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Letter from Richard Cobden of London to C E Macqueen, [Secretary of the Liverpool Financial Reform Association], 11 May 1863. '... I hope before the close of the session to be able to offer some remarks on finance, and to urge a reduction of taxation... In my opinion the only way of enforcing economy is by witholding the means of extravagance...'.

Autograph, with signature.

Letter from Edward Kirkpatrick of Southampton to Thomas Attree [or Altree] Esq of Brighthelmstone [Brighton], Sussex, 21 Sep 1822. Enquiring about the tax payable on flies [i.e. light carriages], as he wishes to have an example before advising resistance to the Tax Office. The duty demanded at Southampton was £6 10s. The flies there '... are built with metallic springs and leather in every respect as a large Landau, the wheels under 30 inches and driven by one ass'. Attree had evidently not answered [and perhaps not received] Kirkpatrick's earlier letter on the same subject.

Autograph, with signature. The following comment has been inserted in another hand: 'They are only liable to 30/- [or 30%] duty'.

Letter from Richard Cobden of Midhurst, [Sussex] to T G Shaw, Esq, 27 Sep 1861. On wine duties.

Autograph, with signature. Annotated with comments in Shaw's hand.

Letter from Henry Blain to Joseph T Pooley of 5 Church Court, [c1842]. Discussing the corn laws (with reference to Blain's pamphlet on the subject) and proposed duties [taxes]. Autograph, with signature ('H.B.'). Dated 'Sunday night'.

Transcripts relating to local taxation in Edinburgh from 1745 to 1760, including:

1. 'Memorandum offered by the members of the College of Justice appointed by the Faculty of Advocates and Society of Writers to the Signet to the preses and other remanent stent-masters of the city of Edinburgh in relation to the imposing the stent on the inhabitants of the town for the year 1749'. The memorandum, dated 18 July 1749, contains eight questions put to the stent-masters, and these are answered in the following eight pages of the manuscript, written for the most part in another hand, and dated 19 July 1749.
2. A 'Report to the Faculty of Advocates of the stent-masters appointed by them to meet with the stent-masters of the town of Edinburgh for imposing the stent or cess for the year 1749', written in the second hand. A note in the original hand says that the reports were 'drop'd'.
3. Comments on the collusion between the Faculty of Advocates and the Town Council regarding the stent-masters, with a copy of a letter to George Chalmers, writer to the Signet, from Robert Thomson of Aberdeen, dated 13 Feb 1745, concerning stents at Aberdeen.
   4. The final leaf, dated 14 Jul 1760, contains in a third hand an 'Estimate of the land cess and trade stent to be imposed by the...Magistrats & Town Council of Edinburgh for the service of the year, viz. from 25 March 1759 to 25 March 1760'.

Holograph drafts of speeches, 1765-1784, to be made in the House of Commons (but apparently not delivered) on subjects including American internal taxation, trade with Canada, the window tax and defence of the current administration.

Brief for the trial of John Hatch and David Boyce, dealers in foreign and British spirits at Averstoake in the county of Southampton, [1723], headed 'For the Attorney General...Information for the 10s. per gallon penalty for not keeping British spirits seperate [sic] from foreign brandy', and endorsed with the signatures of Sir Thomas Pengelly, Chief Baron of the Exchequer, and J. White, solicitor, and with the words 'To attend Mr. Justice [Alexander] Denton upon the point reserved. Ellis Solicitor for the Excise. For Sir Thomas Pengelly'. The dealers had been accused of mixing foreign and British spirits to avoid the customs: '...the said dealers kept in their warehouses and storehouses great numbers of caskes both of foreign brandy and of British spirits, which they industriously laid and placed in the most confused and disorderly manner they could contrive, on purpose to perplex and confound the officers...'.

Extract from records of proceedings before the Commissioners 'for hearing and determining appeals against the duties on male servants' at the Golden Lion Inn at Cheriton Bishop, Devon, on 3 Feb 1807, giving reasons for allowing an appeal against a surcharge on a domestic servant made by the Rev. Bryan Roberts, Rector of Drewsteignton. The appeal had been challenged by James Searle, surveyor, and the commissioners were Richard Holland, John Cann and Baldwin Huldford. The return made by Roberts in 1806 had included 1 four wheel carriage, 2 riding horses, 2 labour horses, 4 sporting dogs, 1 male servant, and 'one other occasionally employed in his garden'.

Printed receipt, completed in manuscript, for six month's tax on four fire hearths (4 shillings), paid by Dorothy Watson for her house at Cawood, Yorkshire, to John Palmer, collector, on 3 Jun 1675.

