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Revenue—Taxes.
THE rise, progress, and present state of the revenue of Ireland, is very little understood in England, though an object of considerable importance to that kingdom. The variations of it are useful marks among many others of the prosperity or declension of the island, and every thing which enables us to judge of the real state of a country with which we are so intimately connected well deserves our attention. THE public revenue in that kingdom stands upon a very different footing from ours in England, owing to the operations of the revolution relative to this object not having extended to Ireland. Before that epoch the two kingdoms were in this respect similar; but the old subsidies and other duties which formed the hereditary revenue of the Stuarts in England were purchased of the crown at the revolution with the civil list revenue of £700,000. No similar bargain took place in Ireland, consequently the old hereditary revenue in that kingdom is at present under the same circumstances as the like funds were in England before 1688. It is upon this old revenue that the pensions on the Irish establishment are granted; the crown claims a right to apply the whole of it at its pleasure, but strong arguments have been urged against that claim, particularly by the late Alexander M'Aulay, Esq; in a very sensible and well written pamphlet, entituled, "An Inquiry into the Legality of Pensions on the Irish Establishment." 1763. THE following tables will set the progress of late years, and present receipts of the revenue, in a clear light. THE conclusion of the peace of Aix le Chapelle seems from this table, as well as from a variety of others to have been the principal epoch in the prosperity of Ireland. The inland excise is a revenue so wretchedly administered by the concession of the whole kingdom, that no conclusions whatever are to be drawn from it. The customs outwards have risen but little; and not at all in the last seven years, which is to be accounted for from some of the principal articles of the exports, such as linen, &c. being either duty free, or having so small a custom as to be merely with design of ascertaining quantities; and also by the falling off in the export of the produce of pasturage which 1 have shewn before, most of the articles of it having an ill judged duty on them. But the customs inwards is not a bad one, for an increased import, though at first sight it seems to be against a nation, ought never to be taken in that light. No kingdom ever imports goods which it cannot pay for, and an increased consumption is the strongest proof of an increased ability to pay for it. I must however remark, that the increase in this column the last seven years is very trifling. There are in all the other columns, except hearth money, a decline in this period which very well deserves to be enquired into. That the kingdom has flourished in it I have little or no doubt, it may, therefore, probably be owing to the multiplication of abuses in the collection of the revenues, which being so many cancers in the body politick ought to be remedied with the utmost assiduity. THE increase of the hearth money is a matter of importance, for it proves an increase of population clearly; which, indeed, could not be doubted from the increased prosperity and wealth of the kingdom, and from the repeated information I received all over it to, that purport. THE whole gross revenues offer a different appearance from these particular duties, the following account shews there has been an increases but owing to an increase of taxes. THESE are for sessions not years. Besides these duties there are others appropriated by parliament to particular purposes; these are for paying the interest of loans, for the encouragement of the linen manufacture, of tillage, of protestant schools, and the cambrick manufacture. THE whole revenue of the kingdom for twenty years in two periods, of ten each with the averages, will shew the general increase, whether owing to new duties or an increase of old ones. TOTAL REVENUE of IRELAND. BUT this revenue, considerable as it is, has not been equal to the national expenditure. In the sessions of 1759 there was a surplus in the treasury of £65,774 yet in the following one a considerable debt was contracted, as will be seen by the progress of the incumbrance. SUPPOSE the revenue a million, it is about a sixth part of the land rents of the kingdom. If there are three millions of souls in Ireland, they pay exactly 6s. 8d. a head. It appeared before the export of linen, yarn, corn, woollen, pork, bees, &c. &c. amounted to £3,250,4,71. Suppose all other exports would make it up three and a half millions, the revenue of the kingdom amounts not quite to a third. IT will not be improper here to compare the burthens of Ireland with those of Great- Britain. BRITISH AND IRISH TAXES COMPARED. THE inferiority of the taxes of Ireland to those of Great-Britain upon every one of these comparisons is very great; the parallel however is certainly not complete: the specie of Ireland is £1,600,000 but it is difficult to say what that of England is, the gold coinage proved our calculators to be so amazingly out in their reckoning, but in this article, including paper lies, I apprehend the greater ease in England of paying taxes; which are light or heavy, not perhaps so much in proportion to the income of a people as to the ease of circulation; that in England is out of all comparison greater than in Ireland, which would make it impossible for the preceding proportions to be raised in that kingdom as high as they are in Britain. But fair allowances being made for this article, still we may with great safety conclude that this national burthen is vastly lighter there than, with us. If the advantages of such a situation are not continued, it will certainly be owing to complaints of poverty, occasioning closer scrutinies into facts than have hitherto happened. WE come next to the expence which absorbs this income. BRITISH AND IRISH TAXES COMPARED. SOME of the particular duties which go towards raising the above revenue will be seen among the following articles: To lay a duty of near £24,000 a year upon the export of the produce of pasturage is heavy and most unpolitick, and ought to be abolished. The other articles in this list are very proper ones to tax. THE decline in several branches of the revenue having united with an increased expence to run the nation in debt as above mentioned, new taxes are of course in contemplation every session. A LAND TAX has been a matter of conversation in Ireland for some years: some increase must be made to the revenue, but in what mode is an enquiry of the most interesting nature to that kingdom; I shall for this reason offer a few remarks on the state of the country relative to the taxes which would be most proper for it. THERE are a variety of objections to land taxes in general, besides the particular ones which apply immediately to Ireland. Taxes ought all to be equal, but an equal
