It is of little consequence to our
present consideration, whether these materials have been employed in
building more commodious, more elegant, and more magnificent
habitations, or in enlarging, decorating, and remodelling those which
sufficed for our plainer ancestors. During the first two years of the
war, they paid so largely to the public revenue, that in 1794 a new duty
was laid upon them, which was equal to one half of the old, and which
has produced upwards of 165,000_l._ in the last three years. Yet,
notwithstanding the pressure of this additional weight,[40] there has
been an actual augmentation in the consumption. The only two other
articles which come under this description are the stamp-duty on gold
and silver plate, and the customs on glass plates. This latter is now, I
believe, the single instance of costly furniture to be found in the
catalogue of our imports. If it were wholly to vanish, I should not
think we were ruined. Both the duties have risen, during the war, very
considerably in proportion to the total of their produce.
We have no tax among us on the most necessary articles of food. The
receipts of our Custom-House, under the head of Groceries, afford us,
however, some means of calculating our luxuries of the table. The
articles of tea, coffee, and cocoa-nuts I would propose to omit, and to
take them instead from the excise, as best showing what is consumed at
home. Upon this principle, adding them all together, (with the exception
of sugar, for a reason which I shall afterwards mention,) I find that
they have produced, in one mode of comparison, upwards of 272,000_l.
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