Transactions of the Statistical Society of London.

  • Statistical Society (Great Britain)
Date:
1837
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Transactions of the Statistical Society of London. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

    10/152 (page 6)
    Auction Duty. should also be exhibited of the gross income, and of the several items constituting the difference between the gross and the net income. POST OFFICE. This department, though highly productive as a financial establishment, has the additional merit of affording to the public an accommodation of an extensive and useful kind, that could scarcely be furnished by any other means. Since the conveyance of letters and that of passengers have been united together, now nearly fifty years, the greatest expedition has been added 1o security; and, besides the annual income derived from the management, the public are sup- plied with newspapers and parliamentary papers without charge for postage, and the govern- ment carries on its correspondence with all parts of the kingdom without expense; and, it may be asserted, the charge for conveyance to private individuals, whilst it is both secure and expeditious, is less expensive Ilian in most of the other parts of Europe. It is, however, a department both of great expenditure and great receipt, and consequently one in which the difference between the gross income and the net income exceeds the other finance offices of government. It is desirable that the several items of which this difference is composed should be registered, classified, and made easily accessible. It is also proper that the expense of con- veyance per mile of letters, whether by coaches, by one-horse vehicles, or, in the few instances where it occurs, on horseback, should be made a subject of returns. Besides this, there should be notifications made of the extent of the business transacted, to be shown by the number of letters received and forwarded respectively at the General Post Office in London. These might be distinguished under the heads of “Inland letters,” of “Colonial letters,” of “ India letters,’ of “ Foreign letters from Europe,” and of “ Letters from all other parts of the world.” To these may appropriately be added the number of letters conveyed by means of the twcrper.ny post in and round the metropolis. EXCISE OFFICE. There is, perhaps, no branch of the executive government in this or any other country better arranged and conducted, nor any in which economy is more sedulously exercised, than in the Excise. It is peculiarly of importance to the object of this paper, because it almost wholly refers to quantities of articles, and only in few instances to mere money. In a statistical view, quantity is of more importance than price, because, generally, it affords clear means of estimating the value that industry creates. The only duty that refers merely to money collected under the Excise, is that on auctions. Though the amount received may, in a financial view, deserve attention, yet it affords no indications which can easily and directly be made available to ascertain the advancement or the decline of general prosperity. The commodities conveyed from one possessor to another are so numerous as to defy any classification; and if any could be made, it does not appear capable of being much applied to the purpose under consideration.