land tax must be a variable
one which is at once a tythe
, the most pernicious burthen to which any nation can submit; it is the taille, the equal land tax of France which is so well known to be the ruin of the agriculture of that kingdom: hence therefore equality must not be thought of in a land tax: and if there were no other objections, this alone ought for ever to preclude them. But suppose a fixed unequal tax as in England yet there are great evils in it, a man's possessions are rarely to be taken as a proof of his capability to bear a tax; a landlord who receives a thousand pounds a year from his estate, and pays seven hundred interest of mortgages is taxed at his whole rental; what enormity and ruin is this! that the ability to bear the burthen is to be of no consequence in laying the tax! When the amazing amount of mortgages on landed property is considered, the greatness of this oppression must be fully felt. But land taxes when they are unequal are unproductive; hence the oppressions under this name which crush the agriculture of France, Milan, and the states of Austria and Prussia, in most of which actual -valuations
of the land are made periodically, as if no man's improvement should escape taxation: hence also the designs of the English ministry once remarkably manifested in dropping the present land tax in order to obtain an equal one: these are universal objections. BUT in Ireland there are others which concern that country singly, and therefore the more deserving attention; a vast proportion of it is under lease for ever; other parts let for five hundred years; others for lives, and a hundred years; others for lives and 50 and 30 years; in a word under leases of every description. How could a land tax be laid in that kingdom consistently with the reigning principle of the English tax that the landlord only shall pay it? Difficulties innumerable would arise at every step; no gordian knot but the sword of power can cut, but the question is whether all the principles that have directed a similar tax in England would not be cut with them: for the tax to be either equal or productive it must be laid on some classes of tenantry: it ought certainly to be laid on all who do not occupy; but from that moment there is an end of it as an English land tax, it is a taille, a tax on tenantry: break the limits—the great line between the owner of the land and the tenant, and who will say how far the innovation will be carried? the most dangerous that can ever be made in a kingdom. Adieu to all improvements in agriculture wherever such an one takes place. EVILS of this sort rarely make their full appearance at first; a land tax in Ireland would probably come in under a very fair appearance; but the state of the country ought to tell its inhabitants that such a tax would be too unproductive to last; the successive alterations would do the fatal business, and produce the mischief in its full deformity. ADMINISTRATION have had experience in England of the loss, as it has been called, to the revenue from a fixed tax; if ever therefore they introduced it into Ireland, it would be in a form which admitted alterations in order to avoid the circumstance which has more than once raised a strong inclination to a new assessment. For these and other reasons too numerous to give in detail here, I am convinced that Ireland can never experience a more pernicious tax than that on, land. BUT as I observed before, government must go on, and must be supported at an increasing expence; new taxes must consequently be had recourse to, and I shall not hesitate a moment in recommending excises as the only ones which can be much extended without any national injury: an entire change in the administration of them should take place; the monstrous abuses remedied, and new ones laid. The cheapness of whisky with which a man may get dead drunk for two-pence, is an enormity too great to be borne. The morals, health, peace, industry, agriculture, manufactures, commerce, and wealth of the kingdom, are all materially injured by the cheapness of this vile beverage; there is not an object in Ireland which would yield a more productive revenue, at the same time that every shilling government got would be half a crown benefit to the public: a judicious and well collected excise on this liquor would raise an immense revenue. All other spirits, wines and tobacco, are also very well able to bear much heavier taxes than they labour under at present. An excise on tea also might be applicable; but there is no want of objects; and if the legislature of the kingdom will not set themselves very steadily to the business, a land tax will be the consequence, and in it all the mischiefs that must attend the measure. THE proposition for a land tax on absentees was very wisely rejected; the execution of it would have smoothed some of the difficulties, or at least rendered them familiar, and certainly have facilitated a general tax of the same nature. THE mode pursued in Ireland of raising money by tontine, at an exceeding high interest, so high even as 7 per cent. is very mischievous to the kingdom. The great want of that country is capital
, consequently a measure which tends to lessen capitals that are employed in any branch of industry, is pernicious; seven per cent. interest in national funds must be a severe blow, for who will lend money on private security at six per cent. while the public gives seven? And what man will undergo the trouble, and run the hazard of manufactures or commerce, while he can set by his fireside with seven per cent. in his pocket. In England where the capital is so immense, and with all that of Holland at command, similar transactions are found exceedingly detrimental, insomuch that no industry can be carried on which will not yield very large profits; no money to be procured on bond; scarce any on mortgage; vast sums drawing out of the general industry for investment in the public funds, and a general fall in the value of that great portion of landed property which is obliged to be sold. But the sums borrowed in this country may be too large to raise by taxes; I do not think it is the same in Ireland; and that kingdom had much better raise their supplies within the session than lessen their little capital by tontines. Commerce—Fisheries—Embargoes.
