History of Customs: The mysterious link to Year 3

Anyone who is interested in the history of the Music Hall may know the catchphrase of an old comic legend “Now here’s a funny thing!” (Max Miller – in case you are wondered).  Well, here is a funny things – most of the anniversaries relating to Customs take place in a year ending with a 3.  Here’s a few – 743 -  The earliest written record of Customs dues chargeable on medieval ships is to be found in a Charter dated 743, granted by Aethelbad, King of Mercia, to the Abbey of Worcester.  This allowed the Abbey the dues of two ships: “Which shall be demanded by the collectors in the hithe of London Town”.  1203 - The centralized English customs system can be traced to the Winchester Assize of 1203, in the reign of King John.    1303 -  The custuma parva was introduced by Edward I in the Carta Mercatoria which placed both trade and customs duties on a firmer footing and involved the levying of the Aliens Customs or butlerage, a tax on wine to be paid only by aliens (anyone who is not a national or citizen of the United Kingdom). 1643 - Excise duties on home produced articles were first imposed to provide money for Cromwell's Parliamentary Army and then continued by King Charles II for ‘royal purposes’. Excise duties are inland duties levied on articles at the time of their manufacture, such as alcoholic drinks and tobacco 1673 -  Charles II established the Board of Customs 1683 -  Charles 11 set up the Board of Excise to run alongside the Board of Customs 1803 – The Customs Act passed this year led to the construction of new customs warehouses in nearly every port around the coast of England.  The Act permitted the placing of all types of goods into a customs controlled warehouse pending payment of duty, not just excisable goods 1823 -  The foundation of the modern whisky industry can be dated from this year when an Act was passed to reduce the small stills in the Highlands and introduce not only an annual licence fee for distillers but also a duty on the alcohol produced according to the proof gallon. 1973 -  Purchase Tax was superseded by Value Added Tax (VAT) in the UK.  And, of course, UK joined the European Community (EEC) 1983 – CEDRIC: Customs & Excise Departmental Research and Information Computer – was set up to store records held by the Investigation Division on the Central Reference Unit (CRU) and the manual Investigation Division Indexes. 1993 – the Customs Union was established, bringing with it harmonized customs duties and Intrastat declarations. 2003 – NES was adopted at all airports in the UK

2013 – well, we’ll have to wait and see but we were originally going to get the introduction of the Modernised Customs Code in July 2013.  This has now been renamed the Union Customs Code but changes will probably miss the “Year 3” connection.