§ Mr. Home Drummondrose to present a Petition from a very important interest in the community—he meant the Distillers from Corn Spirits, who complained, and he thought justly, of the imposition of the additional duty of Is. a gallon upon Corn Spirits, while there was no corresponding additional duty imposed upon Rum. He would entreat the House to bear in mind, that in the year 1825, after due and deliberate investigation on the part of the Government, an arrangement, having all the appearance of permanency, was made between the parties, and which was admitted by Lord Goderich, under whose auspices it was made, fair and equitable. By that arrangement it was fixed that a duty of 8s. 6d. the imperial gallon should be laid on Rum, and 7s. on Corn Spirits. The latter, by the additional duty now proposed, was to be 8s. while, he repeated, there was to be no corresponding increase of the duty upon Rum. The petitioners were desirous of knowing what change of circumstances had taken place in the relative situation of the parties, to justify this infringement upon the arrangement of 1825; for, so far from seeing any to justify it, they were of opinion that the changes in the relative situation of the parties, and in the prices of their commodities, which had occurred since, ought rather to have produced a directly opposite result. The petitioners, indeed, contended that the alteration which had taken place in the 1419 circumstances of the markets called for an alteration of the duty in a different sense, it should have led to a more generous policy towards the Distillers of Corn Spirits, instead of the unequal and unjust depreciation of their property which must follow the adoption of the Chancellor of the Exchequer's resolutions. From important documents laid on the Table of the House, it appeared, that the consumption of Rum had rapidly increased since 1825. The average price of Barley before 1825 was 29s., and now it was 34s. This change ought to have made the Chancellor of the Exchequer levy an additional duty on Rum. The petitioners said, that if the increase of duty were persisted in, homemade Spirits would be driven out of the market. It could be manufactured into Gin cheaper than home-made Corn Spirits. He was unwilling to detain the House with long detailed calculations, but as the whole question was one of detail, he hoped they would allow him to state the case, by a mere specification of the accounts as they stood.
§ The consumption of Rum and British Spirits in England stood thus:—
| RUM. | Gallons. |
| For the year ending 5th of Jan. 1830 | 3,302,143 |
| For the year ending 5th of Jan. 1829 | 3,064,856 |
| Increased consumption in the year ending the 5th of Jan. 1830 | 2,37,287 |
| [See Purl. Paper, No. 211, March 29, 1830.] |
| BRITISH SPIRITS. | |
| For the year ending 5th of Jan. 1829 | 7,759,694 |
| For the year ending 5th of Jan. 1830 | 7,700,760 |
| Decrease on British Spirits, for the year ending 5th of Jan. 1830 | 59,934 |
| BARLEY. | ||
| [See Parl. Paper, No. 211, March 29, 1830.] | ||
| s. | d. | |
| Average price of Barley, per quarter, for five years, from 1820 to 1824 | 29 | 0 |
| Average price of Barley, per quarter, for five years, from 1825 to 1829 | 34 | 9 |
| Average increase on the price of Barley, during the last 5 years | 5 | 9 |
| [See Parl. Paper, No. 154, March 13,1830.] |
§ The fact was, that it was impossible to look at the comparative operation of the duties on Rum and Corn Spirits, without being sensible that the new regulations would be so injurious to the manufacturers of Spirits from Corn, as to drive them from the market. It was evident that already the competition was entirely in favour of the West Indies, and the additional duty on home-made Spirits would be a still further advantage to the manufacturers of Rum.
§ It appeared also, from official docu- 1420 ments, that in the year ending the 5th of January, 1830,
| Gallons Proof. | ||
| The quantity of Corn Spirit distilled in England for home consumption is | 3,860,542 | |
| The quantity of Corn Spirit distilled, in Scotland, and exported to England | 3,008,686 | |
| The quantity of Corn Spirit distilled, in Ireland, and exported to England | 671,497 | |
| 3,680,183 | ||
| Total of Corn Spirit | 7,540,725 | |
| The quantity of Rum for home consumption in England in said period is | 3,302,143 | |
| The quantity of Corn Spirit distilled, for the Navy | 400,000 | |
| 3,702,143 | ||
| General Total | 11,242,868 |
§ Thus, if the consumption of these articles in England, for said year, be divided into 100 equal parts,
| Parts. | |
| The quantity supplied by England is | 34.33 |
| The quantity supplied, by the Scotch and Irish distillers | 32.73 |
| The quantity supplied, by the West India planters | 32.94 |
| 100.00 |
§ If this protection shall be reduced, as now proposed, to 6d., Rum will in all probability, supply the whole consumption of the market.