Unfortunately for Ireland, the general commerce of it is to be fully treated in a very small compass; and the facts which I have already had occasion to lay before the reader in the two preceding sections, go very far towards completing the whole necessary to explain its state. Being a dependent country, the British legislature has, upon all occasions, controlled its commerce, sometimes with a very high hand, but universally upon the principles of monopoly, as if the poverty of that country was to form the wealth of Britain: I have on every occasion endeavoured to shew the futility of such an idea, and to prove from the evidence of invariable facts, that the wealth of Ireland has always been, and is, the wealth of England, that whatever she gets is expended in a very large proportion in the consumption of British fabrics and commodities. The increased prosperity of Ireland, which she has experienced in spite of our absurd restrictions on her commerce, has raised her to be one of the greatest and best markets this kingdom possesses in any part of the globe. IT is a remarkable fact, which was pointed out to me by that very able politician, the Earl of Shelburne, that the narrowness of our prohibitory laws in England is of late date; from the old English acts of parliament it appears, that before the restoration the true system of commerce was much better understood than it has been of late days: if the transactions of the commonwealth are examined, there will appear great liberality, and the soundest principles in Cromwell and the leading men of those times; and that it was the clear determination of the protector as well as of the long parliament, to make the trade of Ireland as free as possible; nay, the act of navigation itself, at the restoration, included Ireland upon the same footing as England; it was not till twelve years afterwards that the exception crept in by a single clause in another act, which probably was passed at the desire of some merchant, without any person's caring about it, which has been the case with many an American act. The next prohibitory law, which declared the importation of Irish cattle a nuisance, was a contested job between the duke of Ormond and the duke of Lauderdale; afterwards it became the fashion to pass acts against Ireland, which nobody had the knowledge or liberality to oppose. In the full perfection of this spirit it was, that a bill, which passed in Ireland in 1759, for restricting the importation of damaged flour, was thrown out in England at the instigation of a single miller at Chichester. WHENEVER old prejudices wear out, it will certainly be found for the interest of England to give every freedom possible to the trade of Ireland. I am convinced if this extended to its being an absolute free port, no mischief would result from it; but as to a free export to all the world, not the shadow of a good argument ever yet appeared against it; for upon what principles of policy, or of common sense, can we found a conduct which restrains our own subjects from the free sale of their products and manufactures, when the returns of such sales must flow into our own coffers by that extension of demand, which has been inseparably connected with the wealth of Ireland? A mercantile landlord at London might as well say to his tenant in Yorkshire, you shall not sell your corn to whom you please, you shall ship it to me; you shall not convert your wool to the best purposes, you shall sell it raw to me. This language might be that of his leases; but it would be that of folly. Would he not soon find, that by leaving his tenants to make the best of their own commodities, they would afford to pay him a better rent; their wealth becomes his; if he keeps them poor he must be so himself. The case of Ireland is exactly parallel; the inhabitants of that island, in their public revenue, in their military, by their absentees, and in their commercial balance, pay to this kingdom a direct rent for it, which vibrates in its amount to the variations of their national wealth. While it was a wilderness of savages it paid the rent which desarts every where yield; as it improved our receipt has been proportioned, until it has become a cultivated flourishing estate, and yields a rent which marks to an iota the extent of the cultivation, and the degree of that prosperity. Of what use is the experience of a century of facts, if we are not to open our eyes to the lessons they convey? Long experience has told us what the effects of Irish wealth are; we feel those effects flowing like vital warmth through the whole extent of our own territory, and shall we yet hesitate to encourage and extend a prosperity which is the source and foundation of our own? I have taken the great line of leading principles; will the littleness of commercial jealousy reply in its true spirit, that this town will be hurt: that that manufacture will be lost; that Manchester will be alarmed; and that Norwich will have apprehensions: it is not a question for the weavers of one place, or the merchants of another to decide: it is THE