Jan.
2,
ONCE A WEEK.
1SC4.]
35
on playing-cards was first levied in the year This, how1631, in the reign of Charles I. The ever, as we have just seen, is an error. belief is founded on the fact that about the time mentioned a protest was made by the
making entry, and double duty for non-payment of the tax w ithin the specified time. The proposal to lay an impost on playing-
Commons against the unconstitutional imposition of taxes which was then but too common.
It
The duty on playing-cards was one of the taxes " arbitrary and illegal, complained of as being and levied without the consent of Parliament. " We hear no more of duties on playing-cards In till we arrive at the reign of Queen Anne. her reign card-playing had attained its full tide In England, in every part of civilised Europe. in particular, card-playing was both fashionable
and popular. There were then forty thousand reams of Genoa white paper annually imported to thiR country, chiefly for the purpose of It is not to be wonmaking playing-cards. dered at that the officers of the Crown should seek to meet the necessities of the revenue by taxing an article, the consumption of which was so considerable. Accordingly, in the year 1710, the earliest Act of Parliament, by which a tax was imposed on playing-cards, was passed. The object of the Act was to obtain an annual sum of. 180,070?., as a fund or security for raising a sum of 2,602,2002., "for earrying on the war, and for other her Mjy It was enacted that playing-cards occasions." were to pay a duty of sixpence a pack for a term of thirty-two years, commencing the 11th of June, 1711. By this Act, all makers of cards or dice were required to send to the Commissioners of the Stamp Duties on vellum, parchment, and paper, notice in writing, containing the address of the house or place where cards or dice were manufactured omitting to send such notice, or manufacturing in houses not notified, became liable to a Various other obligations, penalty of 501. more or less vexatious, were at the same time imposed on the card and dice makers. They were required to permit the proper oflic' the duties in question to enter their houses of " take an account of business, that they might the cards and dice there made," under a The maken penalty of 10/. for every refusal. were not to remove cards from the manufactory until the paper and thread enclosing every pack of cards was sealed in such a manner as
was satisfactory to the Commissioners of the duties, under pain of forfeiting the goods The unforremoved, and treble their value. tunate card and dice makers were required in addition to
make
entry,
upon oath, once in
the number of cards and dice manufactured by them in the interim, and they had to clear within the ensuing fortnight the amount of the tax then
every
twenty-eight
days, of
declared due. visited
by
Neglect on these scores was
forfeiture
of 201.
for
default
in
r
cards naturally encountered much opposition. was represented on the part of the cardmakers that the business was in the hands of
small masters, most of them poor, and that on several of the clauses of the Act would
them
Of these small masters it was press heavily. estimated that there were no less than a hundred in and about London. Their price to trade, taking one sort of cards with another, was three-halfpence a pack, and their profit not above a halfpenny. Though cards were much smaller at that period than they are now, and though money possessed a much
the
higher exchangeable value, it is difficult to conceive how a pack of cards could be manufactured at so low a price. The card-players,
A pamphlet, which had their champions. survives, was printed for circulation among It the members of the House of Commons. opposes the tax from both the card -makers' and
too,
still
It is entitled, l-players' point of view. Considerations in Relation to the Imposition "ii Cards, humbly submitted to the Honourable 1
11
It is very quaint, and of Commons." gives us an insight into the style of thought popular at the beginning of the last One of its arguments is as follows century. I
" Nine
are
parts in ten of the cards now made from six shillings to twenty-four
sold
shillings
per gross will
shillings,
by
and even
this
these, at
six
duty be subjected to
three pounds twelve shillings tax. This, with submission, will destroy nine parts in ten of the manufacture. For those cards which are
now bought
for threepence (per pack) can't then be afforded under tenpence or a shilling. If any of your honours hope by this tax to pensive card-playing, it is answered, that the common sort who play for innocent diversion will only be hindered. The sharp ters who play for money will not bo disfor those who play for many pounds couraged a game will not be hindered by twelvepence a pack." Her Majesty's " occasions," however, were such that opposition was fruitless, and the Act
became law. The duty was imposed on all " made fit for sale," during a certain cards, In the following year it was found exterm. pedient, for the better securing the duties on playing-cards and for preventing the defrauding of the revenue, to alter this, and to enact that all stocks of cards which were fit for sale before the operation of the former Act commenced,
and which still remained unsold in the hands