Statement, 1896-7. 1054 expenditure which has been larger than I am the last person to throw any blame any since the great war, the surplus upon my predecessor on that account. has been one of the largest ever known. [Opposition cheers.] I have very The credit of the country never stood so largely profited by his miscalculation, high; Treasury bills for 12 months and I am very deeply grateful to him. have been floated in the course of the for it, and I will go further and say year at as low a rate as 13s. 9d. per that no one has any right to blame either cent., and the yield of Consols to a purhim or his skilled advisers for it. They chaser at the present time is, if you have proved fallible for once, and I hope only for once, guides. But make allowance for the difference in no one, looking to the then existing conthe denomination of the stock, just dition of things, could possibly have about half what it was 100 years expected the financial results of the past ago. A larger sum has been specifically year. In the first quarter of the devoted to the reduction of the National calendar year of 1895, the January Debt than has ever been known. The quarter, the value of our exports and deposits in our savings banks and the our imports and our railway earnings deposit and current accounts in our ordi- showed a decrease; in the second nary banks have exceeded all previous quarter, the quarter ending June, there records. The production of gold in the was a very slight recovery; and it was world has been the highest ever known. not until June was well over- ["hear, The amount of bullion at the Bank of hear!" and laughter]-and by a curious England has reached 49 millions; the coincidence-[renewed laughter-certain reserve of the Bank of England in pro- important political events had occurred portion to its liabilities was never so which I am sure did not enter into the high. The condition of the working calculations of the financial experts, classes, judged by the consumption of and possibly not of my predecessortea, tobacco, and sugar-those articles that everything seemed to tend upwards; which are, perhaps, the best guides, and through the latter half of 1895I think, in estimating the consuming I am speaking of the calendar yearpower of the working classes-must the increase in the value of our have materially improved, and although exports and our imports, of our I am afraid the condition of agriculture railway earnings, and of the returns has, perhaps, even changed somewhat of the Bankers' Clearing-house, and for the worse, yet the produce of general all other indications of the kind, showed stamps, which is the best gauge of the a most remarkable and continued exbusiness transactions of the capitalist pansion of the trade and commerce of classes, was never so high. Altogether, this country. I wish to call the attenSir, we have had a wonderful year, but, tion of the Committee to the period at perhaps, in nothing has that year been which this occurred. I suppose you may more remarkable than in the falsification go back for very many years without of the Estimates of my predecessor by the finding a time in which the volume of actual Exchequer Receipts. Some persons our exports had increased so much as appear to consider that it is a feather they did in the latter half of 1895. In in the cap of the Chancellor of the the first half of 1895-I am speaking Exchequer that the Exchequer Receipts now of the calendar year-there was an of the year should materially exceed his actual decrease in the value of our exports Budget Estimate. I am quite sure that and imports of no less than £7,531,000 the right hon. Gentleman opposite will when compared with the same period of not take any view of the kind. If, the previous year; in the second half of instead of under estimating our Revenue the year there was an increase of no by £5,812,000, he had over estimated it less than £28,228,000. ["Hear, hear!"] by that amount, I wonder what would I call the attention of the Committee to have been said of him. The triumph of a Chancellor of the Exchequer is when the Exchequer Receipts agree with his Estimate.["Hear, hear!"] That has not occurred in the present case, but, Sir, this because it bears upon what I shall afterwards have to say with respect to the period of the year at which the increases in our Revenue have mainly taken place. CUSTOMS REVENUE. Customs produced last year EXCHEQUER RECEIPTS 1895-6. [Cheers.] I will just note in passing I now come to the details of the Revenue that the Post Office and telegraphs show of the past year. If hon. Members have a large and satisfactory increase over supplied themselves with the printed 1894-95, that the House Duty shows an paper, they will find the items classed increase of £60,000, and Income Tax under the several heads, to which I will an increase of £500,000-largely, I briefly refer. The total Exchequer think, due to the great prosperity of the receipts of the past year amounted to country, and to the fact of a larger pro£101,974,000. The Exchequer receipts portion of these taxes having been paid of 1894-5 amounted to £94,684,000. within the financial year than would have The Exchequer receipts of the past year been the case if the country had been were, therefore, £7,290,000 in excess of less prosperous. But the heads of the Exchequer receipts of the previous Revenue of the past year to which I wish year, and £5,812,000 in