[Appendix A(9) 1792 Report of Commissioners of Inquiry]

N° 9.

LETTER from WADSWORTH BUSK, Esq. Attorney General

BEING furnished with Information, in my Opinion material, relating to the Revenue of the Customs in this isle previous to the Year 1765, and which may require you to renew your Attention to that Subject ; and not having been able as yet to compleat the whole of the farther Remarks which I proposed to offer you respecting the other Objets of your Inquiry, I think it expedient, rather than delay communicating that Information, to lay it before you in a separate Paper.

Amongst the first Allegations of the Duke. of Atholl we find these : " That the Revenues arising to His Grace’s Family were not fairly collected even prior to the Revestment. That his Family had the Power of increasing the Duties with the Consent of the Legislature ; and that that Consent to any reasonable Degree would not have been wanting." How far these Assertions have been supported by the Proofs that have been adduced you can best judge. But as they are in Danger (it appears to me) of producing Conclusions injurious to Government, it becomes incumbent on me to bring forward those Facts by which such Assertions are to be repelled. On the Part of Government I am therefore to state, in Contravention to them, and in Addition to the Testimony which has already been given on the Cross-examination of His Grace’s Witnesses, what I have learnt from very respectable Authority, and from Evidence which admits of no Hesitation in my Belief, that from the Amount of the Revenue of the Customs in this island at several Periods prior to 1765, compared with the cotemporary State of its Trade, it is manifest that only a very small Proportion of the Duties payable to the Lords’ Proprietors arose from fair Commerce,; that far the greatest Part accrued upon an illicit and unjustifiable Traffick in Tobacco and other Debenture Goods, in East India Commodities, in Spirits and Wine ; and that even these Profits were declining before the Island was sold. These Facts cannot, I conceive, be foreign to the Purpose of a full Inquiry into the former and present State and Condition of the Isle of Man ; and I presume no Apology will be required for my entering somewhat further into their Detail.

The Produce of the Customs in this Island, till about the Commencement of the present Century, was not, upon an Average, more than One Hundred Pounds per Annum. In the first Years of this Century it began to rise ; and at that Period, (as appears from other Proofs, and particularly by a Letter of 4th August, 1709; from the Deputy Governor, and the Council, to the Lord Proprietor, an authentic Copy whereof I have perused) is to be dated the Origin of the clandestine Practices to which the Situation of the Isle afforded so strong a Temptation, and the subsequent Spread of which, has rendered it necessary the Place should be taken more immediately under the Direction and Controul of the Government it was thus employed essentially to wrong. The first Attempts. were made chiefly in the Article of Tobacco, which was bought in Great Britain ; and the Drawback being obtained on the Exportation of it, was transported hither ; and from hence re-conveyed into Great Britain, in Evasion of the Duties to which it was there subject. To be a Restraint upon this contraband Traffic, Officers of Her Majesty’s Customs resided in the Island ; it eluded, however, their Exertions; and in Consequence of it, the Amount of the Duties paid in the Island was considerably augmented.

The Advantages to be made by such clandestine Commerce, at length attracted the Attention of two opulent Merchants ; one (also an eminent Banker) of Dublin, the other of Liverpool who, in 1720 or 1721, formed a Partnership in the isle, for the Purpose of carrying it on, (as their ample Capital well enabled them to do) upon a much more enlarged System. As one of the first Steps to the Execution of their Scheme, they procured from Lord Derby a Lease of his Customs, dated February 1721, at the Rent of One Thousand and Fifty Pounds per Annum. About the same Time, was passed. the Act of Parliament, 7th of George the First, for encouraging and securing the Trade of the East India Company ; in which is contained a Prohibition of the Importation of East-India Commodities into the Isle of Man, as well as the other Dependencies belonging to the Kingdom, from any other Place than Great Britain. The two Merchants, nevertheless, persevered in their Design. Besides continuing and extending the former contraband Dealings in Tobacco, and other Debenture Articles, they likewise purchased Spirits and Wine in different Countries, and East-India Goads in Holland as well as in England ; which they imported into this Island, stored in the Lord’s Warehouses, (these being included in their Lease) and run, as Opportunity served, into the. neighbouring Kingdoms. This surreptitious Traffick, in violation of the rights of the Country to which the Signatory belonged, and in Defiance of the express Prohibition of the Act just mentioned, they maintained for a few Years, to a very large Amount ; and it was likewise engaged in, under their Encouragement, by inferior Adventurers. Swoln by the Influx of illicit Trade, the Customs mounted so much above their former Limits, that, taken at a Medium during the Time the Lease subsisted, they may be stated as double or treble the Rent reserved. But these Proceedings did not long escape the Notice of the then Minister.

