Note 135 — PART III.

The annual medium of the payments into the Exchequer from the Customs in England, for the last five years, has been 2.521,769l.—In 1774 the payment into the Exchequer was 2.547,717l.—In 1775, it was 2.476,302l.—The produce of the Customs, therefore, has been given rather too high.

The produce of the Excises in England has been higher, in 1772 and 1775, than in any two years before 1776; but the average of any three successive years, or of all the five years since 1770, will not differ much from the sum I have given.—In 1754, or the year before the last war, the Customs produced only 1.558,254l.—The Excises, exclusive of the Malt-tax, produced 2.819,702l,—And the whole revenue, exclusive of the Malt-tax and Land-tax at 2s. was 5.097,617l.—In 1753 the whole revenue was 5.189,745l. And the appropriation or annual charge upon it, (consisting of the Civil List, 834,443l. interest of the national debt, exclusive of navy debt, 2.628,087l. expences of management, 43,691l. 4½ per cent. from the Leeward Islands 27,378l. annuity to the late Duke of Cumberland 25,000l. first-fruits and tenths of the Clergy 13,597l. &c. &c.) was 3.733,713l. The Sinking-Fund, therefore, produced 1.456,000l.; which, added to 1.500,000l. (the neat produce, at that time, of Land at 2s. and Malt-tax) made the unappropriated revenue 2.956,032l.—The expence of the peace establishment, consisting of 10,000 seamen, and 18,857 landmen, was, in 1753 and 1754, (including an allowance for the increase of the Navy-debt) 2.400,000l. nearly; which left an annual surplus in the national income of 556,000l. without lotteries, and land at 2s. This surplus (with land at 3s.) has of late scarcely exceeded 300,000l.; and, therefore, has not been a THIRD of what it was in the last peace, and before the reduction of interest to 3 per cent. was compleated.