The budget opened. Or, an answer to a pamphlet [by Sir Robert Walpole] intitled, A letter from a member of Parliament to his friends in the country, concerning the duties of wine and tobacco / [Anon].

  • Bath, William Pulteney, Earl of, 1684-1764.
Date:
1733
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The budget opened. Or, an answer to a pamphlet [by Sir Robert Walpole] intitled, A letter from a member of Parliament to his friends in the country, concerning the duties of wine and tobacco / [Anon]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    And is it not equally the Tntereft of the fraudulent Jrader to corrupt one, as well as the other ? -But you are pleafed to give us a Detail of feve- rjd brands, committed by fome unfair Traders in Tobacco and Wine. As I am not a Dealer in either ot thefe Commodities, any more than your felf it cannot be exceeded that I Ihould give you a parti¬ cular Anfwer • but, upon the beft Enquiries I have been able to make, I have Reafon to believe that 5 f c ie ‘irt y°ur Charge is falle and ground- ,1 Y°U. tCn ,with regard to the Tobacco Trade, inat the 1 aback is liable, and hath been doubly defrauded by falfe Weights, and falfe Meafures, mi j mail Weights on Importation, by which the Duty is paid ; large Weights on Exportation, by which the Duty ts drawn back. , ~l0wl^ In^orm,d (and my Information feems it- • f *oun^e(^ 0n Reafon) that the fame lawful Weights and Meafures are ufed both on Importa¬ tion and Exportation by the Officers of the Ciiftoms ; and that, inftead of one Officer attending at the ocale, as you reprdent the Cafe, there are never lets than Three,; viz. the Weigher, one Land-Waiter <lllaa Ships Husband; but lam told there are ge¬ nerally more; Surveyors being often with them, v/ith other proper Checks. Befides, the Place of weighing, in the, Cuftoms, is not, as in Cafe of Pxcife, by one Officer in private; but by feveral Offi¬ cers on fome open, lawful Key, where Coopers and Porters mull attend, and other Perfons may and frequently do attend; fo that Frauds, in the Weight ui Tobacco, do not feem to be very practicable, even under the prefent Regulations. oulcII us tardier that the Revenue is defrauded ot aoo 1. Weight of Toibacco in every Hogfhead on importation^ and as muefy on Exportation; befides the