TEA DUTIES. (Hansard, 22 August 1833)

§ Mr. Ewart
wished to know whether any arrangement had been made with respect to the sales of tea on hand; and also whether any arrangement had been made with respect to the time ships would be allowed to sail from this country to Canton?

§ Mr. Spring Rice
said, that it was essential that the stock of tea on hand should be such as would promote not only the interest of the private trader, but the consumer also; and so far from considering that 'there was any conflicting or opposite interests between the consumer, the Government, and the East-India Company, all their interests were bound together. What was desirable was, to reduce the present stock of tea in such a manner as to give free scope to the private trader; but, in his opinion, it would not be desirable to reduce it actually to zero. It was not for the interest of the East-India Company that there should be an accumulation of tea left in their possession, as that would have the effect of distressing the private trader, and exposing him to a competition he did not calculate upon. With respect to the quarterly sales, it was not intended 827 that any deviation should take place from the usual course during the next three of them, but that they should be left to the discretion of the Company. After these three sales had taken place, the quantity to be sold would have to be determined by the Board of Control, which would so govern them that a gradual increase would take place in the quantity, whilst the parties interested would be made acquainted with the maximum amount; so that the state of the market would be always fairly known.

§ Mr. Crawford
said, he would not have ventured to have addressed the House at so early a period, if he had not been applied to by the traders resident in the City of London, who were deeply interested in the tea trade. The application made to him was by a highly respectable Committee of Traders, who complained that they had not received any communication of the intended details until after they had been printed and publicly promulgated by his Majesty's Ministers. These gentlemen, and the trade generally, objected to the classification adopted by the Government, as being opposed to the interest of the importers and the consumers. He thought, that his Majesty's Ministers should afford an opportunity for an early reconsideration of the subject, and give time for such communications with the trade as would enable a better classification to be made. The Gentlemen who had applied to him had informed him, that there were eight descriptions of tea, which would come properly under the second class, and be charged at a duty of 2s. 2d.; but which, as they were not now enumerated in that class, would have to pay a duty of 3s. per pound. Besides this, the East-India Company was already exempt from the payment of auction duty, for their teas were disposed of by public sale, and it would be only just that the other importers of tea should be placed upon the same footing. He wished to ask the right hon. Gentleman, whether, supposing the present Bill to be passed, there would be any objection to an early reconsideration of the subject in the next Session, that the anomalies complained of might be then amended?

§ Mr. Spring Rice
said, that the House would be aware that the tea trade, in some respects, differed from every other; and that as the Government was, as it were, in actual contact with the parties interested, twenty-four hours need not have elapsed, after the Resolutions were promulgated, before the trade might have 828 communicated with the Government thereon. But from the passing of the Resolutions, which took place some time ago, up to that moment, no communication had been made on the subject, excepting that of the hon. Gentleman. He would put it to that hon. Member, whether it would not be pregnant with inconvenience to give any pledge of such a nature as that he had asked? Such a declaration would naturally paralyze the trade, and produce the most serious inconvenience to all parties. It would be open to the hon. Member, or to any other Member of the House, to bring the subject again before Parliament in the next Session; but no pledge could be consistently asked or given, that a Bill to be passed in the month of August should be reconsidered in the February following. The House should remember, that in all the alterations of duty made, reductions had taken place. In the first class it had been reduced from ninety-six per cent to eighty-one; in the second class, from one-hundred to ninety-four and a-half; and in the third class, from one-hundred to eighty-one. And these classes had been determined after communication with several brokers, not one of whom had differed in opinion from the others. If the hon. Gentleman thought an ad valorem duty preferable, he must say, that such a mode of acertaining the duty could not have been practised at the out-ports, where auction sales would not be held under the same security as in the port of London; and giving an ad valorem for a rated duty, which should be alike on all descriptions of tea, would only have tended to increase the price of those inferior teas which were consumed chiefly by the lower orders. The best inquiries which could be made had agreed so well with the experiment made at the Board of Control, as to leave no doubt of the certainty of collecting the duty under the classification made.