EMPIRE that is concerned: the general interest demands the measure, and ought to absorb every pitiful consideration: but all experience speaks only one language even to these mistaken individuals: I observed it before, and gave instances of manufactures sinking in the possession of a monopoly, and thriving from a rivalry; of markets rising to increasing industry; of the welfare of one country rising from the prosperity of others: truths as universal as the world. And shall we deny the application to a sister, but dependent kingdom, from whom we have so many ways of gaining advantages from her wealth? But arguments are little wanted where facts are so numerous; to those I have already inserted, let me add the following state of our imports and exports in the Irish trade. TRADE, GREAT BRITAIN with IRELAND. THE reader will recollect that it was the general tenour of the information received in the journey, that the year 1748 was the epoch of the modern prosperity of Ireland; all agree that after that peace, Ireland advanced greatly; her rise of rental will mark this clearly. The following is a review of the minutes: Lord Longford more than doubled in thirty years.—Earl of Inniskilling quadrupled in ditto.—Mr. Cooper almost trebled since 1748.—Mayo trebled in forty years.—King's county two-thirds since 1750.—Tipperary doubled in twenty years.—Barony of Owna and Ara doubled in ditto.—Rich lands of Limerick risen a fourth in twenty years, and two-thirds since 1748. IN the preceding enquiries the truth of this is confirmed by every proof which authentic records can shew. HERE is an account that is worth a dozen arguments! It is from hence evident, that our exports to Ireland have in the last twenty-five years considerably more than doubled, almost trebled; and this great rise has been exactly in the period of the internal prosperity of that island. If I did not know persons of very respectable characters in parliament, who think very differently upon this great question of the freedom of Irish trade, I should be ashamed of dwelling a moment on the subject. How would it have been possible for that country to support such an increased importation, unless she had increased in wealth? And having proved that such advances in national prosperity have been attended by this increased demand for the manufactures and products of England, are we not perfectly founded in concluding, that future advantages to Ireland will also be attended by similar effects? The influx of wealth into that country brings a taste for the elegant luxuries with which we abound, and the capability of purchasing them ensures the purchase. An Englishman cannot go into a single house in Dublin, or see a person dressed, of either sex, without having this truth staring him in the face. The fourth column of the table, which shews the balance she pays us, and which amounts of late years, from six hundred thousand to a million a year, could not possibly be supported with the absentee drain, unless she made by her trade elsewhere. FROM this comparison we find, that the rapid increase of our exports to Ireland is in late years, the stronger reason therefore to expect, that whatever increase of wealth she experiences, it will be England that will receive the tribute of it. By means of the prosperity of Ireland, the trade we carry on with that kingdom is grown to be one of the most important which we possess; and in the last year of this table, nearly equalled the export to the whole Continent of North America. FREIGHT, insurance and profit on both, twelve per cent. Hence therefore this nation has no demand of policy so strong on her at present, as to encourage Ireland to the utmost of her power, in order to increase her own trade to that island, that American losses may be the less sensibly felt; but this can only be done by embracing a system totally new. And here it is a tribute fairly due to genius long since departed, to observe, that the relative interests of England and Ireland were better understood by Mr. Houghton in 1682, than by any later writer, whose productions have come to my knowledge; and as I have mentioned him on this occasion, I must remark, that he seems to have had juster ideas of trade, manufactures, prices of provisions, enclosures, &c. than nine-tenths of the authors who have treated of those subjects: The richer Ireland grows the more wealth will the landlords have, and the more will they that live here spend. I am told by an inquisitive and understanding knight, that hath a great estate there, and very well understands the Irish affairs, that what their gentry spend here, with the pensions and the rent that are paid from thence to the city of London, amounts to about three hundred thousand pounds per annum, and I see no reason why this expence should not increase according to their thriving. .... Even in the woollen manufacture I question whether they could in cloth
do more than the Dutch; and for other manufactures, why might it not put both nations at strife to find out some new consumptions, and so increase the trades of both?
