TARIFF, a table of duties payable ou goods imported into or exported from a country. The principle of a tariff de pends upon the commercial policy of the state by which it is framed, and the de tails are constantly fluctuating with the change of interests and the wants of the community, or in pursuance of com mercial treaties with other states. The British tariff underwent six important alterations from 1772 to 1842; namely, in 1787, in 1809, 1819, 1825, 1833, and 1842. The act embodying the tariff of 1833 is the 3 & 4 Win. IV. c. 56. Its character has been described in the Re port of a Committee of the House of Commons in 1840, on the Import Duties, as presenting "neither congruity nor unity of purpose : no general principles seem to have been applied. The tariff often aims at incompatible ends : the duties are sometimes meant to be both productive of revenue and for protective objects, which are frequently inconsistent with each other. Hence they sometimes operate to the complete exclusion of foreign produce, and in so far no revenue can of course be received ; and some times, when the duty is inordinately high, the amount of revenue beeomes in con sequence trifling. An attempt is made to protect a great variety of particular interests at the expense of the revenue and of the commercial intercourse with other countries." The schedules to the act 3 & 4 Wm. IV. C. 56. contain a list of 1150 articles, to each of which a specific duty is affixed. The unenumerated articles are admitted at an ad valorem duty of 5 and of 20 per cent., the rate having previously been 20 and 50 per cent. In 1838-9, seventeen articles produced 944 per cent. of the total customs' duties, and the remainder only 54 per cent., in eluding twenty-nine, which produced 3& per cent. The following table of the tariff of 1833, showing the duties received in 1838-9, is an analysis of one prepared by the inspector-general of imports for the parliamentary committee to which allusion has been made :— No. of Articles. .6 1. Articles producing on I 349 8,050 an average less than 241. J " 2. Do. less than 2401. 132 31,629 3. Do. less than 7131. 45 32,056 4. Do. less than 2,290/. 107 244,933 5. Do. less than 22,1801. 63 1,397,324 6. Do. less than 183,8641. 10 1,838,630 7. Do. less than 2,063,885 9 18,575,071 Excess of 8. Articles on which no 147 5,398 duty has been 22,122,095Under the head CuirroMs-DvrtEs, mention is made of the tariff of 1842, of the repeal of the duty on wool in 1842, and of the duty on cotton in 1845. In the same year, by an act (8 Viet c. 7) " to repeal the Duties of Customs due upon the Exportation of certain Goods from the United Kingdom," the duties on the ex portation of coals, culm, &c. are wholly
repealed.
Caps. 84 to 94 of the 8 & 9 Viet. are all acts relating to Customs, Trade, and Na vigation, and they all came into operation on the 4th of August, 1845. Cap. 84 is "An Act to repeal the several Laws re lating to Customs," by which 26 acts were repealed. Cap. 85 is " An Act for the Management of Customs," and regu lates the appointment and duties of offi cers, the taking of land for warehouses, &c. Cap. 86 is "An Act for the general Regulation of Customs," and relates to landing, warehousing, and custom-house entries. Cap. 87 is " An Act for the Pre vention of Smuggling," and specifies the acts which constitute smuggling, and the penalties. (This Act must be added to those mentioned in SMUGGLING ) Cap. 88 is " An Act for the Encourage-. ment of British Shipping and Navi gation," giving, with exceptions which are specified, certain privileges to Bri tish ships over foreign ships. Cap. 89 is " An Act for the Registering of British Vessels." Cap. 90 is " An Act for grant ing Duties of Customs," and imposes duties upon certain articles. (These duties are referred to in the preamble of the Tariff Act (9 & 10 Viet c 23) here after mentioned.) Cap. 91 is " An Act for the Warehousing of Goods." Cap., 22 is " An Act to grant certain Bounties and Allowances of Customs," which is confined however to refined sugar. Cap. 93 is " An Act to regulate the Trade of British Possessions abroad." Cap. 94 is " An Act for the Regulation of the Trade of the Isle of Man.' On the 26th of June 1846, the royal assent was given to Sir Robert Peel's last tariff, which tarries out still farther the principles of free trade by a total repeal of several important duties, and by a great reduction of numerous others. It is en titled " An Act to alter certain Duties of Customs" (9 & 10 Vict. c. 23.) On the same dap (June 26, 1846) the royal assent was given to the act for re pealing the duties on the importation of foreigu corn. It is entitled "An Act to amend the laws relating to the Importa tion of Corn" (9 & 10 Vict. c. 22.) By this act certain reduced "sliding-scale" duties are substituted for those of 1842, and they are to continue till Feb.1, 1849, when all duties on the importation and entry for home consumption of corn, grain, meal, and flour in the United King dom and iu the Isle of Man are repealed, with the exception of Is per quarter on all wheat, barley, bear or bigg, oats, rye, peas, and beans, merely for the purpose of registration of the quantities imported. The duties on all wheat-meal and flour, barley-meal, oat-meal, rye-meal and flour, pea-meal, and bean-meal are to be -lid. for every cwt.