excess of the to draw the attention of the Committee, estimate of the Chancellor of the Ex- are those in which the increase has chequer. I think the Committee will mainly accrued and in which the variaobserve with satisfaction that that in- tion is greatest, namely, Customs, Excise, crease is to be noticed under every single Death Duties, and Stamps. I may just head of the items of Revenue, with observe in passing that the Death Duties the exception of Land Tax, which have been now, for the first time, remains as it was, and miscellaneous separated from Stamps, at the sugreceipts, which show a decrease, because gestion of the hon. Member for King's in the year just concluded there was no Lynn (Mr. Gibson Bowles); and I windfall, as there was in the previous am sure the Committee will feel that year from the Naval Defence Account. that suggestion has been a valuable one. But I should like to draw the attention of the Committee to the period of the year at which this increase principally accrued. I take the first two quarters of the last financial year together, £20,756,000, because, as the right hon. Gentleman £516,000 over the Estimate and opposite knows very well, the re- £641,000 over the Exchequer receipts ceipts from Customs and Excise in of 1894-95. The Customs authorities those two quarters were confused by the are usually wonderfully accurate in their delay in the payment of the duty on Estimates. In this Estimate they made spirits owing to the anticipated reduction a mistake of 2.57 per cent., and that and the subsequent abolition of the six- does not seem much on an Estimate of over pence extra duty. In the first and £20,000,000. I only mention it because second quarters of last year there was an it is the largest mistake but one they increase of £3,917,000 when compared have made within the last 16 years, and with the corresponding quarters of the it is an extraordinary testimony to the previous year. In the third quarter of wonderful foresight with which they the past year there was an increase of calculate their Estimates. The chief £2,153,000; that was the best quarter feature of the Customs has been the of all. But in the last quarter of the increase in the revenue from tobacco, year there an increase of only tea and wine, and the receipts under £1,220,000 over the corresponding those three heads show an increase of quarter of the previous year. I do not £603,000 over the net receipts of know whether any one will be irreverent 1894-95, and of £364,000 over the enough to say that the vast increase in Estimate of my predecessor. It is the earlier part of the financial year was curious to observe that in the first due to expectations from the present quarter those three items showed a Government which have now been dis- decrease of £64,000, which by Michaelappointed. [Opposition cheers and mas had turned into an increase of laughter.] I think I am rightly inter- £142,000. The coffee and chicory group preting that cheer from the right hon. produced a net receipt of about £328,000, Gentleman; but in my belief these an increase of £2,000 over 1894-95; the variations have very little to do receipts from cocoa increased by £5,000, with Governments or with politics. and those from coffee have, as usual, was Chancellor of the Exchequer. declined. It will probably be interest- cent. last year as compared with the ing to the Committee to know that, previous year. On the whole, the whereas in the year 1875 the consump-revenue from foreign spirits is a detion of cocoa was 5 oz. per head, double creasing revenue, due to the cause I that amount was consumed last year. have indicated to the Committee. Now The consumption of coffee, which 40 I come to the head of tea. Tea shows a years ago was 21 oz. per head of the net receipt of £3,745,000-£158,000 population, is now only 11 oz. per head. over 1894-95 and £120,000 over the I believe the fact is that tea is driving Estimates. I think it will be satisfaccoffee out of the market because it is tory to the Committee to know that this cheaper, because it requires less milk, means an increase of consumption of and because it is easier for people to 10,000,000 lbs. of tea. Here, again, I make. I come to the head of dried have to say something to those who fruits, from which the net receipts were desire to promote trade within the limits £395,000, a decrease of about £1,500, of the Empire. Our trade in tea is as compared with the previous year. being rapidly transferred from China to In this group raisins produced £5,000 India and Ceylon. [Cheers.] In 1875 more than they did in the preceding more than 122,000,000 lbs. came from year. I hope I may gather from the China; in 1895 about 31,500,000 lbs. increasing yield from cocoa, out of which came from China; in 1875 23,220,000 lbs. a good deal of chocolate is made, and came from India and Ceylon; in 1895 from raisins, that there are an increasing nearly 190,500,000 lbs. came from the number of households in which the chil- same places. The Exchequer may comdren are acquainted with the delights of plain a little, because it is well known chocolate and plum pudding. Now I that a pound of Indian tea is stronger come to a more important head, that than a pound of Chinese tea; so a cup of foreign spirits. The net receipts from of tea made out of it pays less duty than foreign spirits were £4,217,000, or a cup of China tea. The next head is £20,000 more than the net