Слике страница
PDF
ePub
[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

It will be perceived that among the estimated receipts into the Treasury the fund accruing from the sales of the public lands is included. The duties proposed in the bill submitted being in many instances higher than twenty per cent., its passage will, under the terms of the distribution act, restore the income from the public lands to the national Treasury.

Annexed is a schedule, marked D, designed to show the amount of importations in 1840 of the dutiable articles included in the present bill, and of the revenue which would accrue from each, at the rates of duty now proposed.

The importations assumed as the basis of revenue are seen to amount to $93,817,985, yielding a gross revenue of

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

From which deduct estimated amount of drawback on merchandise exported, on refined sugar and spirits, pickled fish, and expenses of collection

Leaving a nett revenue of

$32,603,335 27

5,160,000 00

27,443,335 27

In the existing state of the country, embarrassed and crippled as it is, from one end to the other, it is impossible to make any estimate of the amount of importations during the present and two following years, that can be fully relied on. In the port of New York, the importations in the first quarter of this year were much less than in the corresponding quarter of the year 1841, and in the succeeding quarters of the current year the disproportion is likely to be still greater. While the removal of a portion of the duties on the 31st of December last brought into the country a large amount of products which were waiting for that event, the increase of duties by the

tariff now proposed, on many important articles, together with the cash system of payment, will operate, no doubt, for a time, to check importations. There are other circumstances to discourage importations, among which may be mentioned the decline in the prices of some of our staple articles of export, and the large State loans effected in Europe, which were paid in productions of foreign manufacture, and are still outstanding as a permanent balance against this country.

Although the estimate of imports for the present and two next succeeding years is given at ninety-three millions, it is proper to state that, owing to the circumstances above adduced, it will not be a matter of surprise if they should, in the average amount, fall short of the sum mentioned. But it is believed that the trade and business of the country, as well domestic as foreign, have reached, or nearly so, their lowest point of depression, and that, under the benign influence of the system of duties proposed, they will, in the course of another year, begin to improve, and, at the end of three years, recover their former prosperity. Under this expectation, the duties on tea and coffee are limited in the bill to three years, after which period it is expected that the revenue accruing from other sources will be adequate to meet the current wants of the Government, and finally to extinguish the public debt.

I have already adverted to the influence of the system of cash duties in checking redundant importations. The annexed table, marked E, will show the influence, generally, of duties upon importations. It does not comprise all the articles included in the present bill, but embraces a number sufficient in amount and importance to exhibit a complete view of the principle which this statement is designed to elucidate. It commences in the year preceding the rise of duties under the tariff of 1824, and extends to 1840, inclusive, so as to embrace the periods when the highest rates of duty were exacted, and that of their decline under the compromise act. It will be perceived, on an inspection of this table, that, although the increase of duties was followed in some instances by a slight falling off in importations, the latter soon rose to their former amount, and suffered no material diminution under the operation of the highest rates of duty.

These facts are persuasive to show that the duties now proposed do not, in the main, exceed the true revenue point, and that the increase of income which they are expected to yield will, whenever our trade shall have resumed its regular and natural course, be realized.

But should even a different result be experienced, and the foreign supply decline in a ratio exceeding that of the increase of the duties, or be cut off altogether, it by no means follows that there will be a corresponding decline in the aggregate receipts of the Treasury. On this subject, the views of Mr. Crawford, late Secretary of the Treasury, contained in his report to Congress made in December, 1822, are both pertinent and instructive: "But if," says the report, "contrary to present anticipation, the proposed augmentation of duties should, before the public debt be redeemed, produce a diminution of the revenue arising from the importation of those articles, a corresponding if not a greater augmentation may be confidently expected upon other articles imported into the United States. This supposition rests upon the two-fold conviction, that foreign articles nearly equal to the value of the domestic exports will be imported and consumed, and that the substitution of particular classes of domestic articles

for those of foreign nations not only does not necessarily diminish the value of domestic exports, but usually tends to increase that value."

