(from the Belgic accisse, tribute), an inland duty or impost paid sometimes upon the consumption of the commodity, or frequently upon the sale, which is the last stage before the consumption. This is doubtless, impartially speaking, the most economical way of taxing the subject; the charges of levying, collecting, and managing the excise duties, being considerably less in proportion than in other branches of the revenue. It also renders the commodity cheaper to the consumer than the charging it with customs to the same amount would do, because it is generally paid in a much later stage. But this mode of taxation has ever been unpopular. Lord Clarendon tells us, that to his knowledge the Earl of Bedford, who was made lord treasurer by King Charles I., in order to oblige his parliament, intended to have set up the excise in England; yet it never formed a part of that unfortunate prince's revenue, being first introduced, on the model of the Dutch prototype, by the parliament itself, after the rupture with the crown. Yet such was the opinion of its general unpopularity, that when in 1642 "aspersions were cast by malignant persons upon the house of commons, that they intended to introduce excises, the house for its vindication therein did declare, that these rumours were false and scandalous, and that their authors should be apprehended and brought to condign punishment." Its original establishment was in 1643, and its progress was gradual, being at first laid upon those persons and commodities where it was supposed the hardship would be least perceptible, namely, the makers and vendors of beer, ale, cyder, and perry. The royalists at Oxford soon followed the example of their brethren at Westminster, by imposing a similar duty; but both sides protested that it should be continued no longer than till the end of the war, and should then be utterly abolished. The parliament at Westminster, however, soon afterwards imposed it on flesh, wine, tobacco, sugar, and such a multitude of other commodities, that it might be fairly denominated general; and this was done in pursuance of the plan proposed by Pym, who seems to have been the father of the excise, in his letter to Sir John Hotham, intimating, "that they had proceeded in the excise to many particulars, and intended to go on farther, but that it would be necessary to use the people to it by little and little." And afterwards, when the nation had been accustomed to it for a series of years, the succeeding champions of liberty boldly and openly declared "the impost of excise to be the most easy and indifferent levy that could be laid upon the people;" so that it continued during the whole of the usurpation. Upon the return of Charles II., as it had then been long established, and its produce was well known, some part of it was given to the crown by 12 Carol. II. as a compensation for the feudal tenures and other oppressive parts of the hereditary revenue. But from its origin to the present time its name has been odious to the people. See Taxation.