If there must be but a set quantity consumed, seeing England bears up against, and in cloathing outdoth terra firma, why may we not
, IF IRELAND BE JOINED TO US, spoil the trade on the other side, and so be both enriched?
.11
Here is the interest of England, relative to that country, explained upon the most enlarged and most liberal principles of freedom and of commerce. This penetrating genius, who saw deeper into the true English interests than half our modern politicians, was sensible of no mischiefs from a free Irish woollen trade: the prevalence of commercial jealousy had not then arisen to the heights we have since seen it: without any hesitation. Ireland ought to have an absolutely free trade of export and import to all our American colonies and African settlements; also a very considerable freedom in her exports to Europe. But when this subject was in conversation in the house of commons, I heard the minister mention one circumstance, which seemed to stand in the way of doing justice to Ireland, that is to ourselves; taxes there being so much lower that their manufactures not being equally under the burthen of excises, would have an unfair start of ours.12
With great submission, I think this would not be found sound doctrine either in factor reason. I might here go into the question of a poor
and cheap
country robbing a rich one of her manufactures, for the assertion comes directly to this; but Dr. Tucker has treated it in so masterly a manner, and has so clearly proved the absurdity of the idea, that what he has said ought to be considered as conclusive. But why give in linen what you deny in other fabrics? Irish linen has all the advantages of a freedom from a great variety of excises, which the manufacturers of English linen labour under, and yet we not only support the competition but thrive under it, from there being a difference in the fabrics, and as great a difference would be in all other fabrics. Their broad cloth, also, is made under the same advantages, and compare it both in price and quality with that of England; I bought it at seventeen shillings and fix- pence a yard at the Dublin society's warehouse, without the master manufacturer's profit and expences, and I will venture to assert, from wearing both, twenty-three shillings for English cloth to be cheaper. The same fact runs through a variety of their fabrics. The fixed trade, capital and skill of England, will for ever bid defiance to the no-excises of Ireland. But something was forced to be given—had woollens been put down and linens not permitted, the oppressed and ruined people would have sought redress with arms in their hands. The monopolizing spirit of commercial jealousy gave as little as possible, and would not have given that little could she have avoided it. But the argument says, that Ireland having few excises will get much trade and wealth: and is it not your design that she should? Ought not this, in common sense, to be your wish and aim? For whom does she grow rich? If I have not proved that point, there is no proof in fact, nor truth in figures. Why cannot she rival France, Holland, and Germany, as well as England? But we have ample experience to tell us that she may advance, and we be prosperous. To assert, because there are not as many excises in one part of our dominions as another, that therefore their trade shall be cramped is exactly like saying, that labour is cheap there, and for that reason shall never be dear; making the poverty of the kingdom the motive for keeping it poor. TAXES flow from trade and consumption, give them the wealth to consume, and never fear but taxes will follow. FISHERIES. THERE is scarcely a part of Ireland but what is well situated for some fishery of consequence; her coasts and innumerable creeks and rivers mouths are the resort of vast shoals of herring, cod, hake, mackarel, &c. which might, with proper attention, be converted into funds of wealth; but capital is such a universal want in Ireland, that very little is done. The minutes of the journey contain some valuable information on this head, but the general picture is rather an exhibition of what ought to be done, than any thing that actually is executed; nor have the measures of the legislature been attended with any considerable effect; some of them seem to have done mischief, of which the following is an instance. THE following has been the effect of this measure. BARRELS of HERRINGS imported into IMPORTED herrings for home consumption are from Scotland, for foreign use from Sweden. The former twenty shillings a barrel. The latter from fourteen to sixteen shillings. And their own from sixteen to twenty shillings. Prices of other sorts of fish. Dry ling from eighteen to twenty shillings per cwt. Salmon from twelve to thirteen pounds per ton. Hake from fourteen to sixteen shillings per cwt. Dry cod from fourteen to sixteen shillings per cwt. Wet cod from fourteen to eighteen shillings per barrel.14
