By the 5th & 6th of William and Mary, the duties were raised in 1694 to 4_s._ 9_d._ on strong, and 1_s._ 3_d._ on table beer. In 1695, the Commons resolved that a sum not exceeding 515,000_l._ should be granted for the support of the civil list for the ensuing year, to be raised by a malt tax, and additional duties upon mum, sweets, cyder, and perry. In 1691, owing to the tension with France, further supplies were raised by impositions which included in their number a duty of sixpence a bushel on malt, and a further duty on mum, cyder, and perry. The price of claret rose rapidly when war with France broke out. Soon the clarets were exhausted. A substitute had to be found, and was discovered in the red wine of Portugal, then imported for the first time. ‘Some claret, boy!’--‘Indeed, sir, we have none. Claret, sir.--Lord! there’s not a drop in town. But we have the best red port.’--‘What’s that you call Red port?’--‘A wine, sir, comes from Portugal; I’ll fetch a pint, sir.’ The next quotation throws light upon its composition:-- Mark how it smells. Methinks, a real pain Is by its odour thrown upon my brain. I’ve tasted it--‘tis spiritless and flat, And has as many different tastes As can be found in compound pastes.[179] We are now in a position to determine the causes of the prevalent intemperance at the close of the seventeenth century:-- 1. The Act to encourage distillation. 2. The exhaustion of light wines. 3. The influence of the Court. 4. The development of _toasting_. 5. Club life. It remains only to notice the last two of the causes. _Toasting_ was carried to an utter absurdity. Chamberlayne thus accounts for the fashion:-- As the English, returning from the wars in the Holy Land, brought home the foul disease of leprosy, ... so, in our fathers’ days, the English, returning from service in the Netherlands, brought with them the foul vice of drunkenness.... This vice at present prevails so much that some persons, and those of quality, may not safely be visited in an afternoon without running the hazard of excessive drinking of healths (whereby, in a short time, twice as much liquor is consumed as by the Dutch, who sip and prate); and in some places it is esteemed a piece of wit to make a man drunk, for which purpose some swilling insipid buffoon is always at hand.[180]