Manuscript volume containing three documents relating to communal tolls/taxation of the Italian city states of Florence and Pisa, 1554-1579.

Manuscript volume containing an 'Account of the gross produce of the several duties under the management of Excise, with their respective appropriations and rates, and the times of their commencement', written in [1763], and covering the period 1662 to 1763. There is a possibility that this manuscript was created by James Bindley, Commissioner of Stamp Duties, 1765-1818.

Volume mainly containing treatises on French financial administration, [1581-1610], namely a report by Maximilien de Béthune, Duc de Sully, Director of the Council of Finance, on the finances of France, [1607]; a paper on the Estates General of France, [1583]; a history of royal taxation in France up to the reign of King Henry III, ending with a statement of the revenue in 1581, [1581-1589]; and a paper giving instructions on the powers and authority of the officers of the French Chambre des Comptes (Chamber of Accounts), [1589-1610]. The manuscript also contains papers relating to diplomatic negotiations during the Thirty Years War, comprising a speech on a peace assembly at Cologne, Italy, [1636], and a letter from the Swedish Chancellor Count Axel Greve Oxenstierna to the English Ambassador, Sir Thomas Roe, on the alliance between England and Sweden, 1638.

Manuscript volume containing a copy of a Parliamentary 'Act for Continuance of the Receipt of Excise until 29th Sept 1653', 1650.

Manuscript volume containing tables giving a statement of the [English] excise revenue from Michaelmas 1662 to [Jul 1875]. There is a possibility that this manuscript was created by Sir Grey Cooper, Secretary to the Treasury.

Manuscript tract on taxation entitled 'Observations sur l'impôt territorial en nature proposé à l'assemblée des notables', written by Donat Vosgien at Épinal in 1787.

Papers of Benjamin Sayer, 1832, comprise a letter to [John Wilson] Croker MP. Covering letter accompanying a copy of Sayer's volume of observations and suggestions regarding income and property taxes.

Manuscript volume containing accounts of butlerage and prisage from 26 July 1597 to 29 September 1600, and for half a year ending at Easter 1601.

Manuscript volume containing 'A general abstract of the stamp duties for thirty years, ending the 2nd August 1764, distinguishing each year'. The abstract is signed 'Made out and carefully examined by I Harris, pro Comptroller'.

Manuscript volume containing tables giving a statement of [English] excise revenue from Michaelmas 1662 to [Jun 1763]. There is a possibility that this manuscript was created by John Bindley, a Commissioner of the Excise Office.

Incomplete copy of instructions to sheriffs of counties and mayors of corporate towns to fix tax assessments, dated 12 August, 1634. The sheriffs are to divide the whole charge laid upon the county into hundreds, lathes and other divisions, and those into parishes and towns, which are to be rated by houses and lands 'saveing that it is his Majestie's pleasure that where there shall happen to be any men of ability, by reason of gainfull trades, great stockes of money or personall estate, who perchance have either none or little land and consequently in an ordinary landscott, would pay nothing or very little such men be rated and assessed according to their worth and ability, and that the moneys that shall bee levyed upon such may be applied to the spareing and easing of such as being either of weake estate, or charged with many children or great debts are unable to beare soe great a chardge as the lands in their occupation might require in an usuall and ordinary proportion...'. The clergy are to be taxed and assessed in the same way as the rest of the king's subjects. Transcript of the signatures of 18 persons, including the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Bishop of Coventry, and the Earls of Arundel, Bridgewater and Dorset.

Manuscript volume concerning the fraudulent activities of maltsters and distillers, [1860], including tables of inspections made by postmasters in Kingston and Surbiton Common, London, from 1838 to 1844, investigating frauds by distillers, with reports on hypothetical cases of fraud, one dated 1861, and what appear to be copies of answers to examination questions. This section includes printed Regulations respecting the entry of premises subject to the survey of the excise (Excise Office, London, 1835). Inserted are a number of loose sheets, 1859-1865, including a lists of examination questions on the control of disilleries which were set in an examination at Somerset House, notes on duties and law relating to the Excise, as well as a letter from J Williams dated 31 Jan 1863 and giving 'the particulars of the late examination'.

