mean is the regulation relating to beaver fkins, by which the duty upon the importation of that material for manufacture was indeed very much reduced, but as it is a material fo abfolutely neceffary for our manufacture of hats of any tolerable finenefs, I think, the duty upon importation ought to have been entirely abolished, at least with regard to all beaver fkins imported from our own plantations; or if any fmall duty had been continued, no drawback upon the exportation ought to have been allowed; for as the law now ftands, all beaver skins, exported without any fort of manufacture, are to be allowed a drawback of one moiety of the duties paid upon importation; but if manufactured into hats, and then exported, no part of the duty is to be drawn back, which gives an advantage to the foreign manufacturer of hats that our own home manufacturer can no way intitle himself to. This is a fort of folecifm in our mercantile politicks which we have been guilty of, and could not indeed avoid, with refpect to feveral other materials for manufacture as well as beaver fkins; and tho' the duty upon them was very much reduced by the at I have mentioned, yet it had fo enhanced, and does ftill continue to enhance the price of hats manufactured in this country, that the French and Dutch have gained a great part of the foreign trade from us, and would by this time have fupplied even cur home confumption, if the importation of hats had not been exprefsly prohibited: Nay, fome of our own plantations in America had carried the manufacture to fuch a height, that we were obliged to have recourfe to a very dangerous regulation for putting a top to it: When I fay this, every gentleman muft fuppofe I mean the act paffed in the 5th of his prefent majefty's reign, by which it was enacted, That no hats or felts, finifhed or unfinished, fhould be fhipt in any of the British plantations, or load

ed upon any horfe or carriage, with intent to be exported out of any one of the faid Britith plantations, under the penalty of 500 l. for every of fence and 401. upon every perfon aflifting therein, befides forfeiture of the goods.

This, Sir, I call a dangerous regulation, and I call it fo becaufe of the fatal effects that may, by fuch regulations, be at laft produced; for if the affection of our people in the plantations fhould ever be alienated from their mother country, it will be by fuch feltith and unnatural regnlations as this. We may, it is true, by fuch reftraints as this prevent our own plantations from becoming our rivals, and underfelling us in foreign markets, but we cannot prevent foreign nations from doing fo; and if our own plantations are able to underwork and underfel us in any fort of manufacture, fome foreign nation will certainly be able to do the fame, and with regard to that manufacture will as certainly drive us at last out of every foreign market, by which means we fhall entirely lofe that branch of trade, whereas it might have been preferved to us, had we allowed our plantations to carry it on: I fay to us, Sir, because I must still look upon the people in our plantations, notwithftanding their great distance, as a partof ourfelves. We should never there, fore endeavour to prevent our own people in any part of the British dominions from carrying on any fort of manufacture: I fay we should never endeavour to do to by restraints, but by enabling the people of this ifland to underwork and underfell the people in our plantations, as well as in every other part of the world; and I muit add, that if this had been duly attended to in former times, it would never have been in the power of France to have eftablished their woollen manufactures, fo far as to have become our rivals at any foreign market in the world. On the contrary, it would hardly have been potlible for them to

Great-Britain and Ireland to work up their manufactures with more advantage, the duties now payable upon the importation of foreign raw or brown linen yarns, and Spruce or Mufcovia yarns, ought to be taken off.

The next Speech I shall give you was that made by L. Veturius Philo, (R-b--t Vy---r, Efq; parliamentary Lifts Ne 234.)

I

Mr. Prefident, SIR,

Shall agree with the noble lord who made you this motion, that we ought to avoid, as much as poffible, the laying of any duty upon the foreign materials for manufacture, provided he means raw materials, or materials in their original natural form, without any improvement by manufacture, if that improvement be fuch as may be made by our own people after it is imported; and this maxim even in this confin'd fenfe, has one very general exception; for if the material be of fuch a fort as may be produced in any part of the British dominions, it may be proper to load the importation of it with a fmall. duty, in order to encourage and promote the increafe of our own produce. This, Sir, is what common fenfe muft dictate to every gentleman who confiders the nature of trade and manufactures, and it has been pretty uniformly obferved, ever fince the members of our legislature began to turn their thoughts to that fubject. Our neceffities, indeed, have of late been fuch, or pretended to be fuch, that we have been obliged to tax almost every thing that can be imported; but in general I may obferve, that when a tax has been laid upon the importation of any raw material, a higher tax, or an additional tax, has been laid upon the importation of that material in part manufactured. Thus thrown filk, pays a much heavier duty upon importation than raw filk: Cotton yarn

