00:00

THE COTTON AND LEATHER TA-TES.

The nature of the Tax upon Leather' differs front the
Tax upon Cotton, but as far as reel ects about on: halt of the
Leather Manufactores, that k, foreign. Hides sod skin,, is exactly
similar to an einam,.us Tax if laid upon Cotton Yarn, both
for home c.insumptinu and exportation, as it is paid by the
purchasers of the raw material though not by the Merchant,
and on South American Hides, which forms the chief remittance
from that ceuutry for our Manufactures, the leather lax is
eqtml to a du: 7 of 150 per Cent. on the first cost paid by our
Merchants". It North iillittiCA may be expe,:ted to feel iudir
nom at the ptoposed Tax upon Cotton, what retalia hos may be
expected from South. America 'a country with erbieh we wish el '
preserve our coninteroal iutercoui se) at our thus taxing the chief
article and at present, almost the wily art.cie of her Commerce.?
It appears by the most respectAbte evidence g:veu before the
Cenalottee ut the Roux of Commons, that wlicte the Revenue
wal g sin three-pence boy the ncw Tai, the contomets pay nine-
FCIIL'L, sad a- tio. new 1 .ix Is only hilt toe wl,.ilc tr. the Leather i,
T IX, and .is It was prc.ved the it tr..... ic.ions cost the Mandates
Curers as notch as the wtto'e of the duties, besides causior an in. •
jury to the wear and (Aker qd.-.liti,s of Leath r, it fudows frogs
this evidence Vitt for sixpenc, (the whole duty laid .0 C.ivertt-
ment by the leather Tax on a pair of Gentiontn's walking
shoes) the con,urntr pays tour times the amount of the advance
occasioned Cy the new 'lax only, that is ;is. and that a pair of
strong shoes no *.v/Itch twelve-p nee is proved to he paul to the
lt event e, the labourer really pays Cis. and to tilirs:ai ot a worse
quail. y.
As regards our txrcirt Trade, we are told it Is prwected. as
few-pence per lb. drawlysci, it a'lowed t 0.., in Riau abctuted Goode.
..vhich upon Gentlemen's oboes is tuutc,:hee p•-r pair, and upon the
Labourer's oboes is Bd. per pair, arid that this is oratly equal to
the or‘inal duty, so the: on this part of the trade Government
return nearly all they get by the Tax—by this it appears the dua
I ties cause the advance in pried in foreign Markets of 2s..tid. per
pair on one sort of Shoes, and ss. on the other, and thus injure
our Export Trade without benefiting the Revenue. Can it sur-
prise any one that our Leather Manufactures have not flouria!:ed
ec,..,a1. to our other Manufactures, or that-the new Tax is confi-
de ntly expected to be repealed and the eld one modified, espea
daily when it is consichred that the Labourer pays twice the
tanuunt of the 'lax on his ,hoes than is paid by Gettlerue.., mid
that tor 6d. paid by the public, the Revenue is certainly not bone.
fited more than one-penny, but from a comprehensive view of
i
the subject, tially much less.
If it is asked how we account for such a Tax being imposed
by our Ancestors, it may be said that a hat was not injetious but
proper 110 years ago, maybe very impolitic now, and such is
the real case with the Tax upon I.eather, and it would not be
silltrelt to prove, that 'alien originally imposed, it had no ten-
, (limey to advance the price of Leather, as i.ur own native Hides
I were sufficient for the supply ut the Manufacture, and cons*-
? quently the Tax did not lessen the quanuty of Leati•er tatdied,
and could not advance the price of Leather, hut-would lower the
price of the Raw Hicks, which she butcher was obliged to sub-
mit to: he did not briog less to market on ncount of the price,
neither could he s.nd them to a Foreign Market, both of which
' the Merchants are induced to do at the present day.
It is expected the Leather Tax will be &WWI in the House
the kit weft in hiay. •