Parliament, urged by the Damage the British and Irish Revenues sustained, forbade, by the Act of the 12th of George the First, the Importation of any Goods whatever into Great Britain or Ireland from the Isle of Man, save what were of the Growth, Product, or Manufacture of the Island ; and established other Regulations, with a View of putting a Stop to the Impositions practised by Means of the Articles on which Debentures had been allowed. Two or more of His Majesty’s Custom-House Officers being at that Time stationed here, the two Farmers of the Duties in the Island, dreading the vigorous Enforcement of this, as well as the prior Act, towards the End of the Year 1727, surrendered their Lease, which the Earl of Derby consented to accept, probably from an Alarm, excited by the Clause in the 12th of George I., empowering the Treasury to contract for the Purchase of his Dominion of Man. On this Occasion, the Customs sunk towards their ancient insignificance.

The Business, however, was not annihilated. If the Share of it, which had been possessed by the Lessors of the Revenue, was in a good Measure dissipated, it was gathered and retained in smaller Portions by others of more limited Means and Connections. The Number of there Adventurers multiplied ; and their Dealings in all the Articles of Smuggling, (the Duties on which were fixed at a considerably lower Rate than those on most of the Articles of Consumption in the Island) became more and more extensive. For the Purchase of Teas and other East-lndia Commodities, the India Companies of Sweden and Denmark furnished them with more convenient Marts at Gottenburg and Copenhagen, than Holland afforded, and enabled them far to exceed what had been done before in this species of Merchandize. The Benefit of the Danish Company derived from this Vent, is considered by the Abbé Raynal as important : Treating of that Company, he observes, the Acquisition of the Isle of Man by Great Britain, as it would deprive them of the English Market, must necessarily lessen their Dealings with China. By Means of the fraudulent Trade, thus preserved and increased, the Customs were always kept above their primitive Standard of One Hundred Pounds a Year ; and in Time raised, to a much greater Height, than they ever before attained ; after the perfect Establishment of the Swedish India Company in 1746, and on the Commencement of their Intercourse with this Isle, the Produce of the Manks Duties very rapidly advanced ; and their average Amount for Ten Years, immediately preceding 1765 (as correctly stated in the Schedule to the Act of that Date) was about Six Thousand Four Hundred Pounds Manks, that is, about Five Thousand Five Hundred Pounds British Currency per Annum.

During the latter Part of this Period, however, the clandestine Commerce began to be diverted into another Channel, which took a large Share of it from this island, and threatened to have deprived it of more. The Islands of Ferro were likewise made Depositories for the Commodities to be smuggled ; and they were conveyed from thence to the Coasts of Great Britain and Ireland, without ever being brought to the Isle of Man. Cutters also were stationed in the surrounding Seas, to intercept the Navigation both from this Place and the Danish Isles ; and greater Vigilance and Strictness than formerly were used by the Custom House of England in watching the Proceedings on this Coast. Two large Dutch Vessels particularly, which had been for some Time before accustomed to bring valuable Cargoes of Teas into the Ports of the Isle of Man, were seized at Liverpool. By these Means, the Trade had been considerably impaired, and it was apprehended, if rigorous Measures had been adhered to, it might have been well nigh suppressed. Accordingly, the Produce of the Duties fell off after the Year 1761 ; and they were likely still to have continued on the Decline.

The Inferences from this short History are obvious, both with regard to the true Estimate to be made of the Income the Lords Proprietors of the Island actually derived from their Duties, and the alledged Possibility of its Increase. Almost the Whole of what they gained from the Customs accruing on a Traffick, which their Relation to the Country it injured, as well as the positive Laws of that Country, laid them under Obligations to repress, cannot be, considered as otherwise than illicit ; and was not therefore an Object for which any Price could properly be required nor if these Profits had been increased, by raising the Rates of the Customs, would such Addition have been more legal, or more capable of being made a subject of Sale.

A Right to levy Imposts upon any Trade could not exist, without a Right in the Sovereign possessing it, (or which amounts to the same) in his Subjects, to carry on such Trade. And it will never be pretended that a Grant from the Crown could confer on a feudal Lord, a Power of subtracting from the Revenues, and transgressing the Laws of the Country, under which his Fief or Lordship was held. A Condition must have been implied in the Grant restraining such Abuse. It would otherwise have involved the Absurdity of an Authority granted by Government, which might have been used almost totally to destroy a capital Branch of the Revenues of that Government ; an Authority, the Exercise of which it could not permit, but must have maintained a constant and expensive Force to have opposed. Neither can it be contended, that the Isle of Man was not bound by Acts of the British Legislature, wherein it was particularly named, or that the Acts of the 7th and 12th of George I. were not valid Prohibitions of the Traflick against which they were directed. Should the Authority of the Insular Legislature be thought wanting towards confirming what appears so undeniable, it is furnished by the Act of Tynwald of 1711 ; whereby the same traffick is acknowledged and declared to be fraudulent, and some Provisions are made for preventing it in future. How then could a Compensation be expected for such Part of the Revenue as resulted from Practices thus unlawful ; the illicit Nature, as well as the exorbitant Extent of which, were clearly demonstrated, by the Species and Quantities of the Goods entered at the Custom House in the Isle ; and the Continuance of which Practices was, by the Rates of the Duties, favoured, instead of being restrained