| s. | d. | |
| The present duty on English Raw Corn Spirit is | 7 | 0 |
| The proposed additional duty on English Raw Corn spirit is | 1 | 0 |
| 8 | 0 | |
| This Spirit cannot be afforded for less than | 3 | 0 |
| 11 | 0 | |
| The expense of rectifying, compounding, and sweetening the gallon at proof, without profit to the rectifier, is | 0 | 8 |
| 11 | 8 |
§ The disadvantage to English Spirit, is, consequently, obvious.
| s. | d. | |
| Malt Whisky distilled in England, or brought thither from Scotland or Ireland, pays duty of | 7 | 0 |
| Besides the whole of the duty on Malt | 1 | 2 |
| If to this be added the proposed new duty of | 1 | 0 |
| The duty per gallon on Malt Whisky in England is, | 9 | 2 |
| While the duty on Rum is only 8s. 6d. |
§ It appeared, therefore, that the imposition of this additional duty of 1s. per gallon upon Corn Spirits would change the whole nature of the trade, and inflict a serious injury on the home-manufacturer. If the home-distiller were not harassed by vexatious regulations and unequal imposts, he would be quite ready to compete with the maker of Rum; but as it was, that was impossible, and he hoped the right hon. Gentleman would state why he made this alteration, which would not succeed, he believed, as a matter of revenue, while it would inflict great evil upon distillers of Corn Spirits. He begged to assure the Chancellor of the Exchequer, that he had great confidence in his firmness and in his sense of justice, and he trusted, therefore, that no influence would make him commit what appeared to be an injury to a very opulent and useful class of men.
§ Mr. Brownlowwould take this opportunity of stating, that he had a similar Petition to present from the Distillers of Corn Spirits in Ireland; it was signed by six or seven of the principal distillers, and conveyed the sentiments of the whole body. He thought it right on this occasion to state, that the Irish distillers had peculiar grievances to complain of, independent of those which they had in common with the English and Scotch. There was great injustice and hardship in the way in which these additional duties were proposed to be levied. The Irish distiller had to pay an additional duty of 2d. per gallon on his own consumption, and 1s. per gallon on his export. In 1825, when the last arrangement was made, which they had hoped was not so soon to fluctuate, the new duties were levied after the passing of the Act; in the present case they were to be retrospective, and to apply to every gallon of Spirits in the market after the 15th of March, and the stocks of the Irish distillers were liable to the addition for days before they knew of the impost. In this respect he did conceive the Irish distiller had much to complain of, for he had many contracts at fixed prices, which were now only in progress of delivery: he would have to deliver to the merchant at the stipulated prices, and to bear this loss of the retrospective duty, which was certainly unfair and unjust. The Irish distillers stated, that in the year 1825, this subject was most fully investigated, and a protecting duty of 1s. 6d. was then allotted for their Spirits. Upon the faith of this arrangement large 1422 capitals had been embarked, and extensive engagements concluded. All these were now injured and perplexed by the proposed additional duty. Instead of being permitted fairly to enter the market, they were exposed to vast disadvantages from the special protection which it seemed Rum was now to receive. This was about also to be bestowed, when the circumstances of the markets required the Government, if it interfered at all, to increase the duty on Rum, and lower that on Spirits made from Corn. The Irish distiller gave employment to many people, and laying an additional duty on his commodity would add to the sufferings of the Irish peasantry. The new duty too would be injurious to the agricultural interests at large, for it would give those Spirits which were the produce of sugar so great an advantage in the home-market as compared with the disadvantages under which Spirits, the produce of this country, laboured, as to render them unsaleable, except at a price which was ruinous to the manufacturer. The consumption of Rum, for the last year, amounted to 3,302,000 gallons, while in the preceding year it amounted to only 3,065,000 gallons. Thus an increase of 237,000 gallons had taken place in the consumption of Rum, during one year, while the consumption of British spirits had decreased 59,924 gallons. The British distiller laboured under another disadvantage,—the advance in the price of Barley, for the last five years, of 5s. 9d. per quarter. If corn were admitted freely into this country, and if the British distiller was free from all those impediments which the distilling laws opposed to him, then he would be quite ready to compete with the West Indian, or any other distillers. He wished the Chancellor of the Exchequer would make such a statement as was calculated to dispel the serious alarms which agitated the minds of the British distillers.
