§ Report of the Committee of Ways and Means brought up.
§ LORD G. BENTINCKwished to ask a question of the right hon. Gentleman the Chancellor of the Exchequer. By the Act 9 and 10 Victoria, c. 63, there were four different schedules under which duties were levied. There was a schedule of duties to be levied on sugar and molasses the growth and produce of any foreign country. But there was also a schedule of duties to be raised on all foreign sugar, or molasses, not otherwise charged with duties. That was the schedule of duties provided, as it was understood, for sugar, whether refined or otherwise, imported from a country of which it was not the growth or produce. By this fourth schedule, no refined sugar could be imported from Hamburgh, Antwerp, or any part of the Continent, except on payment of three guineas per cwt. No brown clayed or muscovado sugar, not being refined, could be imported except on payment of a duty of two guineas; and no molasses could be 502 imported except on payment of 15s. 8d.; that schedule of duties being guarded by the 6th clause of the Act, which 6th clause was in the spirit of the navigation laws, and enacted that no sugar should be admissible for entry for home consumption at the same lower rates of duty, as being the produce of any foreign country, unless the master of the ship importing the same, or the consignee, should prove, to the satisfaction of the officers of Her Majesty's Customs, at the port of importation, that such sugar was bonâ fide the growth and produce of the foreign country from which it was imported. With respect to the resolution passed on the 10th of July last, the important question to be answered was, whether, with reference to the 3rd schedule, the provisions of the old Act, with respect to sugar refined abroad, or imported from any place in Europe, was omitted in the present Act; whether sugar refined abroad, which was admissible under the old Act only, at the duty of three guineas, was to be now admitted under the duty of 1l. 7s. 9d., or of 1l. 4s. 8d., as provided by the 3rd schedule of duties agreed to in the resolution of July the 10th. There had been sold, or offered for sale, sugars forming part of the assets of He Bruyn and Co., which were warehoused in Holland, and of which the short price in London now was 23s. According to the old law, those sugars could only be sold in this country on payment of three guineas per cwt. for home consumption, or could only he imported to be refined for foreign exportation. Purchased for 23s., and refined abroad, those sugars would fetch 29s.; but if such sugar, under the resolution lately passed, were admitted upon a duty of 1l. 4s. 8d., the result would be that those sugars would be sold for consumption here at 54s. 6d. It must be clear to the House, that if those sugars could come into consumption on a duty of 24s. 8d., the difference in the value of those sugars would be no less than 6s. 10d., according as the Government might construe the resolution which had been passed. By the old Act no foreign muscovado sugars could be admitted, not being the growth and produce of the country from which they were imported, except upon the payment of a duty of two guineas. By the resolutions which had been passed, these muscovado sugars, unless they were protected by the navigation laws, would come in. [Mr. LABOUCHERE: They are protected,] He was inclined to think they 503 were. He believed that at present they would be prevented from entering this country by the navigation laws. But if the old law were repealed, these sugars might be admitted at one guinea and 18s. 6d., instead of two guineas, which was the duty under the 9th and 10th of Victoria. It appeared that out of 27,000 tons of foreign sugar in bond in this country on the 5th of July, 15,000 tons were imported in unprivileged ships. It appeared also that the excess of stock in hand in the various ports of Europe was equal to 15,000 tons, as compared with the stock of last year. Thus there were 30,000 tons of foreign sugar, which, under the old Act, could only be admitted into consumption on payment of a duty of two guineas, and, unless protected by the navigation laws, would be admissible into this country on the payment of duties of one guinea, and 18s. 6d., if the resolution passed the other day were construed in the way in which it was understood the Board of Customs had directed it to be construed. The first question he had to ask the right hon. Gentleman was, whether sugars refined on the continent of Europe would be admitted under the three guineas duty (which he apprehended not), whether they would be prohibited altogether, or would come in under a duty of 1l. 4s. 8d.? He had also to ask how the right hon. Gentleman proposed to deal with foreign sugar now warehoused in foreign ports, and with foreign sugar now in this country imported in unprivileged ships, supposing the navigation laws not to be repealed this Session, and that sugar to be transported to Antwerp for the purpose of being brought hack to this country?
§ The CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUERreplied, that the first question of his noble Friend applied to sugar of that description which was chargeable with a duty of three guineas. The schedule of the old Act to which his noble Friend referred had been put in to provide for unforeseen cases. There were certain descriptions of sugar which might come in actually without duty. If sugar could be grown at St. Helena, it could come in without payment of duty. The schedule was put in to prevent frauds and meet those possible cases. As soon as the Act was passed, a question was raised with respect to loaf sugar. A distinction was then made between manufactured and raw sugar; and, as with cotton in England, that was taken as the produce of the country which was in a manufactured state. The sugar of Holland was refined; 504 the Dutch claimed to have their manufactured sugar admitted under the treaties which placed them on the footing of the most favoured nation; and therefore we could not impose a higher duty on their manufactured sugar. The present resolution was so worded that the third schedule comprehended all sugar the produce of foreign countries not otherwise charged with duty. Consequently, sugar refined in Holland or Hamburgh was now admissible for home consumption at a duty of 1l. 4s. 8d.; and so on. With respect to the second question, there was a certain quantity of sugar warehoused in this country which was imported in ships not belonging to the countries where it was produced; and that sugar was not admissible for home consumption under the navigation laws.
§ Report agreed to.
§ House adjourned at half-past Twelve o'clock.