Collection of transcripts, all written in the same hand in [1750], of papers relating chiefly to the administration of poor relief and vagrancy in Edinburgh from 1594-1750, including an Act to impose stent of £500 p.a. for 3 years for cleansing the town, 1687; a 'Report from the committee of the lords appointed to consider the proper method for providing the poor', 1731; an Act of Sederunt imposing stent for 2% on members of the College of Justice for the maintenance of the poor, 1732; a contract between the Council of Edinburgh and the Kirk Sessions for the upkeep of 'a large hospitall or work house... for the more regular maintenance and employment of the whole poor of the...city', 1740; a confirmation of the erection of 'the burgh of the Canongate', 1594; an Act in favour of 'the burgh of Edinburgh anent the annuity' 1661; a report of the 'annexation of the lands and annualls mortifyed to the ministers and hospital of Edinburgh', undated; and a report of the Lords of Council and Session on method for support and maintenance of the begging poor in the charity work house, 1749. There are also additions of 1752 and 1754, the latter being the estimate of the expense of the City Guard for 1745-1746.

Letter from Sir Robert Peel of Whitehall to Andrew Rankin, Esq of Glasgow, 10 May 1843. Acknowledging receipt of a letter regarding the removal of import duties on cotton wool.

Written in another hand and signed by Peel. With the original sealed envelope bearing Peel's coat of arms.

(1) Letter from John Mitchell of 35 Wimpole Street, [London], to W M Maude, 24 May 1820. 'The Pamphlet you were so obliging to send me, I have read with great attention; and I think the reasoning of it so sound that I intend to vote for Lord Sutton's motion ...' ; autograph, with signature.

(2) Covering note from [W M Maude] to John Mitchell, [c1820]. Accompanying a 3rd edition of James Bischoff's pamphlet Reasons for the immediate repeal of the tax on foreign wool (1820); note undated and unsigned.

Letter from Sir thomas Bernard of Wimpole Street, [London] to Samuel Parkes, chemist, 20 Nov 1816. Thanking him for making corrections to Bernard's proposals for the repeal of the salt duties. Autograph, with signature. The blank leaf is endorsed: 'Sir Thos. Bernard, 22d Nov. 1816'.

Letter from George Warde Norman of the Bank of England to [Edward Pleydell-]Bouverie, 3 Mar 1870. Thanking him for his good opinion 'as to my pamphlet on Comparative Taxation'; undertakes to send him 'a small volume of Papers, which I had printed for distribution last autumn ... [I] feel that my literary career is over'.

Autograph, with signature.

Letter from John Ramsay McCulloch of the Stationery Office to [S J Loyd], Baron Overstone, 23 Mar 1863. Covering letter accompanying a proof copy of the 3rd edition of McCulloch's Treatise on the principles and practical influence of taxation and the funding system (1863); McCulloch has 'marked the passages which I think would answer best for reference'.

Written in another hand and signed by McCulloch.

Letter from H Jones of 54 Dorset Street, Fleet Street, London to Colonel [Charles Richard] Fox, 24 Jun 1841. Covering letter (written on behalf of the Property Tax Association) to a printed copy of Joshua Scholefield's speech, (made in the House of Commons on 23 Mar 1841) proposing that a property tax be substituted for the existing customs and excise taxes. Jones forecasts that the proposed property tax 'is likely to become a populat topic at the [forthcoming] elections' and expresses the hope that Fox would be elected MP for Tower Hamlets.

Autograph, with signature.

Manuscript volume containing 'An abstract of the gross and net produce of the revenue of excise, malt, etc', with sections on 'rates on exciseable commodities' (including beer, wines, spirits, malt, candles, soap, paper, printed silks, wire, starch, hides, coffee, tea, chocolate, silver household plate and plate licences, victuallers licences, glass, coaches auctioneers' licences and auctions, male servants, bricks and tiles, linen, cotton, etc), the repeal of duties on paper in 1781 and additions of 1784, an 'Account of the Appropriations of the excise revenue', and 'Gross and Net produce of Excise, Malt etc' from 1709-1785.

Indenture, dated 17 Oct 1667, between(1) Sir Robert Vyner Bt., Alderman of the City of London, (2) Sir Allen Broderick Bt., of Wandlesworth, Surrey, (3) Sir Richard Pigott Kt., (4) Perient Trott, (5) Humphey Beane, (6) James Hoare, (7) John Rives (or Ryves), (8) John Bence, (9) George Cock, merchant, and (10) James Temple, (3-10) being 'of London'. The identure settles their respective shares, profits, accounts and liability in the farm of the hearth tax revenues. The terms of an indenture of 30 Mar 1666 whereby Pigott, Trott and Beane paid £250,000 to the King for a grant of the annual rates of revenues from from 'fyer hearth and stoves' in England, Wales, and Berwick on Tweed, for 7 years; in Oct 1667 Vyner paid the £250,000 due to the crown, while Pigott, Trott and Beane lent their names to the transaction. Signed and sealed by the parties. Endorsed: 'Indenture...wherein Perient Trot...advanced 20,000 l.'