pays a much heavier duty than cotton wool: And tanned hides or skins pay a much heavier duty than untanned hides or fkins. And the rough or undrefs'd flax has been long fince freed from any duty upon importation, for the encouragement of our linen manufacture; yet we never before now thought of freeing it from any duty, when manufactured into yarn even of the coarfeft fort; becaufe no yarn of any kind was ever before confidered as a material for manufacture, and certainly deferves much lefs to be confidered as a material for manufacture than tanned leather or hides, as the manufacturing of flax into yarn, even of the coarfeit fort, cofts a great deal more, and employs a much greater number of hands, than the tanning of hides; and the weaving and bleaching of linen does not add fo much to the value of the yarn, as may be added to the value of tanned hides, by working them up into feveral forts of leather manufacture, nor is the number of hands employed in the former fo large as the number of hands that must be employed in the latter.

From our general practice therefore, Sir, as well as from common fenfe, we may with regard to our imports lay down thefs rules, that foreign materials, which cannot be produced in our own country in fufficient quantities, ought not to be fubjected to any tax, or a bounty ought to be given upon the exportation of the manufacture, equal to the tax upon the material; that the foreign materials which can be produced in fufficient quantities within our own dominions, may be fubjected to a tax upon importation, or a bounty ought to be given upon their home-production; that foreign materials, improved by any fort of manufacture, ought to be taxed in proportion to their improvement; and that all fort, of foreign goods, compleatly manufactured, may be taxed upon importation, and ought to be highly taxed, if not prohibited,

when

when they are fuch as interfere with any of our home manufactures. Thefe rules, I fay, Sir, are dictated by common fenfe, and have been generally obferved by our legitlature, tho' I cannot fay that they have been always fo exactly obferved as they ought to have been, because in our methods of taxation we have often thought of nothing but that of raifing a fum of money for the publick fervice, without any regard to the trade or manufactures of our country; and even when we have deigned to take the trade and manufactures of our country into our confideration, we have been too often directed by whim, or by the felf-interested views of fome particular fet of men.

This, Sir, was plainly the cafe in the year 1730, when we made the importation of rough or undreffed flax free from any fort of duty; for tho' it be a raw material abfolutely neceffary for many forts of manufactures, it is a material of which a fufficient quantity might be produced in Britain, Ireland, and our American plantations, and it is a material, or produce, more profitable than any thing that can be produced by agriculture; for it has been computed, that an acre of land, by the production of wheat, cannot, one with another, produce above the value of 31. 58. yearly; whereas an acre of land, by the production of flax, may one with another, produce to the value of 61 yearly. For this reafon we ought either to have left the importation of foreign rough flax fubjeet to fome fmall duty, or we ought to have granted fome small bounty upon fuch as was produced at home, or imported from Ireland, or our plantations in America; but the intereft of the linen manufacturers and fail-makers then prevailed over the intereft of the landholders, and our regard for the publick revenue prevailed, as it often does over our country. By the former prevalency we were induced to render the importation of foreign rough flax quite free from any duty, VOL. XII,

to the difcouragement of our own production of that useful material; and by the latter, we were prevented from granting any bounty as a balance to that difcouragement.

The cafe was again the fame, Sir, in the year 1751, with repect to foreign linen yarn; for tho' the duty then payable upon the coarfe forts of foreign raw linen yarn was too high, the duty then payable upon the fine forts of foreign raw linen yarn was far from being fo: On the contrary, upon that of the finest forts it was really too low; becaufe every fort of linen yarn is an improvement of the rough material by manufacture, and an improvement which may be made by our own people, therefore by the third rule I have before ftated, it not only may, but ought to be made Subject to a tax upon importation; and as the importaion is greater in proportion as the yarn is finer, therefore by the fame rule the tax upon importation ought to be higher in proportion. But we took the direct countrary courfe; for we reduced very much the tax upon the fine forts of foreign raw linen yarn, and but very little that upon the coarfe forts, by fubjecting all forts of foreign raw linen yarn to one and the fame duty, that is to fay, to one penny per pound weight upon importation, fo that the forts of linen yarn, which are fit for making cloth of three, four, or five fhillings a yard, now pay no higher duty upon importation, than the torts that are fit only for making cloth of three, four, or five pence a yard, This furely was a folecifm in our mercantile politicks, if ever there was one, and a folecifm we must have been led into either by inattention, or by whim, or perhaps by the fuperior intereft of our manufactures of fine linens, or linen and cotton manufactures. But neither the one nor the other had then interreft enough, nor do I believe that they ever could have intereft enough, to make us tranfgrefs all the rules of found policy,

by