§ Mr. Westernsupported the complaint of the petitioners, and declared, that although he should be sorry to do anything which would prejudice the interests of the West-India proprietors, he was satisfied that they possessed an undue advantage over the British distiller. The subject was one in which he felt great interest, because the agriculturists were well aware that the distillers were among their most useful customers. The great county he represented was therefore much interested in this question, and he did hope that the 1423 Chancellor of the Exchequer would adopt some method of relieving the West-India interest which would not injure the distillers and agriculturists of Great Britain. He could not help feeling surprised that an additional duty should be levied on British made Spirits, without any corresponding protecting duty against the importation of Rum: and he trusted that his Majesty's Government would adopt some means of meeting the views of the petitioners.
Mr. Marryat, supported the claims of the West-India Planters to the consideration of the House, and contended that they had as good a right to participate in the benefits of the home consumption as the agriculturists or the distillers, and that they paid a very high price for that participation by the restrictions imposed on them.
The Chancellor of the Exchequerdid not rise to enter upon the discussion of the question brought before the House. He had had frequent opportunities of meeting both the parties interested on the subject, had heard the question discussed on both sides, and had made such inquiries as he thought proper as to the statements he had received, but he thought it better to defer going into any discussion on the question until he brought his bill on this matter regularly before the House, when an opportunity would occur of going into the whole of the calculations. He only begged hon. Gentlemen on both sides of the House to believe that he should propose that bill with no view of favouring either one or other interested party. He had endeavoured by his proposed measure to give them both that fair competition in the market which both had a right to expect. He was not insensible to the importance of the great interests concerned in the subject, but while he remembered what was due to the petitioners, he could not forget the claims of our West-India Colonies, and in his opinion, the home-market ought to be equally accessible to both. The calculations submitted to the House did not seem to him quite correct. The parties interested had, as was very natural, dealt somewhat in exaggeration, and he had no doubt, when the matter came properly under discussion, that he should satisfy all parties of the justice of the views entertained by his Majesty's Government, though, as each party sought a peculiar advantage, he was afraid neither would be contented by those views.
Mr. S. Ricedid not intend to prolong the present conversation, but rose to bear testimony to the respectability of the signatures attached to the Petition. Whenever the question was discussed, he should consider the interests of Ireland and the Colonies closely connected. He acquiesced entirely in the principles laid down by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and he thought it was the duty of the House to discuss the question fairly, and with a view of doing justice to all parties. He wished to obtain no advantage for Ireland, at the expense of the Colonies, but he must at the same time say, that he was not ready to concede to the Colonies new advantages without a full conviction of their being both just and necessary.
§ Mr. Brightconsidered the Scotch and Irish distillers as having already an unfair advantage over the English distillers, because the duty was much higher in England than in Scotland or Ireland: these, therefore, had no right whatever to complain. Why the distillers of Scotland and Ireland were allowed to have this advantage over the distillers of England he did not understand. As to the increased consumption of Rum, that was very small in England; while the consumption in Ireland and Scotland had, he believed, fallen off. He was disposed to complain of the Scotch and Irish distillers, who seemed to want the monopoly of the English market: whatever their motive might be, he was confident that their advantages were too great for them ever to be injured by the consumption of Rum in the British market.
Mr. Bernal, although one of those interested in the prosperity of the West-Indies, had never wished to support their trade at the expense of either the English, Scotch, or Irish agriculturists and distillers. It was, however, a well known fact, that the distillers had been at all times anxious for a monopoly, which must be at variance with the interests of the community, and although the duty on the Spirits of the Colonies was 8s. a gallon, and that on the Spirits of the Mother Country only 2s. 10d., they were anxious to procure still further protection. For his part, he considered the people of Barbadoes, Jamaica, Antigua, and the other West-India Islands to be as much British subjects as the inhabitants of Scotland or Ireland, and to be as much entitled to protection in the home-market for the consumption of their productions. He recollected well that Lord Goderich, 1425 when Mr. Robinson, declared, five years ago, that the principle of fair competition between the Mother Country and the Colonies was a sound one, and on the 5th of February, 1825, when he, as Chancellor of the Exchequer, proposed the additional duty of 1s. 6d. on Rum, he re-affirmed the same principle, and declared that if it appeared, after the experiment had been tried, as some persons apprehended, that this duty would become prohibitory, the Government would be willing to remove it, and make an alteration which would leave the market open to competition. That duty had, as was anticipated, proved injurious, and he contended that even the alteration now proposed would by no means counteract the effect of the 1s. 6d. then laid improperly on Rum; in fact that duty had acted as a prohibition; and that circumstance alone made out a case to justify the Chancellor of the Exchequer coming down to the House and proposing an additional duty on British Spirits. He wished, however, that the right hon. Gentleman would say something more to set this matter at rest, for as long as the two opposing interests thought the Government was not fully resolved, so long would both parties be unable to carry on their operations with their accustomed energies, and those operations were as necessary to others as to themselves.