BEFORE I quit this article of Irish fisheries, I shall observe that next to the cultivation of land there is no object in their national oeconomy of so much importance. No manufactures, no trade can be of half the consequence to Ireland, that many of her fisheries might prove if encouraged with judgment. There is no undertaking whatever in which a small capital goes so far; nor any in which the largest will pay such ample profits. Scotland has the herrings somewhat earlier, but they come in good time to Ireland for the Mediterranean trade, and in a plenty that ought to make their capture a favourite object. The bounties hitherto given have been so far from answering that they have in some respects done mischief. I was present more than once at the meetings of the fishery committee of the Irish house of commons, and I found them making anxious enquiries how to avoid great frauds, from which 1 found that notorious ones had been committed; this is the great misfortune of bounties when they are not given with great judgment and care. Relative to the fisheries the profit is so great, that all acquainted with them will engage as far as their capital will admit, whatever bounties are given therefore should not be with a view to instigate men possessed of capital, for they do not exist, but to put capitals into the hands of those who will certainly make use of them. It appeared in the minutes of the Loch Swilly fishery that one boat and the netts sufficient cost £20; the best bounty would be to give boats and netts to men used to the fishery, because few are able to buy or build them. To give a premium on the export of the herrings, or upon the tonnage of the boats, will not answer, for it supposes them actually taken, and built, that is, it supposes the very difficulty got over which want of money makes perpetual. Before the boat is in the fishery it must be built, and before the fish are exported they must be taken, those who have money to do either will go to work without any bounty, the profit alone being sufficient. In countries so very poor, the first steps in such undertakings are the most difficult: and to assist in overcoming the early difficulties is what the legislature should aim at. Giving boats and nets to men that would certainly use them does this, and would be productive of great national good; always supposing that frauds and jobbings are guarded against; if they are permitted to creep in, as in giving spinning wheels the mischief would be far more than the benefit. £20,000 per annum thus expended would give 1000 boats, which would soon accumulate to a vast number, and if the effect was so great as to find the herrings regorge in the home market, then would be the time to drive them out by a bounty on the export, if their own cheapness did not bring the effect without it. I am far from recommending a new system of bounties upon an object that had not received them before; they have been long given or jobbed, all 1 mean is, that if the public is burthened with such payments, care should be taken that they are given in the mode that promises to be most advantageous. EMBARGOES. OF all the restrictions which England has at different times most impolitickly laid upon the trade of Ireland, there is none more obnoxious than the embargoes on their provision trade. The prohibitions on the export of woollens, and various other articles, have this pretence at least in their favour, that they are advantageous to similar manufactures in England; and Ireland has long been trained to the sacrifice of her national advantage as a dependant country; but in respect to embargoes, even this shallow pretence is wanting; a whole kingdom is sacrificed and plundered, not to enrich England, but three or four London contractors! a species of men of an odious cast as thriving only on the ruin and desolation of their country. It is well known that all the embargoes that have ever been laid have been for the profit of these fellows, and that the government has not profited a shilling by them. Whenever the affairs of Ireland come thoroughly to be considered in England, a new system in this respect must be embraced. It may not be proper for the crown directly to give up the prerogative of laying them; but it ought never to be exerted in the cases, and with the views with which we have seen it used. The single circumstance of sacrificing the interests of a whole people to a few monopolizing individuals in another country, is to make a nation the beasts of burthen to another people. But this is not the only point; the interest of England and of government is equally sacrificed, for their object is to have beef plentiful and cheap, But to reduce it so low by embargoes as to discourage the grazier is to lessen the quantity; he increases his sheep or ploughs more, or is ruined by his business, which necessarily renders the commodity too dear, from the very circumstance of having been too cheap. A steady regular good price, from an active demand encourages the grazier so much that he will produce a quantity sufficient to keep the price from ever rising unreasonably high, and government would be better supplied. Another consideration is the loss to the kingdom by not taking French money, and sending them to other markets; if It could be proved, or indeed if the fact was possible, that you could keep their fleets in port for want of Irish beef, there would be an argument for an embargoe, perhaps, twice in half a century; but when all experience tells us that if they have not beef from Ireland they will get it from Holstein, from Denmark and elsewhere, is it not folly in the extreme to refuse their money, and send them to other markets. The Dutch were ridiculed in Louis XIV's reign for selling the French, before a campaign, the powder and ball which were afterwards used against themselves: but they were wise in so doing, they had not the universal monopoly of iron and gunpowder, as of spices, and if they did not supply the enemy others would, for no army ever yet staid at home in the heart of commercial countries for want of powder and ball: nor will a French fleet ever be confined to Brest for want of beef to feed the sailors. Embargoes therefore cannot be laid with any serious views of that sort, but when contracts are made, the contractors gaping for monopoly, raise a clamour, and pretend that no beef can be had if France is served, directly or indirectly, and in order to make their bargains so much the more profitable government gives them an embargoe on the trade of a kingdom (like a lottery ticket to a fund subscriber) by way of douceur.