I desire, however, that the principle in view of the Department, in fixing the rates of duty upon wool, cotton, hemp, iron, and the manufactures of each of those materials, as well as from leather, should be distinctly understood. They were regarded as objects of great national concern, and their permanent supply at home essential to our real independence.

Although it is admitted that an entire home supply cannot be immediately attained without actual or at least possible prejudice to the interests of a portion of the American people, yet the imposition of duties at such rates as shall tend gradually but certainly to increase such supply, while they no more than meet the absolute wants of the Treasury in the mean time, is deemed to be not only expedient in itself, but entitled to rank among the obligations of Government to the whole country.

There are other articles which, though not strictly classed among the absolute necessaries of life or means of national defence, are yet of great convenience and importance; and the extent and variety of labor employed in their production are such as to call for the favorable notice of Gov

ernment.

With regard to the influence of duties upon prices in our home market, it is not necessary to say much at this time. The subject was briefly considered in my report on the finances in December last, and I will only add, in this place, that the additional cost, if any, to the consumer of imported articles or those of a like description produced at home, arising from the imposition of duties, is not the single point to be regarded in determining whether or not such duties are to be treated as a positive uncompensated burden. We are to look much further, and ascertain their effect in extending the home market of our agricultural products, and their influence upon the value of land and of labor of all descriptions. In such a survey it will be found that the benefit thus accruing will be enhanced out of all proportion to the increase, if any, in the cost of dutiable articles, while the yearly produce of the country, or, which is the same thing, the yearly earnings of the people, are thus materially enlarged: all this being but the natural consequence of the great truth, that labor and industry are the true source of national wealth and prosperity; and of another truth, plainly resulting from the first, that the earnings of labor and industry are much in proportion to the degree of encouragement they receive, and to the variety of employment which may be offered to their pursuits.

With a view to guard the revenue against fraudulent undervaluations, which cannot be entirely prevented by the existing scheme of ad valorem duties, specific duties are proposed in nearly all cases when practicable. The operation of the system of specific duties may not be perfectly equal in all cases, in respect to the value of the articles included under it. But this inconvenience is more than compensated by the security of the revenue against evasions, and by the tendency of specific duties to exclude worthless and inferior articles, by which purchasers and consumers are often imposed on.

In assessing ad valorem duties, the foreign value of goods imported has been assumed as the basis of the duty. In ascertaining this value by appraisement, it is attempted to place some new guards on the revenue. But it may be worthy of consideration whether it would not be advisable to adopt a regulation by which the option should be given to the collector,

in cases where supposed undervaluation in the invoices exists, to take the goods for the use of the Government, on paying the importer for the same at the value mentioned in the invoice, together with an advance of ten per cent. thereon, and the average of costs and charges on the importation of similar goods.

A material and indeed a fundamental consideration, which reconciled a large portion of the country to the compromise act, was the home valuation which it promised. This consideration having failed, all parties are at liberty to project such new scheme for the adjustment of duties on imports as the common interest may demand. But, in attempting such adjustment, the spirit of concession and forbearance, which should characterize every measure bearing extensively upon various and sometimes conflicting interests, or, speaking perhaps with more propriety, in this instance, of conflicting opinions, ought to be observed. In this respect, and this only, can the great principles which entered into the compromise act be substantially carried out.

