Glossary · History
Cider tax
Also written Cider Bill 1763. Each is a name for the same thing, which is why none of them has an entry of its own.
Definition
The excise on cider imposed in 1763, which extended excise officers’ powers of entry to private houses in cider counties and provoked serious protest before being repealed three years later.
- Subject
- History
- Also written
- Cider Bill 1763
In more detail
The measure is remembered less for its revenue than for its constitutional argument: taxing cider at the point of making meant inspecting the farmhouse, and opposition framed it as an intrusion on the liberty of the subject. It contributed to the fall of the ministry that introduced it.
It is also an early instance of the pattern that still shapes the drink: how cider is taxed determines how, and how much, it is made.
Related terms
Terms that belong to the same part of the subject, or that this one is routinely confused with.
Law and labelling
Duty band
A range of alcoholic strength within which a single rate of alcohol duty applies. The United Kingdom moved to a strength-based banded system in 2023, so a small change in ABV can change the tax substantially.
History
Truck system
The practice of paying farm labourers partly in cider rather than wholly in money. It was widespread in the West Country and the three counties and was progressively outlawed by the Truck Acts of the nineteenth century.
Cider
Farmhouse cider
Cider made on the farm that grew the fruit, traditionally in small volumes for the farm’s own use and local sale, and by extension any cider made in that manner.
Where to go next
- Cider glossary — The whole vocabulary, by subject and A–Z.
- Comparisons — Terms that are only really clear when set against the thing they are not.
- Search — Finds terms by their aliases and by their spellings in other languages.
Sources
What this page rests on. Where a source is marked as registered rather than read, CiderHQ is recording that the body is authoritative on the subject without claiming to have worked through the document itself. See our evidence policy for what each state means.
Hereford Museum of Cider collections and interpretation
Hereford Cider Museum Trust · museum · retrieved 2026-08-24