method of raiſing it is by charging a particular ſum upon each county, according to the valuation given in, A. D. 1692: and this ſum is aſſeſſed and raiſed upon individuals (their perſonal eſtates, as well as real, being liable thereto) by commiſſioners appointed in the act, being the principal landholders of the county, and their officers.
II. The other annual tax is the malt tax; which is a ſum of 750000𝑙, raiſed every year by parliament, ever ſince 1697, by a duty of 6d. in the buſhel on malt, and a proportionable ſum on certain liquors, ſuch as cyder and perry, which might otherwiſe prevent the conſumption of malt. This is under the management of the commiſſioners of the exciſe; and is indeed itſelf no other than an annual exciſe, the nature of which ſpecies of taxation I ſhall preſently explain: only premiſing at preſent, that in the year 1760 an additional perpetual exciſe of 3d. per buſhel was laid upon malt; and in 1763 a proportionable exciſe was laid upon cyder and perry, but new-modelled in 1766.
The perpetual taxes are,
I. The cuſtoms; or the duties, toll, tribute, or tariff, payable upon merchandize exported and imported. The conſiderations upon which this revenue (or the more antient part of it, which aroſe only from exports) was inverted in the king, were ſaid to be two[1]; 1. Becauſe he gave the ſubject leave to depart the kingdom, and to carry his goods along with him. 2. Becauſe the king was bound of common right to maintain and keep up the ports and havens, and to protect the merchant from pirates. Some have imagined they are called with us cuſtoms, becauſe they were the inheritance of the king by immemorial uſage and the common law, and not granted him by any ſtatute[2]: but ſir Edward Coke hath clearly ſhewn[3], that the king's firſt claim to them was by grant of parliament 3 Edw. I. though the record
