To the supreme authority the Parliament of the Common-wealth of England some considerations about the excise of 4s. 8d. per barrell upon sope, humbly offered by the sope-makers of London, who lately presented their petition to your Honors. This text is an enriched version of the TCP digital transcription A94704 of text R212047 in the English Short Title Catalog (Thomason 669.f.15[62]). Textual changes and metadata enrichments aim at making the text more computationally tractable, easier to read, and suitable for network-based collaborative curation by amateur and professional end users from many walks of life. The text has been tokenized and linguistically annotated with MorphAdorner. The annotation includes standard spellings that support the display of a text in a standardized format that preserves archaic forms ('loveth', 'seekest'). Textual changes aim at restoring the text the author or stationer meant to publish. This text has not been fully proofread Approx. 6 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 1 1-bit group-IV TIFF page image. EarlyPrint Project Evanston,IL, Notre Dame, IN, St. Louis, MO 2017 A94704 Wing T1742 Thomason 669.f.15[62] ESTC R212047 99870701 99870701 163136 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A94704) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 163136) Images scanned from microfilm: (Thomason Tracts ; 246:669f15[62]) To the supreme authority the Parliament of the Common-wealth of England some considerations about the excise of 4s. 8d. per barrell upon sope, humbly offered by the sope-makers of London, who lately presented their petition to your Honors. Hayes, John. 1 sheet ([1] p.) s.n., [London : 1650] Signed at end: John Hayes [and 19 others]. Imprint from Wing. Reproduction of the original in the British Library. eng Soap -- Taxation -- England -- London -- Early works to 1800. Excise tax -- England -- Early works to 1800. A94704 R212047 (Thomason 669.f.15[62]). civilwar no To the supreme authority the Parliament of the Common-wealth of England; some considerations about the excise of 4s. 8d. per barrell upon so Hayes, John. 1650 941 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 A This text has no known defects that were recorded as gap elements at the time of transcription. 2007-06 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2007-06 Aptara Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2008-04 Elspeth Healey Sampled and proofread 2008-04 Elspeth Healey Text and markup reviewed and edited 2008-09 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion To the supreme Authority the Parliament of the Common-wealth of ENGLAND ; Some Considerations about the Excise of 4 s. 8 d. per Barrell upon SOPE , humbly offered by the Sope-makers of London , who lately presented their Petition to your Honors . I. THat the laying Excise upon Sope , is a requiring Excise for the labor of their hands , they having paid Excise before for their Potashes , Oyl and Tallow , being the materials whereof they make their Soap , and it hath been always reputed of ill consequence to discourage Labour and industry by taking away the profit that the Labourer expects . II. That the Sope-makers pay Excise for a Contingency , a certain profit to the State out of their probable hopes that they shall make some profit of their Labour ; so that after they have made their Sope , if the price of their Materials fall ( as is ordinary ) they then pay Excise only because they have taken pains ; for they lose by their Sope ; and besides , they run no small hazard in their Boyling their Sope , which makes their profit the more uncertain . III. The Sopemakers have harder measure ( in paying Excise both for their Materials , and their Sope ) then most of the Tradesmen of the Common-wealth : most that pay Excise for their Materials , have the benefit to themselves of their own Art and Industry , in changing those Materials into other forms : Now certainly , 't is Justice and best Policy to lay the burthens of charge upon the people , in such a way , that all men may equally bear their proportion IV. 'T is almost impossible to impose the Excise upon Sope equally upon all Sopemakers , because near half the Sope that 's now made is boyled in Holes and Corners in small Panns , for which no Excise is paid ; and so the burthen lies only upon the most visible Traders , whose places of Boyling are known and always open ; and hereby those Sopemakers that bear the greatest share in other Publick payments , have their Trades spoiled by those that pay little or none . And this was thought a good ground to take off the greatest part of the Excise of Gold and Silver Wyer , for that it was drawn in holes , and little Excise paid for it by most . V. The Excise of 4 s. 8 d. per Barrell upon Sope , is a gain so great to those that can Boyle privately , and steal it , that 't is worth the cost to erect privat boyling Pans wherby they will be more in use daily , and the Excise be no considerable advantage to the State , though a destruction to some that have faithfully served them ; and thus it appeared in the Case of the Refiners of Gold and Silver , that two Thirds of the Excise of Gold and Silver Wyer being taken off , there would be more money advanced by it to the State then was before . VI . That since the Excise of Sope was raised from 3 s. per Barrel unto 4 s. 8 d. the Revenue of it hath bin less then it was before ; for now men will run more hazard to steal it , and now the Trade of those whose boyling is most visible is decayed ; and if this continue , will come to nothing . VII . Sope is most necessary for all sorts of people next to Victuals , and must be used by the poorest people ; and it hath been thought Justice and Policy to lay the burden of Excise upon such Commodities as the poor are least necessitated to use , and not a double burthen upon the most necessary Commodities . And though we desire to preserve the Trade of the Common-wealth and our selves , yet we desire not to diminish the Revenue of the Commonwealth in the Excise , and therefore we humbly propose , That 12d . per pound may be imposed upon all the imported materials , whereof Sope is made ; whereby all that buy the materials , shall equally bear the burden , and those whose names are hereunto subscribed wil ingage , that in case they or some of them , may be intrusted to collect the Excise of those imported materials , and have such allowance per pound therefore , as the Commissioners for Excise confess by their Certificate it costs them , then they will advance the Revenue of that Excise of the materials , to a value equal to what hath bin advanced these two last years from the Excise , both of Sope & the materials of it . Yet they begg not the Office , but humbly leave it to the wisdome of the Commissioners intrusted therein , to imploy such Officers as they think fit to Collect it , onely they propose so to ingage to secure the Parliament , that they shall suffer no prejudice in their Revenue , by condescending to their just desires in taking off the Excise of Sope , which they humbly crave may be speedily done for the Reasons offered . John Hayes Ia. Baker Tho. Howlett William Hester Robert Burfoote Robert Drinkwater Iohn Hutchest Iohn Hardwicke Tho. Pulteney Roger Peares Caleb Phinnies Tho. Bromley Edw. Leader Iohn Wolcott . Iohn Lilburne Edw. Whittwell Symon Weeden Richard Cox Thomas Woodstock Edw. Halley