Editing Kingdom of Great Britain (section)

=====Lower debt and taxes=====
By avoiding wars, Walpole could lower taxes. He reduced the national debt with a sinking fund, and by negotiating lower interest rates. He reduced the land tax from four shillings in 1721, to 3s in 1728, 2s in 1731 and finally to only 1s (i.e. 5%) in 1732. His long-term goal was to replace the land tax, which was paid by the local gentry, with excise and customs taxes, which were paid by merchants and ultimately by consumers. Walpole joked that the landed gentry resembled hogs, which squealed loudly whenever anyone laid hands on them. By contrast, he said, merchants were like sheep, and yielded their wool without complaint.<ref>{{Cite book |title=The Cambridge Modern History |date=1909 |isbn=978-0-521-07814-6 |editor-last=Ward |editor-first=A. W. |editor-link=Adolphus Ward |volume=VI: the Eighteenth Century |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=fMgFAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA46 46] |ol=7716876M |display-editors=etal}}</ref> The joke backfired in 1733 when he was defeated in a major battle to [[Excise Bill|impose excise taxes on wine and tobacco]]. To reduce the threat of smuggling, the tax was to be collected not at ports but at warehouses. This new proposal, however, was extremely unpopular with the public, and aroused the opposition of the merchants because of the supervision it would involve. Walpole was defeated as his strength in Parliament dropped a notch.{{Sfn|Langford|1989|pages=28–33}}