The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1845-03-11 00:00:00

THE SUGAR DUTIES

The East India interest are warmly contending against,
the distinction to be made between the Muscovado tic,'
white sugars, which they think will operate injuriousif,
on their own produce. Clay is not used in the proces3 0
refining adopted in the East Indies, but it comes oven
for the most part, in a white state, which would bring P.
under the denomination of " sugar rendered by any pro"
s
cess equal to white clayed," and subject it to a duty 0`
16s. 4d. ; while from the West Indies the bulk of sugar
comes in the Muscovado state, and will therefore be sub;
ject only to 14s. As the degrees of strength are different
in the sugar from the West Indies when refined and the.
of
white sugar from the East Indies, the representatives
the latter consider they will be unfairly taxed, and refer
to the report of the Board of Customs made in March,
1823, to show the impracticability of making the colour
of the article the standard of taxation. The Commis"
sioners, who were precisely the same gentlemen 0
had been consulted on the present occasion, state as fol'
lows .
We deem it right to state to your lordships, that sc
great are the difficulties in obtaining an unbiassed oploW
upon the question of fact on which the payment of the
higher or the lower duty is made by your lordships' order
to depend—viz., ' has the sugar, or has it not, undergo°
any process, so as to discharge from it the molasses or
other impurities in such a degree as to make it equal t,(/,
clayed ;'—the interest of the West India merchant
broker and that of the East India being so materially a;
variance, and even the most experienced and unprejudicc;
persons holding the most opposite opinions on the set
sample—that it appears to us impracticable to put IP
force the act of the Ist George 1., c. 106, with correct'
ness or satisfaction ; and the only course seems to be to
repeal that act, and to impose one rate of duty on Eiss
India sugar. What that rate of duty should be, wit
hs
reference to the duty on West India sugar, and wha
regulations and modifications it may be most expedient
to adopt in the duties both upon West India and EB3
India sugar, so that the duties upon each may be governs°
by obvious and fixed principles, and bear their proper re;:
lative proportions to each other, are points upon whic:
we are not, upon the present reference, called upon tu
offer our opinion ; but we are prepared to do so on re'
ceiving your directions for that purpose."
The sugar refiners continue their movement for a drag:
back in respect of the bonded sugar upon which the Wet
duty has been paid. They rely much on the circumstacS°
that the Sugar Duties Bill has long been an annual OP
and that they made large purchases on the faith of the
duty of 255. 3d. continuing till next July. They hale
also a precedent in their favour. In 1830, when th,
Sugar Bill was suffered to expire at the regular period'
but in the new bill the duty was reduced 35., a dravvbeeli
was accordingly allowed. As for the postponement 0'
the new duty for a fortnight or three weeks, they consl"
der it as an injury instead of a benefit, as it stops tradei
and there is enough sugar out of bond for the supply
the consumer.