If this View of the Matter were not just, if the Profits gained by this Place being employed as a Storehouse for Smugglers, were to be defended, and the Whole of the Income from the Customs enjoyed by the Lords Proprietors, (between Five and Six Thousand Pounds per Annum) were to be considered as an Estate, to which they had an indisputable Title, double the Sum that has been paid for it would not have been moue than an Equivalent

Certainly, the only permissible Trade, in a Dependency like this must have been Such, as was necessary to supply the Home Consumption, or internal Manufactures ; and such as was bone fide conducted without Prejudice to the sovereign Nation. The Revenue arising from Commerce within these Bounds, was alone just and allowable ; and the Produce of the Customs on such fair and necessary Imports and Exports, which, at the Origin of the contraband Trade, was only about One Hundred Pounds per Annum, cannot well be supposed to have increased between that Time and the Revestment, to more than six or eight Times its own Amount. The Toll on Exports or Outgates was about Nine Pounds per Annum ; the Ingates may be said to have included all that was collected ; and as no Manufactory of Foreign Materials had been introduced, they must, as far as they were justifiable, have been confined to such Articles as were requisite for the Use of the Inhabitants, whose Numbers, by an Account taken in 1757, appear to have been only about Nineteen Thousand ; and whose mode of Life was in general Such as might be expected amongst a People principally supported by an uncertain Fishery, and a precarious clandestine Trade. If, however, the fair Revenue of Customs had grown so as to exceed its primitive Amount tenfold, and to have become, at 1766, One Thousand Pounds per Annum, ;it was in that Case little more than equal to the Expences of the Civil and Military Establishments, as then regulated ; the Whole of which Incumbrances (it is insisted) were transferred to Government on the Purchase, and upon the present very deficient System, are not defrayed for less than Two Thousand Pounds per Annum.

If the Representation I have given be erroneous, it may be corrected by Reference to the Revenue and Custom Books, now in the Custody (I understand) of the Duke of Atholl, or his Agent, and I trust they will not be withheld., A Promise, I think, has been made that they should be produced, if you judge the Inspection of them conducive to the Ends of your Inquiry.

Having derived my Information from such Authority as I have stated, I apprehend it will be abundantly confirmed either by the Examination or the Refusal of those Books ; and I should therefore have thought myself wanting in my Duty, if I had forborne to propose and recommend it to your Attention.

I am induced by the same Considerations to add here a few Remarks, relating to the present Amount of the Customs. By an Account of them, printed last Year by Order of the House of Commons, it appears, that upon an Average of Twenty-five Years, from 1765, their Produce was Two Thousand Eight Hundred and Seventy-four Pounds per Annum ; and at a Medium of the Ten latter Years, ending in 1789, they were Four Thousand Two Hundred and Twenty-four Pounds per Annum. But no Argument can be deduced from hence invalidating the Statement which has been given of their Amount before 1765. The Duties which then subsisted have been abolished, and a new set of Imposts established by Parliament ; which are much heavier than the former, or than any which the Lords Proprietors could have raised, if they had retained their Dominion. The most Productive of them accrue from Articles upon which Drawbacks are allowed on the other Side the Channel. It is further to be observed, that unless all just Principles of political Calculation be abandoned, it cannot be granted that the Progress of Improvement in a dependent State, will ever be the same when it is the Property of a private individual, as when under the immediate Government and Protection of the Sovereign of the Empire. The Revenue itself, which it cannot but be an Object to a private Person to draw from such a Possession, tending to impoverish the Country, operates as a Check upon its own Advancement And it is not to be forgotten, however improveable this sort of Income may at first Sight appear, it is always inevitably loaded with an Incumbrance, which increases with it.

The Subject leads me to notice what you have probably already observed, the Deficiency of the present Establishment ; and I am confident I may mention it, without any Danger of incurring Censure. You are, no doubt, apprized ere now of the Salaries paid to the principal Officers in the Island ; and it cannot be necessary to press the Observation, that an Allowance of Two Hundred Pounds per Annum, receiving little Addition from Perquisites, (especially such a Stipend to the Lieutenant, who is almost constantly the resident Governor) does not bear a Proportion to the Provision made for His Majesty’s Servants in like Situations in other Parts of his Dominions ; and falls much below what is needful to support the Respectability which Government ought to possess. Alterations in the Offices subsisting, and the Addition of others, may possibly be found expedient, and thus some further Charge be created. What Measures of this Kind have occured to me as necessary, I may take the Liberty of pointing out in another Place. I have mentioned them here, as well as the Defects in the Civil List of the Island, as it now stands, because I presume that every Enlargement of he Expenditure, which may be requisite on those Accounts, will be deemed (from the Interest the Public have in this Disposition of the Funds of the Country) amongst the first Charges to which the present Surplus ought to be applied.

The Observations and Facts herein stated may have been wholly or in Part laid before you by others, or may have offered themselves to your Notice ; but what has been suggested will, I hope, be admitted as a sufficient Excuse for the Trouble given you respecting them, by,

Gentlemen

Your most obedient,

Humble Servant,

WADSWORTH BUSK.

To the Commissioners of Inquiry for the Isle of Man

[FPC]: See the reply to this in Mr Reid's dissenting opinion.