This conduct is equally injurious to the true interest of England, of Ireland, and of government. BEFORE I conclude this section, I must observe one circumstance, which though not important enough to stop the progress of commercial improvement in Ireland, yet must very much retard it, and that is the contempt in which trade is held by those who call themselves gentlemen. I heard a language common in Ireland, which, if it was to become universal, would effectually prevent her ever attaining greatness. The houses of country gentlemen are full of brothers, cousins, &c. idlers whose best employment is to follow a hare or a fox; why are tbty not brought up to trade or manufacture?
TRADE! (the answer has been) THEY ARE GENTLEMEN ;—to be poor till doomsday: a tradesman has not a right to the point of honour—you may refuse his challenge. Trinity College at Dublin swarms with lads who ought to be educated to the loom and the counting house. Many ill effects flow from these wretched prejudices; one consequence manifest over the whole kingdom, is commercial people quitting trade or manufactures when they have made from five to ten thousand pounds, to become gentlemen;
where trade is dishonourable it will not flourish; this is taking people from industry at the very moment they are the best able to command success. Many quakers who are, (take them for all in all) the most sensible class of people in the kingdom, are exceptions to this folly: and mark the consequence, they are the only wealthy traders in the island. The Irish are ready enough to imitate the vices and follies of England; let them imitate her virtues; her respect for commercial industry which has carried her splendor and her power to the remotest corners of the earth. 1
Additional duties laid. 2
Stamps ditto. 3
This does not agree with the state in vol. 17 of the journals, nor the following year. 4
Extracted from the national accounts laid before parliament every sessions. 5
The exact numher at 640 to a mile is 71,979,848. 6
£20 that of England, and £4 allowed for Scotland. 7
The last custom-house account. 8
Commons Journals, vol. xvi. p. 268. 9
EXTRACTED from the accounts laid before the British parliament. 10
For the years since 1773 see Sect. 24. 11
COLLECTION of Husbandry and Trade, vol. iv. p. 48. 12
WRITTEN in June 1779. 13
MANUSCRIPT report of the fish committee, 1771, communicated by the Right Hon. William Burton. 14
MANUSCRIPT Report Com. communicated by the Right Hon. William Burton. 15
Ibid.SECTION XX.
Customs in.
Customs out.
Import excise.
Export excise.
Additional
duty on ale,
beer, and
strong waters.
Hearth money.
£.
£.
£.
£.
£.
£.
In the year
1730
97,821
27,012
78,248
64,360
50,909
42,301
1740
84,912
25,388
73,336
69,675
55,375
45,045
1750
151,279
29,698
123,858
92,294
74,404
43,039
Average of 7 years,
from 1764 to
1770,
211,036
37,712
154,753
84,185
68,718
57,736
Average of 7 years,
from 1771 to
1777,
223,709
37,929
146,473
75,839
53,831
59,868
1778
198,550
36,027
131,284
81,761
58,612
61,646
1779
165,802
31,717
106,070
76,335
54,934
60,617
Two years end-
ing Lady day.
Hereditary
revenue gross.
Old additional
duties gross.
For receiving
revenue, pay-
ing draw-
backs and pre-
miums on corn
&c.
Nett produce
of the heredi-
tary and old
additional
duties.
£.
£.
£.
£.
Average of 7
years, from
1751 to
1763.
1,060,474
355,698
208,981
1,209,068
Average of 7
years, from
1765 to
1777.
1,305,062
446,335
368,786
1,382,896
In the year 1779,
1,175,145
346,696
£.
Average of ten years, from 1758 to 1767,
834,673
In the year 1768
———
945,520
1769
———
977,372
1770
———
954,045
1771
———
900,9l3
1772
———
897,396
1773
———
955,074
1774
———
957,4981
1775
———
930,2282
1776
———
1,040,055
1777
———
1,093,881
Average of ten years, from 1768 to 1777,
965,198
Ditto of the former period,
——
834,673
Increase,
———
130,525
£.
In the year
1761
—
223,438
National debt.
1763
—
521,161
ditto.
1765
—
508,874
ditto.
1767
—
581,964
ditto.
1769
—
628,883
ditto.
1771
—
789,569
ditto.
1773
—
999,6863
ditto.
1775
—
976,117
ditto.
1777
—
825,4264
ditto.
1779
—
1,062,597
ditto.
£.
s.
d.
BRITISH revenue of 13 millions paid by 9 millions of people is,
1
9
0
a head.
Irish revenue of 1 million paid by 3 millions of people is,
0
6
8
a head.
British revenue of 13 millions paid by 72 millions5
of acres is,
0
3
6
each.
Irish revenue of 1 million paid by 25 millions of acres is,
0
0
10
each.