receipts of tobacco. The net receipt was 1894-95, and £137,000 more than the £10,748,000-£108,000 over the EstiEstimate. I do not know whether it mates, and £333,000 over the net would be agreeable to the patriotism of receipts of 1894-95. The growth of hon. Members to know that British and the revenue from tobacco is very reIrish spirits are entirely displacing markable; and this, I may say, has foreign spirits in the market. [Cheers.] principally accrued in the last half of Since the year 1870 foreign spirits have the financial year. I believe it is mainly declined by 23 per cent., while the con- due to the great increase in the consumption of British spirits has increased by five per cent. ["Hear, hear!"] I hear the cheers of the hon. Member for Sheffield (Sir H. Vincent), but I may remind him that there is another view of the matter, for the stories of our old Naval triumphs always connect them with libations of grog. [Laughter.] non-smoker. Among foreign spirits is, of course, In my humble opinion, everything spent included rum. Well, Sir, the taste for on tobacco by those who have enough to rum, except in the most extraordinarily eat is waste. ["Oh, oh!" and cheers.] cold weather, appears to be absolutely I am quite aware that that may be a declining in England. People prefer, as matter of ignorance or prejudice, and I they do in wine, what I may call a would only appeal to smokers whether this lighter and cleaner spirit-[laughter] is not waste. It is calculated by the Cusand the receipts from the produce of toms authorities that no less a value rum during the last year have materially than £1,000,000 a year is literally thrown declined. Brandy, also, has been scarce into the gutter in the shape of the ends and dear. The same quality of brandy of cigarettes and cigars. [Laughter.] It which could have been purchased in is all the better for the Revenue, but I 1870 for 5s. 6d. a gallon now costs 9s. 2d. think it may be a subject of consideraThe importation of it declined by 19 per tion to smokers. I now come to the last sumption of cigarettes, which are specially head of Customs, that of wine. Wine and the other materials which go to the shows a remarkable increase on past manufacture of beer have been wonderyears. The net receipts from wine were fully cheap, and the mild winter has £1,256,000 £113,000 over the net largely stimulated the consumption of receipts of 1894-95 and £136,000 over beer. In my belief, brewers have never the Budget Estimate. For 20 years had a better year, and I hope the Compast there has been a falling-off in the mittee will bear that in mind when I receipts from wine. I am not quite sure come to a later part of my statement. that the tide in wine has turned yet. So [Laughter and cheers.] The net receipt far as I can ascertain-though I hope it from British spirits was £15,603,000, an is partly due to an increase of prosperity increase of £334,000 over that of 1894-5. on the part of the wine-drinking classes A considerable part of the increase does generally a great part of this increased not really belong to the year, for it is consumption of wine was due to the fit of due to the delay in the payment of the gambling speculation on the Stock Ex-duty on spirits, owing to the anticipation change last year. Speculators, whether of the removal of the extra duty. But successful or unsuccessful, consoled or since the second quarter of the yearcongratulated themselves in the same the receipts of which were augmented by way, and the almost innumerable new that fact-the receipts from spirits have companies floated were, I may say, proved stationary, and I cannot say that christened by the consumption of I think this really an increasing 1,200,000 extra bottles of champagne. Revenue. Now I hope the revenue from wine may still increase. But we must not be oversanguine on that matter, because of the fact that the consumption of strong Now I have done with Excise, and I wines, which pay a duty of 2s. 6d., is come to the Death Duties. The Exdistinctly decreasing in the country, chequer receipts from the Death Duties whereas the consumption of light wines, in the past year were £11,600,000, which only pay a duty of 1s., is increas- besides £2,452,000 paid to the local ing. ["Hear, hear!"] In 1886 we taxation account, which, of course, does imported 6,226,000 gallons of strong not really enter into the Budget statewine, in 1895 4,470,000 gallons--a de- ment. That is an increase of £1,460,000 crease of 30 per cent. In 1886 we im over the Estimate, which was ported 7,000,000 gallons of light wine, and in 1895 we imported 10,200,000 gallons-an increase of 45 per cent. EXCISE. I have now completed the review of the Customs Revenue, and I turn to the Excise. The Exchequer receipts from the Excise were £26,800,000 last year, against an estimate of £25,950,000, and Exchequer receipts in 1894-95 of £26,050,000. The two main heads of Excise are, of course, beer and spirits. The net receipts from beer last year were £10,719,000-an increase of £617,000 over the net receipts of 1894-5; 32,973,000 barrels of beer were brewed -an increase of 1,591,300 over the previous year. I think every one who has considered the question at all is aware of the remarkable cheapness of the materials for brewing in the past year. The barley-malt and hops-so dear to my hon. Friend the Member for Suffolk Chancellor of the Exchequer. DEATH DUTIES. £10,140,000, and a very