Another great objection that may be urged against excise duties is, the facili ties which they offer for the commission of frauds against the revenue. In the Seventeenth Report of the Commission ers appointed to inquire into the manage ment and collection of the excise revenue, it is stated as a striking proof of the ex tent to which frauds are committed by manufacturers of soap, that " there are in England fifty that take out licenses, for which they pay 4l. per annum, each of which makes, or rather brings to charge, less than one ton of soap per annum, from which it is obvious that as the profits of such a sale would not pay for the licence, the entry is made in order to cover smug gling." With regard to malt, another article of great consumption which is sub ject to excise duties, the commissioners state it to be their opinion, founded upon the evidence given by several respectable maltsters, "that malt is sold throughout the season, and in large quantities, for a price that is insufficient to pay the ex pense of making it and duty ; and that the duty is evaded to a great amount." In 1797 the number of articles subject to excise duties was 28 ; 15 in 1833; 10 in 1835; and now, June, 1845, there are only 9, including sugar. The Post-horse duty is under the management of the Board of Excise, and in Ireland the duty on game certificates. In the following list of the articles which paid Excise du ties in 1797, the first eight are still sub ject to these duties, and with sugar made here constitute all the articles on which the Excise duty is now collected : Bricks.
Hope.
Licences.
Malt. Paper. Soap. Spirits, British.
Vinegar.
Salt, repealed 1825.
Wire, do. 1826.
Beer, do 1830.
Cyder and Perry, do. 1830.
Hides and Skins, do. 1830.
Printed Goods, do. 1831.
Candles, do. 1832.
Tiles, do. 1833.
Starch, do. 1834.
Stone Bottles, do. 1834.
Sweets and Mead, do. 1834.
Auctions, do. 1845.
Glass, do. 1845.
Tea, transferred to Customs.
Coaches, transferred to Stamps.
Cocoa and Coffee, transferred to Customs.
Pepper, do.
Spirits, Foreign, do.
Tobacco and Snuff, do.
Wine, do.
In 1822 the Excise duties yielded for the United Kingdom twice as much as the Customs duties. The receipts from Customs were 14,384,710/. and from the Excise 31,190,948/. In 1797 the Excise duties collected in England amounted to 11,069,6681., and in 1821 they reached to 27,400,3001., which is the highest sum they ever attained. In 1845 they are again reduced to the amount at which they stood in 1797. In 1829 the large sum of 6,013,1591. was paid at the chief office for the London " collection," and in 1835, only 1,462,919/.: the boundary of the " collection," it may be as well to state, does not comprise the whole of the metro polis. In 1825 several articles were transferred to the Customs, and in the same year the salt duty was repealed. This example was followed in the case of many other articles, so that between 1825 and 1834 the duties transferred to the Customs amounted to 11,238,300/.
and the duties altogether repealed to 6,782,0001., making a total of 18,020,300/., Two articles alone on which the duty was taken off produced upwards of 5,000,000/. annually, namely, beer 3,100,800/. and printed cottons 2,104,0001.
In 1835 the number of traders in the United Kingdom who were surveyed peri odieally by Excise officers was 588,000. They were divided into five classes : 1. Persons visited for the purpose of charg ing the 44 growing " duties, as maltsters. soap-makers, &c. 2. Persons who paid a licence according to the extent of their business, as brewers and some others. 3. Innkeepers and retailers of beer and others, who dealt in articles upon which an Excise duty was levied. 4. Persons who were dealers in articles upon which Customs duties had been paid. 5. Per sons who did not pay duties, but were sub ject to cautionary surveys ; tallow-melt ers, for example, as a check upon soap makers. The cost of these surveys in England only amounted to 533,902/. In a single year the number of surveys of dealers in tea, wine, and tobacco has been about fifteen millions ; 1,657,957 permits were required before goods in certain quantities could leave their premises ; and 778,988 books were supplied to these dealers in which to keep an account of their stock and sales. Since 1835 several of the surveys have been abolished, and it has generally been found that they were of little or no value so far as the re venue was concerned, while they were a vexatious hinderance to business. These and some other improvements in the Excise department are in a great measure the result of the Seventeen sound, able, and elaborate Reports of the Commission ers of Excise Inquiry, appointed 27th of March, 1833, and which embraced each of the articles subject to Excise duties.
The gross receipt collected by the Ex cise on each article of duty in 1844 was as follows :— Prior to 1823 there were separate and independent Boards of Excise for Eng land, Scotland, and Ireland, and the total number of Excise commissioners was twenty-one. The business is now better conducted by seven commissioners and by one board in London. The chairman has a salary of 20001., the deputy-chairman 1500/., and each of the other commis sioners 1500/. a year. The commissioners hold courts and decide summarily in case of the infraction of the Excise laws. The number of persons employed at the chief Excise-office in London is about five hundred. In 1797 Mr. Pitt pointed at the Excise establishment as a model for other public departments on account of its cffi ciency and good management. In 1797 the number of officers belonging to the department in England was 4777, and their salaries amounted to 323,671/. ; in 1815 the number of officers was 7986, and their salaries 904,922l.; and in 1835 there were 4190 officers, and their salaries amounted to 518,620/.