---
title: John Bull Dips Deep into His Pocket! Indirect Taxation in Great Britain
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/john-bull-dips-deep-indirect-taxation-uk-1939/
description: A grid of seven drawn goods (whisky, tobacco, sugar, tea, matches, beer, cigarettes) shades the share of retail price taken by duty.
section: Collection
---

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3. John Bull Dips Deep into His Pocket! Indirect Taxation in Great

[![John Bull Dips Deep into His Pocket! Indirect Taxation in Great Britain, 1939 UK poster: A grid of seven drawn goods](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/john-bull-dips-deep-indirect-taxation-uk-1939.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/john-bull-dips-deep-indirect-taxation-uk-1939.jpg)

# John Bull Dips Deep into His Pocket! Indirect Taxation in Great Britain

A grid of seven drawn goods (whisky, tobacco, sugar, tea, matches, beer, cigarettes) shades the share of retail price taken by duty, with retail price and duty printed under each. Largely informational; the nearest technique is card stacking, since the tell is a selection of heavily taxed goods under the personified 'John Bull' and no other taxes or income figures for comparison.

## Propaganda techniques used in this poster

[Card stacking](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/card-stacking/)

## Text on the object

Original (English) · read from the image, not independently checked

```
JOHN BULL
DIPS DEEP INTO HIS POCKET!
INDIRECT TAXATION IN GREAT BRITAIN

TAX  Black areas indicate amount of duty included in cost of article

WHISKY  Retail Price 23s 0d  Duty 16s 0½d
TOBACCO  Retail Price 1s 10d  Duty 1s 5d
SUGAR  Retail Price 3d  Duty 2¼d
TEA  Retail Price 2s 6d  Duty 6¼d
MATCHES  Retail Price 1½d  Duty 0·7d
BEER  Retail Price 11d  Duty 6½d
CIGARETTES  Retail Price 2s 0d  Duty 1s 5d

[stamp:] INCLOSURE 7 TO REPORT No. 52225 MILITARY ATTACHE, LONDON.
G.P.G./AM./1
[imprint:] PRINTED IN ENGLAND BY CHROMOWORKS LTD., LONDON 51-2968
```

[← A Message from the First Lord of the Admiralty A. V. Alexander (It's Up to Us!)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/its-up-to-us-first-lord-of-the-admiralty-1939/) [John Bull Puts First Things First →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/john-bull-puts-first-things-first-uk-1939/)

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- [Alabaster relief, Assyrian troops storming a citadel, from Nineveh (reign of Sennacherib)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/relief-sennacherib-storming-citadel-nineveh-704bce/) (Neo Assyrian Empire · 0000 · Card stacking). Content note: An Assyrian palace relief of troops storming a fortified city, with a file of figures below; Assyrian royal reliefs and texts record killing, mutilation and deportation, shown as carved, with the historical context and scholarly dispute on the regime page.
- [Colour lithograph of the Latin text of the Res Gestae Divi Augusti on the wall of the temple of Roma and Augustus at Ancyra, with the heading in large letters (Perrot, Guillaume and Delbet, 1872)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/lithograph-res-gestae-ancyra-heading-0014/) (Roman Empire · 0014 · Card stacking, Glittering generalities)
- [Silver denarius of Vespasian, reverse IVDAEA with a trophy of arms and a seated mourning woman](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/denarius-vespasian-judaea-capta-0070/) (Roman Empire · 0070 · Card stacking). Content note: A Roman victory coin showing a mourning female figure as the personification of the conquered province of Judaea after the Roman suppression of the Jewish revolt; shown as struck, with the historical context on the regime page.