EXCISE duties, inland taxes on com modities of general consumption. This mode of taxation, having been always found very productive, has been adopted by all the European governments, and by some of them has been extended even to the necessaries of life ; but, in general, the articles subjected to it have been such as are not absolutely essential to subsistence. Salt appears to have been the object of an excise duty at a very early period ; in later times, oil, wine, tobacco, and various other con gumable articles, have been burthened with duties of this description.
Excise duties were first established in England in 1643, when the long parlia ment laid a tax on beer and ale in all the counties within their power ; and the king's parliament, then sitting at Oxford, imposed the like taxes on all within their power, by which means these new du ties, called excise, became general. It is supposed that the plan was originally adopted, in consequence of its success in the neighbouring commonwealth of Hol land. It was at first laid upon liquors only ; and it was solemnly declared, that at the end of the war all excises should be abolished ; but the contest continuing longer than was expected, this obnoxious mode of levying money was extended to bread, meat, salt, and many other articles. The excise on bread and meat was after wards repealed.
In the year 1660, two duties were im posed on English ale, amounting to 2s. 6d. per barrel of strong, and 6d. per bar rel of small beer ; a duty of 2d. per gal lon was also imposed on home-made spi rits. These duties were farmed till the year 1684, when they were put under the management of commissioners. For a considerable time they yielded a reve nue that was gradually increasing, and which amounted, in the year ending midsummer 1688, to 786,9151. 12s. 7d. Soon after the revolution several tempo rary duties were imposed on beer and ale : and in 1694, the established duties were 4s. 9d per barrel on strong, and Is. 3d. per barrel on small beer : the aug mentation of the revenue was not, how ever, proportionate to the increase of the duties, which was attributed by Dr. Dave nant to improper management, but pro bably arose, in part at least, from the in creased temptation to evade the duties.
Various additions to the original duties were made at subsequent periods, and the excise being extended to candles,soap, starch, hides, and other articles, it be came one of the most productive branches of the public revenue ; the gross pro duce, in the year 1732, being 2,964,6171.
About this time Sir Robert Walpole, who was of opinion that taxes on con sumable commodities, to which every citizen contributes in proportion to his consumption, and which being included in the price of the commodity, are in sensibly paid, constituted the most eli ble mode of raising the ?evenue neces sary for the public service, formed a pro ject for the gradual abolition, not only of the taxes on land, houses, and windows, but likewise the customs, by the substi tution of productive excise duties. He was influenced in the formation of this scheme by a knowledge of the gross and shameless frauds then daily practised in the collection of the customs ; and which, from the very nature of those frauds, and the extreme facility of committing them, he had no hope to remedy : he thought, therefore, that to convert the greater part of the customs into duties of excise, would be equally advantageous to government and to the fair trader; and that the excise laws might be so ame liorated, that, notwithstanding the odium generally attached to them as oppressive and arbitrary, no just ground of com plaint should remain. With a view, therefore, to the execution of this plan, he obtained a revival of the salt duties, which had been repealed some years be fore ; but upon proposing, in the follow ing year, to transfer the duties on wine and tobacco to the excise, so much cla mour was raised against the measure, that the minister, after some perseve rance, thought it prudent to relinquish this favourite project. The defeat of this scheme was celebrated by general re joicings, as a deliverance from the great est political danger : had it succeeded, between four and five millions a year would have been raised under the excise system, in addition, to the excise duties then subsisting : by the various duties which at different times have been since imposed, upwards of fifteen millions a year is now raised under the excise, in addition to the amount of this branch of the revenue at the above period.