§ Sir G. Clerkcontended, that the increase of the consumption of Rum proved sufficiently that the duty was not sufficient to allow a fair competition. The British distillers did not seek, therefore, as the hon. member for Rochester supposed, an unfair advantage, but to secure to themselves an adequate protection. He was sorry that, while the consumption of Rum had increased, and that of British Spirits decreased, it should have been thought advisable to lay an additional duty on the Spirits manufactured in the three countries. That increase of duty would have the effect of encouraging the crime of smuggling and demoralizing the people. The hon. member for Rochester, was wrong also in supposing that the distillers had no claims on the Government, because the duties were low in Ireland and Scotland; they had there been made low in order to put an end to smuggling, and that the reduction of the duty had accomplished,— but the distillers both of Scotland and Ireland manufactured for 1426 the English market and there it was, not in Ireland and Scotland, that they came into competition with Rum. This was the circumstance that made them object to the advantage, which the proposed new duties would give to Rum in the English markets.
§ Mr. Wodehouseconcurred with the hon. Baronet who had just spoken, and he hoped that the Chancellor of the Exchequer would not lose sight of the agricultural interests. He should have been glad to have seen encouragement given to the West-Indian proprietors, by taking off the duty on sugar, rather than by increasing the duty on British Spirits.
§ Mr. G. Mooretrusted, that as far as Ireland was concerned, no short-sighted policy would induce the Government to abandon that which afforded the only means of protection to the Irish agriculturist for the consumption of his corn. He contended, that experience since 1825, showed that the Irish distiller needed still further protection than was afforded him by the arrangement made at that period. When the consumption of Rum had increased, it was surely too much to require that two-thirds of the present protecting duty in favour of British Spirits should be done away.
§ Mr. William Smithsaid, so many important interests were involved in this matter, that it deserved to be seriously considered. He conceived that the arrangement made by Lord Goderich, four or five years ago, was to be a permanent one. That arrangement was come to, after an inquiry as full and as extensive as could be had now, and the onus probandi lay with the right hon. Gentleman, to show why one-third of the protecting duty then imposed upon Rum should be now taken oft". It was stated, that there was no reason for altering the duties; he saw, indeed, a very good reason for altering them in another direction than that proposed. For example, the increase in the consumption of Rum in the last year amounted to 237,287 gallons, while at the same time, the price of corn, the material from which British Spirit was made, was now, upon an average, 5s. 9d. higher than when the difference was struck in 1825. The average price of barley per quarter, from 1820 to 1824, was 29s., and its average price from 1825 to 1829 was 34s. 9d. per quarter, and it was during this high price of the raw material that the consumption of Rum had increased. He denied that the English distiller had 1427 been favoured since the first part of Mr. Pitt's administration, when Mr. Pitt raised the duties on Colonial Spirits to keep down the consumption. It ought to be recollected that, in consequence of the legislative regulations in 1825, the English distillers had been put to the expense of 259,000l. for alterations in their premises; That money was taken out of their pockets without any corresponding benefit being bestowed on them. What would the West-India planters have said if they had been compelled to lay out a sum of that amount? In fact, it had operated as a fine on the English distillers. When the proper time came for discussing the subject, he should be able to show that the English distillers had as good a case as ever came under the consideration of the House.
§ Mr. C. Pallmersaid, that as, notwithstanding discussion was generally deprecated at the present moment, every Member who had risen had said something upon the subject, he must be allowed to trouble the House with a few words. Did those hon. Members who talked of the advantage which the proposed measure would give to the West-India interest recollect the sacrifices which that interest had made? Would the Scotch and Irish distillers be disposed to sell at a loss, as the West-India planters had done? It had been said that the consumption of Rum increased last year; but that was to be accounted for by the fact, that the West-India interest had been selling at a considerable loss. That could be satisfactorily proved to the House. The arrangement of Lord Goderich on the subject was an experimental arrangement, the object of which was, to produce and preserve an equal competition. Had it succeeded? No. Let means be adopted then for securing a fair competition in all parts of the empire, and that would be just and satisfactory. To the remark that the British distillers had been put to a great expense by the alteration in their premises, the answer was, that the British distillers continued to be in a very prosperous and flourishing state.
§ Petition to be printed.