Papers of Archibald Hamilton Rowan, 1823, comprise a letter to Sir John Sinclair. '...As a small specimen of our [Irish] taxation H.R. sends in a separate cover, a resume of the local taxes of this city; on which it is intended to petition parliament this session. Our Att[orney] Gen[eral] has consented to present it. H.R. has procured the constitution of some of the parishes of London, and would feel himself much obliged to Sir John Sinclair if he could conveniently inform him, how those local taxes are levied in Edinburgh ...' .

Manuscript volume containing details of the 'London and country establishment of the revenue of the Excise', 1776, giving a list of the officers of the Excise, their salaries and the different duties from which they were paid.

Manuscript volume containing an anonymous tract relating to the income tax proposed by William Pitt the younger, Prime Minister, 13 Dec 1798, entitled 'An humble attempt at removing one serious objection to Mr Pitt's new (intended) tax upon income', with particular reference to Bristol (where the manuscript is dated). The author counters the objection of many business men to disclosing their financial situation to commissioners, by suggesting that it should be optional for any person to elect to disclose his affairs to a Court composed of members not belonging to his district.

Manuscript volume containing tables giving a statement of English excise revenue from Michaelmas 1662 to 1730. The earlier tables are in summary form, but from 1693 to 1730 a full account is given.

Manuscript correspondence and other papers relating to the financial administration of Barbados and the Leeward Islands, 1669-1682, mostly concerned with the auditing of the accounts for the farm of the 4½% duty collected during the years 1670-77. The correspondents include: two farmers of the 4½% duty, Sir Charles Wheler and Colonel John Strode; [William Blathwayt], Auditor General of H.M. revenues in America; [Henry Guy], Secretary to the Treasury; and the governors of the Leeward Islands and Barbados.

A roll with printed oaths of allegiance and supremacy with signatures and addresses of the Land Tax Commissioners of the City of London for 1779.

Export ledger with a printed title page 'Beer Surveys, No.1. To be used for brandy & wine stock book, ruled, unruled, distillery & cider minutes & distillery checks', possibly kept by John Burton, excise export surveyor, from 11-18 Oct 1836, and numbered '12' on the cover. Items examined in the City of London and Southwark include glass 'packed for exportation', (including bottles for beer and wine), tobacco, paper and soap, also bricks being shipped from Bridport, Dorset, in 1850. Transcripts of instructions, memoranda, licences etc and printed forms (export packing certificates, payment of excise declarations, export shipping notices etc) are also included.

Manuscript volume of financial abstracts relating to Customs and Excise duties, Exchequer bills and the Post Office, as follows:
1.'A true copie of the table of proportion whereby the money received out of the country upon the account of excise is applyed to the severall duties of excise...Excise Office, London, 9 July 1703', from an original signed by Deane Mountague'.

2. 'A state of the Exchequer bills issued by vertue of three act of Parliament that passed on the 8th, 9th and 12th year of the reign of William III computed from 26th April 1697 to 27th August 1703'.
3. Account of the Salt Act bills of credit, 1696-98.
4. Account of principal and interest paid on the several registers following, between Michaelmas 1702 and Midsummer 1704.
5. Account of the revenue of the General Post Office, 1702-1703.
6. Penny Post Office account 23 Sep-23 Dec 1702.
7. 'List of the officers and messengers belonging to the Peny Post Office with their several salaries and wages'.
8. 'Gross and net produce of the whole excise from 24 June 1704 to 24 June 1705'.

Letter from John and Richard Wheen of the Soapworks, Ratcliffe Highway, St George in the East, [London] to Lieutenant-Colonel C N Fox, 17 Mar [1846]. Covering letter enclosing 'a statement of the case of the soap trade for the repeal of the duty'; they hope that Fox will accompany the deputation to Sir Robert Peel.

Autograph, with two signatures.

Letter from John Lee of the Traffic Manager's Office, Leeds and Liverpool Canal Company, Old Hall Street, Liverpool to E Hailstone of the Leeds and Liverpool Canal Office, Leeds, 17 Jan 1877. Thanking him for the loan of the Bridgewater Canal Acts 'which I have perused in conjunction with our Leigh Branch Act'. Discusses the matter of tolls leviable by the Bridgewater Canal Company: 'In the case of one of our boats they have charge a much higher rate of toll than I feel disposed to pay, and before settling with them I am desirous to know what their powers really are'.

Written in another hand and signed by Lee.

