
Up: Glassmaking

Reminiscences 34 of 123
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period, i.e. about the commencement of the eighteenth century, the
English glass manufactories, aided by the liberal bounties granted them in
cash upon all glass exported by them or sold for export, became powerful
and successful rivals of the Venetian and the French manufactories in
foreign markets. The clear bounty granted on each pound of glass exported
from England, which the government paid to the manufacturer, was not derived
from any tax by impost or excise previously laid, for all such were returned
to the manufacturer, together with the bounty referred to; thereby lessening
the actual cost of the manufacture from twenty-five to fifty per cent., and
enabling the English exporters to drive off all competition in foreign markets.
This bounty provision was annulled during the
Premiership of Sir Robert Peel,
together with all the excise duty on the home consumption.
In 1673 the first plate-glass was manufactured at
Lambeth, under a royal charter; but no great progress was
made at that time, and the works for the purpose were doubtless very limited.
One hundred years later, i.e. 1773, a Company was formed, under a royal
charter, called the "Governor and Company of the British Cast Plate-Glass
Manufactory," with a capital of eighty
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