Download or read book Trade Politics and Christianity in Africa and the East written by Allan John MacDonald and published by Rarebooksclub.com. This book was released on 2012-07 with total page 236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1916 edition. Excerpt: ... increasing revenue is a sign of what Lord Morley called " an undoubted increase in the drinking habits of the people." Lord Crewe has made a similar admission. In his despatch to the Governor-General of India, dated May 29, 1914, he said: "The general conclusion that the action of the Government has checked any widespread expansion of consumption over India as a whole is, unfortunately, qualified by the fact that in certain areas alluded to in the Local Governments' Reports, an increase alike of consumption and intemperance must be admitted and faced." In addition to the difficulty of estimating the effect of the central distilleries upon consumption, the Government have no reliable data for discovering the effect of higher taxation. The imposition of the maximum taxation congruent with the minimum temptation to illicit manufacture is the principle upon which the whole Indian excise system is managed. But when an attempt is made to estimate the increase in consumption in relation to the growth of the revenue, it is most difficult to ascertain what proportion of the increased revenue must be attributed to the increase in taxation, and what proportion is due to the fact that the outstills are being gradually replaced by distillery centres, and illicit trading is gradually being suppressed. If the amount of illicit traffic displaced by the central distillery system were known, it would be possible to estimate what proportion of the increased revenue was due to higher taxation, and what proportion was due to greater consumption. Besides the increase in the incidence of taxation, and the creation of central distilleries, much has been done to control the liquor traffic by closing drink-shops in areas where they are not needed. Since 1905-6 the...