Collection of manuscripts relating to the wine trade, comprising:

1. Indictment made by Edmond Trimer at the Middlesex Quarter Sessions held at Hicks Hall, 7 Jul 1658, to the effect that George Taylor, victualler of South Mimms, Middlesex, had sold 60 pints of wine (French, white, and Spanish sack) since 7 Aug 1657, contrary to the Act. Taylor had forfeited £600, and was to appear in court to answer the charge. Trimer claimed half the fine.
2. Letter from John Hunter, British Consul at Seville and San Lùcar, 16 Mar 1790, to Henry Dundas, Treasurer of the Navy, enclosing a 'Proposal for a supply of wine for the British Navy to be shipped in San Lucar, and delivered in Portsmouth', and a 'Proposal for a deposit of wines in the Isle of Wight'. Both proposals are signed by John Hunter, 16 Mar 1790.
3. Two letters from James Rannie, written at Leith, Scotland, including a covering letter dated 9 Mar 1795 to Henry Dundas, then Secretary of State for War and the Colonies, for a petition from the 22 'merchants, importers and dealers in foreign wines in Leith', against the proposed retrospective increase of duties on stocks of wine held by merchants on 24 Feb 1795 (wanting); and a letter from Rannie to Dundas dated 9 May 1795 concerning wines shipped to Dundas and wines reserved for him. (Rannie is spelt 'Rennie' in the endorsements.)
4. Memorandum endorsed 'Attorney General's [Sir John Willes] opinion...Wine imported in flasks or bottles, whether the officers may accept the duties where no fraud appears', dated 29 May 1736.
5. Draft of a bill to repeal the Acts of 1727 and 1745 setting duties on wine, endorsed 'A clause about wine imported in flasks or bottles'.

'An accompt of his Majesties customes in the Port of London inwards and outwards from Lady-day 1672 to Midsumer following'. The document names John Thorpe, Philip Marsh, Michael Wicks and Euclid Speidell, and shows the sums paid on Spanish and sweet wines, French and Rhenish wines, currants, vinegar, cloth, calf-skins and leather, to a total of £78,391 1s. 3d. On the dorse is 'An accompt of the new impost coynage duty and petty farmes in the Port of London from Lady-day 1672 to Midsumer following'. Imposts are shown as being levied on many of the same articles, but include also coinage duty, wood, salt and spice farms, potashes, to a total of £23,015 13s. 0½d.

The Cobden Club prize winning essay for 1912 The taxation of the "unearned increment" by Josiah Charles Stamp.

Manuscript volume containing a statement of the revenue managed by the Commissioners of Excise, 1662-1713, including an account of the numbers of common brewers, victuallers and distillers in England, Wales and Berwick, and the quantities of exciseable liquors made and imported by them. Includes a statement of parliamentary appropriations from the excise revenue.

1 volume titled Observations presentees by Andre Sabatier (1817) in which Sabatier writes about public and private credit, and taxation. Chapter headings are: Du Credit; Du Credit publique et de la dette de la France; De L'Amortissement; Du Payment des Arrerages; Des mesures a adopter pour parvenir a absorber une partie de la dette transmissible; Observations generales; Credit particulier; and Credit public.

Manuscript 'Valuation of Pickton tithes to Michaelmas 1835', giving the property values of 9 farmers and the amounts for which they were liable. Includes 'Parish rates and cesses paid as per voucher to Michaelmas', and totals received from Kirk [Leavington] and Castle Leavington tithes to the same date.

Copy of the memorial of Arthur Lemuel Shuldham [of Dunmanway, Co. Cork] to the commissioners of the Excise, asking them to remit the costs of a suit begun by the Commissioners against Shuldham's pleasure yacht, built at Bristol in May 1789 at a cost of £2000. The yacht was condemned by the jury, and orders were given to dispose of it 'and your memorialist thereby lost many things therein not belonging to the said vessel'. The peculiar hardship of the case, and the largeness of Shuldham's family make him hope that the commissioners will remit the costs. The document is neither signed nor dated.

Tables headed 'An Account of the revenues of the British Empire collected in the year 1800, distinguishing the gross and net produce, charges of management etc., and payments into the Exchequer of each respective branch Together with a general view of the revenues from the first stage of collection, with the various deductions therefrom, until the several sums were paid into the Exchequer', organised under the main headings of Customs; Excise; Stamps; Taxes; Post Office; Hackney coaches; 'Hawkers & Pedlers'; and 'General View'.

Manuscript volumes containing an account of all taxes granted by Parliament since the Revolution, 1688-1705, containing Acts of Parliament from the first year of the reign of King William III and Queen Mary II up to the fourth year of Queen Anne's reign.

Manuscript volume containing 'A particular of the several sets of Commissioners [of Excise] that have been commissionated from the first setting up of the duty', [1664], comprising a list of Commissioners from 11 Sep 1643 to 20 Mar 1664.