The system of cash duties, although a material condition in the arrangement of the compromise act, must now stand upon its own intrinsic merits. In this view alone it is recommended to Congress. The abolition of custom-house credits is a measure sustained by reasons which appear to the Department to be conclusive. In order to appreciate the advantages of a cash system, it may be well to premise that more than one-half of all the imports from Europe, and a considerable portion of those from other countries, are on foreign account. In some branches of the import business, (silks, for instance,) American merchants have given place, almost entirely, to foreigners. The causes which have induced this state of things are various, and may not be equally operative. It is believed, however, that, among these causes, our credit system may not have been without some influence. But, waiving all discussion of this point at present, the fact that so large an amount of the import business is now in foreign hands, and that the advantages, if any, of the credit system accrue in a great measure to them, is a consideration not to be disregarded. Another consideration of great weight in this matter is the circumstance that the fluctuations and revulsions so frequently experienced in our great marts of foreign commerce, the effects of which have been as often felt throughout the whole country, are to be ascribed, to some extent, to the facilities afforded by our system of custom-house credits. They are, for all practical pur poses, a loan of money to the amount of the duties, by the Government, to the importing merchant. The credit itself becomes a capital in trade, and serves to stimulate and progressively enlarge that portion of the import business which rests wholly on a fictitious basis.

It may be true that men of small capital, or without any capital at all, would be benefited by obtaining credit from the Government; but it is not less true that the claim to this extraordinary indulgence, if it exist at all, attaches solely to the American merchant, and belongs in no way to foreigners. It is, moreover, worthy of remark, that in a sound condition of the trade, when foreign supplies are really called for by the wants of the country, the means of paying the duties are ensured by the prospect of a ready market, or may be obtained upon the credit and responsibility of the importer, in the community where he resides. If he does not possess this credit or responsibility among his neighbors, there appears no very good.

reason why he should be trusted by the Government. The security which he offers in the one case, would be equally attainable in the other.

The system of credits, established in the infancy of our commerce, when there was but little capital in the country, and the import business was on a footing totally different from what it now is, might have been productive of real advantage. But the state of things which attended its establishment no longer continues. Capital is sufficiently abundant for supplying the country with foreign products, and much of the trade itself has been shifted from American to foreign hands.

Among the direct advantages expected to arise from the cash system is its tendency to check overtrading, and to restrain importations within limits indicated by the wants of the country and the probable amount of its exchangeable surplus. It needs no labored argument or research to prove that the present embarrassinent in all our departments of labor and enterprise have arisen very much from overtrading, nor does it require much discussion to show that the spirit of overtrading and reckless adventure has been favored by the system of custom-house credits.

Another advantage of the cash system, no less obvious, is the reduction of expenses incident to the collection of the revenue. The number of custom-house bonds outstanding and unpaid is very great, and the amount of money lost through the bankruptcy of importers and their sureties must amount to some millions. There is no reasonable probability that such losses would cease to occur hereafter. Add to this the expenses of litigation, which in many cases are enormous.

Connected with the subject of cash duties is that of the warehousing system, to which the attention of the Department has been anxiously directed. The Constitution of the United States, article 1, section 9, declares that "no preference shall be given, by any regulation of commerce or revenue, to the ports of one State over those of another."

It is manifest that under this restraint a warehousing system, if established, must be universal. Regarded in this light, the policy of the measure, as well as the expense attending its practical operation, are matters of grave importance, and require more consideration than it has been in the power of the Department to bestow upon them. The whole subject is therefore left to the better judgment of Congress.

Some modifications are proposed of the laws regulating the drawback of duties. The time within which goods can be exported for the benefit of drawback is found by experience to be unnecessarily long. The bill proposes one year, as in the earlier laws. It proposes, also, to retain, as formerly, for the use of Government, and to reimburse expenses incurred, two and a half per cent. of all drawbacks of duties on goods imported, other than foreign refined sugar, in respect to which it has been thought necessary to retain ten per cent. of the drawback, in order to prevent or check the interference which would otherwise take place with our commercial and manufacturing interests. The drawback on sugars refined, and spirits distilled from molasses in the United States, has also been modified according to the proposed changes in the rates of duty.

Suggestions from various quarters have been made to the Department, as to the policy of extending our system of drawback upon certain articles of domestic manufacture, so as to embrace articles manufactured from hemp, iron, and wool, and to allow upon the export of those articles, when manufactured solely from foreign materials, a drawback equal or nearly

« ПретходнаНастави »