British revenue of 13 millions paid by a rental6
of 24 millions is,
0
10
10
in the pound.
Irish revenue of 1 million paid by a rental of 6 millions is,
0
3
4
in the pound.
British revenue of 13 millions paid by an export of 7
16 millions is,
0
16
3
in the pound.
Irish revenue of 1 million paid by an export of 3½ millions is,
0
5
9
in the pound.
British revenue of 13 millions paid by a balance of trade of 5 millions is,
2
12
0
in the pound.
Irish revenue of 1 million paid by a balance of trade of 1 million is,
1
0
0
in the pound.
Two years ending
Lady day.
Civil list.
Military list.
Extraordinary
charges, includ-
ing parliamen-
tary gramts.
Totals.
£.
£.
£.
£.
In the year
1751
146,134
766,151
126,356
1,038,643
1771
272,678
976,917
373,997
1,623,593
1773
323,833
1,172,723
389,634
1,886,191
1775
366,838
1,223,326
342,377
1,932,541
1777
410,904
1,112,682
410,172
1,933,758
1779
336,475
937,679
432,474
1,706,628
Goods exported.
Duty.
£.
In the year
1773 Beef,
—
10,759
Bulls and cows,
—
29
Butter,
—
6,809
Candles,
—
109
Cheese,
—
52
Horses,
—
88
Bacon flitches,
—
120
Hides,
—
2,857
Tallow, cwt.
—
2,994
Tongues,
—
75
Total, —
23,892
Goods imported.
Duty.
£.
Tobacco,
—
121,148
Rum,
—
161,080
Gin,
—
21,935
Brandy,
—
34,206
Tea,
—
16,406
Salt and salt petre,
—
11,305
Silk,
—
18,382
Wine,
—
104,7108
Total, —
489,163SECTION XXI.
In the
year
Imports.
Exports.
Exports
excess.
£.
£.
£.
1760
904,180
1,050,401
146,220
1761
853,804
1,476,114
622,310
1762
889,368
1,528,696
639,328
1763
769,379
1,640,713
871,333
1764
777,412
1,634,382
856,969
1765
1,070,533
1,767,020
696,486
1766
1,154,982
1,920,015
765,033
1767
1,103,285
1,880,486
777,201
1768
1,226,094
2,248,315
1,022,221
1769
1,265,107
1,964,742
699,634
1770
1,214,398
2,125,466
911,068
1771
1,380,737
1,983,818
603,081
1772
1,242,305
1,963,787
721,481
17739
1,252,817
1,918,802
665,98510
Imports.
Exports.
£.
£.
The averages of twenty-
five years, since 1748,
are —
965,050
1,482,513
Ditto in the twenty-five
preceding years,
438,665
657,972
Latter period superior by,
526,385
824,541
Imports.
Exports.
£.
£.
Average of the last seven
years, —
1,240,677
2,012,202
Ditto of the preceding
seven years,
917,088
1,573,934
Increase, —
323,569
438,268
£.
Exports from England to the continent of
North America, from Christmas, 1772,
to 1773,
1,981,544
Ditto to Ireland,
1,918,802
BY the 3 G. 3. C4.—Twenty shillings per ton on
English or Irish built vessels decked, after the
commencement of this act, not under twenty
tons, nor to be paid for more than one hundred,
to proceed from some port in Ireland.Bounty of 2s. a barrel on export of white herrings.
Ditto of 2s. 6d. on mackarel.
Bounty of 5s. for six score of ling.
Ditto of 3s. for kake, haddock, glassing, and conger
eel.Ditto of 4s. 3½d. for every tierce, of 41 gallons of
wet fish exported.Ditto of £3 per ton for whale oil,
}
manufactured
in Ireland.Ditto of 30s. do. for other oil of fish
Ditto of £4 per cwt. for whalebone.
IRELAND for EIGHTEEN YEARS.Average of 9 years, from 1756 to 1764.
Before the bounty,
23,201
barrels,
from
G.Britain.
— — —
1,847
——
——
E. Country.
Total,
25,048
Average of 9 years, from 1765 to 1773.After the bounty,
16,657
barrels,
from
G.Britain.
— — —
25,365
——
——
E. Country.
Total,
42,022
£.
s.
d.
Increased import, in value, since
the bounty,}
158,604
15
013
£.
s.
d.
Amount of premiums paid to fishing
busses in the last nine years,
47,062
6
5
Ditto to exported fish, — —
1,265
4
7
48,327
11
015
Arthur Young, A Tour in Ireland, made in the years 1776, 1777, and 1778 (London: T. Cadell, 1780)