EAST INDIA SUGAR DUTIES, (Hansard, 26 November 1813)

The Chancellor of the Exchequer
, in a tone of voice which would not allow us distinctly to hear his statement, proceeded to make the propositions of which he had given notice. He observed, that considerable alarm had been excited among the West India interest on this subject, and that it was most desirable to afford that interest a just protection. It was his intention to propose such an increase of the duties on East India sugar, as, compared with the duties on west India sugar, would make them 10s. a cwt. higher. That increase would be 6s. 6d. a cwt.; and he considered that it would afford a sufficient protection to the West India merchant. This higher duty, however, was to extend only to a certain price; and when sugar should be imported at 60s. a cwt. the increased duty on 202 East India sugar was to diminish 1s. on every shilling of advanced price. He had communicated on the subject with the best informed persons on both sides of the question; and he trusted, that the proposition which he was about to make would, under all the circumstances of the case, be considered the most expedient that parliament could adopt. The right hon. gentleman concluded by moving his resolution.

§ Mr. Alderman Atkins
observed, that the measure proposed by the right hon. gentleman might be very proper one as it regarded the dealers in sugar; but that permission to import East India sugar would materially affect and injure the shipping interest, by the great encouragement that it would afford to India-built shipping. He trusted, that the proposition would not be hastily acceded to, but that due time would be given for its consideration.

§ Mr. Benson
observed, that opportunity would be given for its consideration during the progress of the Bill through the House.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer
said, that the hon. gentleman who had just spoken had anticipated the observation he was about to make. He allowed, that the matter was of great importance, and deserved serious consideration. He could not think, however, with the worthy alderman, that the shipping interest would be materially affected by it, when he considered the disadvantages under which East India sugar must at all events come to this country. It was only brought as a dead weight, and in a certain degree to defray the expences of the vessels. It was by general trade, and not by the importation of sugar, that the East India shipping was augmented.

§ Mr. Marryatt
compared the freedom of the East India trade with the restrictions under which that from the West Indies laboured. It was a well known fact, that for the last twenty years the West Indies had supplied the mother country with sugar at a much cheaper rate than that at which it had been manufactured. Half the estates in Jamaica and the other islands had in consequence been sold, or given up to creditors, with in that period. The duty had fallen on the plantar, not the consumer. It was true, that hitherto-ships from the East Indies had been chiefly ballasted with saltpetre. But how the trade would be open to all adventurers 203 most of whom, not being able to procure saltpetre, would ballast their ships with sugar, to the utter ruin of the West Indies, in Bengal, sugar sold at 12s. a cwt.; in the West Indies it was 30s. being a difference of 18s. a cwt. in favour of the East India planter. A Hindoo labourer (as had been stated in the committee of last session) cost but about 6s. a month—a West Indian, almost as much a day. The quality of the East India sugar also was excellent. It equalled the best of Barbadoes flake; and although it was not what our Custom-house officers called flake sugar, he was persuaded that it underwent some refining process in India. On all these considerations, it appeared to him, that the West India planters were fairly entitled to retain the monopoly of supplying this country, to which they paid every species of taxation that could well be devised. To the West Indies, at present, British, manufactures to the value of 7 or 8 millions sterling were annually exported. In the West India trade, 25,000 British seamen were employed. To the East Indies no manufactures would be exported; and in the trade, Lascars would be principally employed, to the great deterioration of our naval force. In fact, the East India trade had never been so productive of hands for the navy as that of the West Indies. Ships engaged in the latter were obliged to take a certain number of apprentices, in order to make good the drafts from them to supply the waste and casualties in his Majesty's navy: but this had not been the case with East Indiamen. The East Indies had ruined the West Indies wherever the two trades had interfered. They had destroyed the trade of the West Indies in indigo and cotton. The only staple commodity left to them was sugar, and of that he trusted they would not be deprived.

Mr. C. Idle
could not allow that the restrictions on the trade of the West Indies were so great as they had been represented by the hon. gentleman. They were permitted to export sugar, coffee and cocoa, to all parts south, of Cape Finisterre; and the other restraints were only nominal.

§ Mr. Alderman Atkins
said, that, notwithstanding all he had heard, he must repeat, that the objections he had before mentioned still struck him to be of considerable importance. He viewed the Bill with jealousy, and was averse from the measure as it now stood; for he 204 thought it would be the means of raising the price of sugar on the home-consumer; and as sugar was an article of necessity already bearing a very high price, any further rise of price must be very severely felt by our manufacturers, and all the lower classes of the people. He adverted to the large bounty on the exportation of sugar from this country to the continent, which he conceived ought to be diminished.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer
referred the worthy alderman to the 35th of the King; by which it was provided, that as the price of sugar increased, that bounty should diminish; thereby making the foreigner participate in the burden.

§ Mr. W. Smith
observed, that the statements and reasoning which the committee had heard from gentlemen on both sides, with regard to this measure, but particularly from his hon. friend under the gallery (Mr. Marryatt), were calculated to excite very serious reflections, into the consideration of which, however, he did not at present propose to enter at any length. Still he could not help saying, that although he would be one of the last to recommend any proceeding likely to produce a convulsion in trade, or a serious injury to any class of merchants, the main object of legislative consideration being the interest of the public, he could see no objection to the revision of any commercial system to effect that object. Into this train of reflection he was naturally led by the comparison which had been drawn by his hon. friend (Mr. Marryatt), with respect to the produce of our West and East India possessions. According to his hon. friend, the produce of our western colonies was in every respect beaten out of the market by that of the east, with the exception only of sugar. Then it would appear, that the whole produce of the West India colonies was a forced cultivation, kept, up for some sinister purpose, merely to answer the ends of individuals, but by no means with the view to cheapen the price to the consumer—to answer the interest of the public. Was his hon. friend aware what an onus he imposed upon himself by this assertion?—that he became bound to prove this proposition, that advantages arose to this country from the East India monopoly, which more than counterbalanced the admitted disadvantage of an enhanced price of sugar to the public in order to favour the West Indian produce, by giving it a decided preference in our market to 205 that of the East, as the measure before the committee proposed. In dwelling so much too upon the obligation imposed upon the West India planter, by our monopoly, to purchase British manufactures, was his hon. friend prepared to maintain this proposition, that the British manufactures were dearer than others, and that our colonists would rather deal for the others, if they were not restrained by the monopoly? Possibly his hon. friend might undertake to sustain the proposition; but obviously the undertaking would not be popular among our manufacturers, or perhaps likely to succeed. These reflections the hon. member said he thought it his, duty to throw out for the consideration of others; and he concluded, with expressing a hope, that the Bill which it was proposed to ground upon the Resolution before the committee, would not be brought to a conclusion until after the recess; as the fullest time should be afforded for the due examination of such an important measure.

§ Mr. Marryatt
said, he had no doubt, that should his hon. friend, who had just sat down, think proper to bring forward any proposition with respect to the commercial system of our West India colonies, the House would willingly give it all due consideration; for himself he should say, that he would be most ready to attend to it.