large increase over the receipts of 1894-95, which were £8,719,000, but which cannot fairly be compared with the past year, because, as the Committee are aware, the Finance Act, 1894, was only in operation for eight months of the year. Now. I should like to compare the increase in the third quarter of last year with the corresponding quarter of 1894-95. I cannot take an earlier comparison for the reason I have stated. The quarter ending December produced an increase of £800,000 over the corresponding quarter of 1894-95. But the last quarter ending March produced an increase of only £434,000 over the corresponding quarter of the previous year. I mention that because, together with other facts which I have stated to the Committee, I think it shows the necessity for caution in our Estimates for the current year. Of course, this increase in the Death Duties was due to the operation of the Estate Duty. The Estate Duty has Looking to the uncertainty of life itself, it is a remarkable fact that there is no estimate more certain of being proved correct at the end of the year than the estimate framed on the Death Duties. practically killed the old Probate Duty of realty in the whole course of the and Estate Duty, and it has mate- year and, assuming that the same prorially interfered with the receipts from portion exists in the whole, it will be Legacy and Succession Duty. At any perfectly obvious to the Committee that rate, the receipts from Legacy Duty the last year has profited by several have fallen off. The net receipts from hundreds of thousands of pounds by the the Legacy Duty during the last fact of the whole duty having been paid year were £2,731,000, a decrease of in place of one-eighth. That is very £78,000 over the net receipts of the satisfactory from one point of view. previous year. The net receipts from Many of us thought-I confess I thought Succession Duty were £1,051,000, a de- -that this Estate Duty would be an crease of £299,000 from the net receipts extremely heavy burden upon realty, and for the previous year. It is quite a new that owners of realty would have conthing that there should be so large a siderable difficulty in raising money to difference between the estimate of the pay it, even under the system of payment receipts from Death Duties and the by instalments. It is remarkable that they actual Exchequer receipts. Six years should have been able to pay the duty to ago my right hon. Friend the present so large an extent in the lump sum. First Lord of the Admiralty said:- (Cheers; and an HON. MEMBER: "Remarkable and satisfactory.") But I would just make this observation, that, of course, the extra receipts of the past year have deprived future years of the anticipated receipts in them, and that unless a similar process continues we But the right hon. Gentleman opposite may look forward to a very considerable has changed all that, By his system of decrease on this head in future years. aggregation he has created millionnaires The other cause which has falsified the who previously, if they did not blush Estimates of the receipts from Death unseen, at any rate, were unknown to Duties has been the fact that settled the tax gatherer [Laughter], and the cold personalty and other personalty not spring of 1895 brought prematurely a formerly subject to Probate Duty has good many very large estates into the turned out to be exceptionally large net of the Exchequer. The receipts within the year, amounting to as much from Death Duties in the month of May as £26,000,000. That has brought last, arising from deaths which took place larger receipts into the year than had in February and March, were simply been anticipated; but there again I think phenomenal, and my advisers at the In- the Committee will see that as a large land Revenue assure me that in their portion of this amount is settled personbelief, after making every fair allowance alty, and the Estate Duty is paid only for the effect of aggregation, the number once in the course of a settlement, and value of large estates that paid the receipts may probably be less in Death Duties within the past year is future years. ["Hear, hear!"] I think considerably above what is likely to be it will be interesting to the Committee the average number and value in future if I say something as to the proportions years. That, Sir, is one reason for the in which the Estate Duty has been levied great difference between the estimate on different kinds of property. During and the actual receipts. But there are the year £8,705,000 Estate Duty has two other important reasons. In the been paid on £188,974,000 value of perfirst place, and it is a very remarkable sonalty, while £1,232,000 Estate Duty fact, realty has not, as a rule, availed has been paid on £29,805,000 of realty. itself of its privilege of paying Estate I have analysed the £25,000,000 of Duty by instalments. Up to the end of realty which have paid Estate Duty up December last, a period of nine months, to the end of December. I find this £25,000,000 of realty had paid the Estate consisted of £14,750,000, value of houses Duty in whole or in part. Of this and business premises; £6,850,000 agriamount no less than £22,000,000 paid cultural property, which, I may say, has the Estate Duty in a lump sum. Estate been valued at an average value of 16 Duty has been paid on £29,000,000 years' purchase of the rental and 20 VOL. XXXIX. [FOURTH SERIES.] 3 B |