1921 THE GORUNNA PACKETS 527 not be very exactly regarded. Once it began to pay attention to foreign wines and brandies as a means of revenue, the govern- ment was likely to open gaps in its fence which would be widened in time. On some occasions there were other interests opposed to this process : in 1694 the Spanish and Portuguese merchants successfully opposed the imposition of further duties on their wines. 1 In 1695/6 the acts of prohibition expired and they were not renewed. The reasons and effects of this are not very easy to trace. About this time a bill was read for the first time in the house of lords which continued and made stricter the acts against the owling trade, but this was never considered in committee or reported. 2 Nor is there any other legislation against trading with the enemy, unless that name can be applied to a further set of impositions on French goods and merchandise. 3 These included £25 a tun on wine, £30 on brandy, £60 on double proof brandy, £15 on vinegar, 25 per cent. — a second 25 per cent., additional to that of 1692/3 — on all French manufactured articles. In addition the export was prohibited of frames for making worsted stockings. This was a protective measure first and foremost : it was enacted for twenty-one years and intended to subsist in peace time. Ultimately it was made perpetual in the reign of George 1 4 and not repealed till the nineteenth century. The new duties are, however, so heavy that, in spite of the change of form, this may be called a virtual renewal of the prohibitions of 1677 and 1689. It should be noted, however, that, perhaps because the English legislation against importing enemy goods was about to expire, William, in the autumn of 1695, desired that a convention might be forthwith made between the states- general and himself as king, that no French goods whatsoever should be imported into either's dominions in any neutral ships whatsoever, under such penalties, besides the loss of the goods, as should be thought fit. He was anxious to have the affair quickly dispatched : ' the rather because great quantities of French wines will in a short time be endeavoured to be imported both into England and Holland in neutral ships.' 5 Correspondence passed backwards and forwards between London and The Hague, and William was pleased to say on 3/13 December that he would 1690 see dispatch of the states-general to Citters, May 6/16 and his reply, correcting it, 9/19 May (Brit. Mus., Add.* MS. 17677). For the privateers, see The Mariner's Mirror, vii. 213-6. 1 Dowel], History of Taxation and Taxes, ii. 60. 2 Lords' Journals, 12/22 February 1695/6 ; House of Lords Papers, 1695-7, pp. 194^5. 3 7 & 8 William III, c. 20 {Statutes of the Realm*vii. 97). 4 1 Geo. I, stat. 2, c. 12, s. 3. Trumbull to Villiers, 19/29 November 1695 (Foreign Entry Book, 69).
