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Single person record details
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Person code |
NA21386 |
Corporate name |
Customs and Excise Pre Union |
Activity |
These are commonly thought of in association although in origin they were quite different. The only real link being that excise on imported commodities (foreign excise) was collected and administered with the customs from the 1660s and used for the same purpose - maintenance of the civil establishment.
From the 12th century the king levied tolls or customary payments on trade. By the 14th century a distinction was made between tolls on goods entering burghs (petty customs) and tolls on goods entering or leaving the kingdom (great customs). Petty customs were levied by the burghs and retained as part of their common good (see E82), subject to the payment of an annual ferm to the crown as laid down in their charters. The great customs, annexed to the crown by acts of 1424 and 1455 were collected by the king's custumars at the ports, almost all of which were within or dependent on royal burghs, though the smaller burghs, especially in the north and south west, might be grouped under a single custumar. In a few ecclesiastical burghs (Arbroath, Dunfermline, Kirkcaldy, Queensferry and St Andrews) the right to trade and levy custom was enjoyed by the church, though after the Reformation these were put on the same footing as the royal burghs.
Royal burghs enjoyed a monopoly over foreign trade within their precincts, whose boundaries usually encompassed the same area as the sheriffdoms in which the burghs were located. Although this monopoly remained in force until 1669, it was breached as early as 1542 when a custumar was appointed at a private port exporting coal and salt from the Firth of Forth and during the Commonwealth and after the Restoration, customs posts tended to be located wherever they were justified by the level of trade, irrespective of whether the place in question was a royal burgh or not. Thus although Kelso is not thought of as a port nor are Alisonbank and Suronne in Gretna parish considered major towns, they were customs precincts probably reflecting changes in trading patterns taking place in the 17th century with the growing significance of cross border trade.
Prior to the late 16th century, most foreign trade had been channelled through Edinburgh even when the goods had been customed elsewhere. After the Restoration there was a more even distribution of such trade to the east coast ports, while the west coast ports, particularly the new harbour at Port Glasgow, enjoyed a greater share too.
Until the 1590s imports (except those from England) were duty free, while exports were charged at various rates. In 1590 foreign excise really began and a duty on wine (great impost) formed a separate branch of the revenue. Though its effects were modified by an act of 1597 (Customs Act, 1597 c22 APS iv, 66, 135-6) affirming the right of noblemen and freeholders to import wine duty free for their own use the act also imposed duties on all imports, based on the value of the goods concerned. By 1669 when it was made payable by the importers, the excise on imported goods was already being collected with and assimilated to the customs. A further imposition - tonnage duty - was charged on ships rather than cargoes. Originally imposed in 1686, it was appropriated to fund the production and publication of John Adair's maps and charts of Scotland and later acts extended it to other projects. Few records of this duty have survived possibly due to the confusion of material reported on by the commissioners for public accounts in 1705.
Besides the great impost, there was a small or petty impost on retail sales of wine much like the later inland excise. Like the petty customs, this was collected by the burgh authorities, who accounted for it to the crown when lodging their accounts of the burgh's common good (E82). Parliament did not impose general excise duties until 1644 for the cost of the army and collected under the management of a committee, later the Commissioners of Excise, answerable to the committee of estates. A central body of Commissioners of Excise functioned briefly after the Restoration overseeing the collection of arrears of the pre 1651 duties and those which had been imposed under the English occupation, as well as those granted in 1660. In 1661 new excise duties were voted to provide an annuity for the king, the principal source for this being ale, aquavitae, and strong waters and as a consequence Commissioners of Excise were appointed for each shire and burgh to ascertain the quantity of malt brewed and to levy the excise due. The increased military expenditure under William and Mary led to the imposition of additional excises in the 1690s.
Excises were set in tack (leased or farmed out) on various occasions after 1689 usually with poor results for revenue and tacksmen alike. From the early 16th century, the customs of individual or small groups of ports were also occasionally set in tack for a fixed annual payment until in 1582, the whole customs of Scotland were farmed out to four commissioners representing the Convention of Royal Burghs. Between then and 1707, periods when the customs were farmed out alternated with periods when they were collected directly, though even then some tacks might still be granted for the customs of individual ports or regions. After the Restoration, tacksmen could be replaced by a general collector or managers, accountable for the customs arising at all ports subject to direct collection although this was rarely applied except in Argyll and Orkney. This practice of farming out either wholly or partially the customs, the wine impost, the bullion duty and the various excises had consequences for the survival of the records. When the collection of these duties was set in tack, there was normally no requirement for inspection of the customs or other account books, nor did they have to be submitted for audit, which probably explains the presence of several gaps, particularly in the Customs Books of E71 and E72. |
Dates |
1424-1707 |
Subordinate |
Scotland |
Associated records |
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E | Records of the Scottish Exchequer, Treasury and Exchequer Court | 1287-1981 |
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