ABSTRACT
As sugar is not produced in the United Kingdom, any import duty levied upon it, large or small, is simply a revenue duty, i.e., no private interest can benefit by reason of the tax, and every penny of the tax collected, save only the cost of collection, goes into the Treasury. Sugar was taxed from 1660 until 1874, when the duty was entirely abolished by the Liberals. The present sugar duty we owe to the Unionist Government, who taxed sugar at 4s. 2d. per cwt. on April 19, 1901. Mr. Chamberlain promised to remit onehalf of this duty in exchange for a tax on bread, but the Free Trade Government, elected in 1906, has carried out Mr. Chamberlain's promise without putting a tax on bread.
