POLICE PROHIBITIONS 71 tion is one which, among other things," is calculated to lead persons to believe that the goods are the manufacture or the merchandise of some person other than the person whose manufacture or merchandise they really are." It was thought that the patriotism of British consumers would lead them to seek nationally made goods in preference to similar foreign articles. The results achieved have not met the expectation of those who were instrumental in passing the law, the British public in many instances looking for the label "made in Germany" or "made in France" and refusing to buy unless such labels were on the goods. The consumer under ordinary circumstances is governed in his purchases not by national considerations but by the desire to obtain the most suitable article at what he considers the most reasonable price. The French tariff of 1892 contained a clause excluding all articles which, through marking or in any other way, could mislead Frenchmen into believing that the commodity was of French origin. The United States Tariff Acts from 1890 onwards have provisions requiring "that all articles of foreign manufacture or production, which are capable of being marked, stamped, branded or labeled without injury, shall be marked, stamped, branded or labeled in legible English words, in a conspicuous place," so as to indicate country of origin." Many other countries have passed similar measures. Under the provisions of various laws and proclamations, the following articles are absolutely prohibited from importation into the United States: (1) Obscene and immoral books, pamphlets, papers, pictures, and drawings, lottery tickets, (2) convict labor goods, (3) wild animals, insects and birds, injurious to the interests of agriculture, (4) piratical copies of copyrighted works, (5) articles bearing a name or mark calculated to induce the public to believe that the article is manufactured in the United States, (6) counterfeits of coins and securities, (7) white phosphorus matches, (8) films or other pictorial representations of any prize fights to be used for purposes of public exhibition, (9) smoking opium, (10) impure and unwholesome tea, (11) adulterated seeds. Restricted Importations into the United States. The importation of aigrettes, egret plumes, feathers, heads and skins of wild birds, unless imported for scientific or educational purposes, is prohibited; skins of fur seals or sea otters, and garments made thereof may not be imported unless the seals and the sea otters have come from certain waters specified in treaties with foreign countries. Foods and drugs before being admitted are examined at the port of entry by the Department of Agriculture in order to pass upon their compliance with the requirements of our Pure Food and Drug Law. Plants and nursery stock are barred unless a permit for the importation thereof has been issued by the Secretary of Agriculture. Cigars can not be imported in quantities of less than three thousand in a single package, and they must be packed in boxes of not more than five hundred cigars to a box. Retaliatory Prohibitions. Prohibitions are sometimes enacted for retaliatory purposes. Of such a nature was an act passed in the United States in 1916. According to this act, if a country were to prohibit the importation of any article which was the product of the soil or industry of the United States and which was not injurious to health or morals, the President was empowered to prohibit the importation from that country of similar articles or, if no such were imported, of any other articles; the prohibition to remain in force as long as the other country retained hers. The Tariff of 1922 authorizes the President to issue proclamations excluding from the United States goods coming from countries which persist in discriminating against the commerce of the United States after the President, through the establishment of new or additional duties, has attempted to remedy the situation. ARMITAGE-SMITH, G. The Free Trade Movement and Its Results. Chap. I. BUREAU OF FOREIGN AND DOMESTIC COMMERCE. British Control of Exports and Imports. Tariff Series No. 39, 1918. BUREAU OF FOREIGN AND DOMESTIC COMMERCE. British Industrial Reconstruction and Commercial Policies. Special Agents' Series, No. 193, 1920. CLEVELAND, F. A., and SCHAFFER, J. Democracy in Reconstruction. Pp. 397-419. CULBERTSON, W. S. Commercial Policy in War Time and After. FISK, G. M. International Commercial Policies. Chap. VI. KOEHLER, G. Importers First Aid in American Tariff and Customs Procedure. Chap. XLI. PETERSON, F. B. Imports Control. Proceedings of the Fifth National Foreign Trade Convention, 1918. Pp. 114–124. STERN, C. W. Importing. Course in Foreign Trade. Vol. XI CHAPTER VI CUSTOMS DUTIES, BOUNTIES AND PREMIUMS Origin. Duties were originally taxes levied on goods for fiscal purposes; as such they were employed in antiquity; their use became especially pronounced during the Middle Ages when numerous tolls had to be paid by itinerary merchants. Tolls were levied for the use of roads, rivers, fording places, bridges; for the removal of obstructions often artificially placed by the toll gatherers, such as a rope across a highway; for protection against brigands; for the privilege of entering or leaving a city. These many tolls, or custons, the latter name having been given to them because of their denoting customary payments, weighed heavily upon the economic life of the people; they hindered the welding together of isolated communities into national entities. With the fall of feudalism and the establishment of a more or less centralized control over state activities, there arose a tendency toward the elimination of internal tolls. Taxes began to be collected on the frontiers of the politically unified states; these frontier taxes took the form of import, export, or transit duties; their aim in many instances was not the obtaining of revenue but the protection of national industries against foreign competition. Duties took on national significance during the time of Cromwell in England and of Colbert in France. In Germany the use of duties as a measure of national commercial policy did not begin until the formation of the Zollverein in 1834, Prussia having resorted to them in her tariff act of 1818. In the United States the abolition of all internal customs and the IMPORT DUTIES. FISCAL OR REVENUE DUTIES 75 unification of all duties, imposts and excises throughout the country was effected by the adoption of the Constitution in 1789. Import Duties. Fiscal or Revenue Duties.-The main purpose of fiscal duties is the obtaining of revenue; such duties are imposed either upon raw materials or upon finished commodities, according to the degree of the industrial development of the countries imposing them. Economically advanced countries usually tax for fiscal purposes some unmanufactured goods which are not produced and can not well be produced at home. Commodities selected are those for which there exists a more or less inelastic demand, such articles as, for example, coffee, tea, sugar, spices, cotton. Countries in an extractive stage of development levy fiscal duties on manufactured products. Many duties, while they are designed primarily for protection, are revenue producers, in so far as they do not exclude importations entirely, just as many duties, while levied mainly for fiscal purposes, offer protection to national industries in so far as they raise the prices of imported goods. The character of the duty may change from fiscal to protective and vice versa. An example of such a change is offered by the duty on tin plates in the United States. Prior to 1891 it was purely a revenue tax, no tin plates having been made until that date in this country. After 1891 the industry began to be carried on and the duty on tin plates became one of the protective features of our tariff legislation. There can be no doubt that with the growth of manufactures in the South American republics many of their duties on finished commodities, which are at present fiscal in character, will become protective. A duty may be changed from a protective to a fiscal through the establishment of an internal tax which assesses home products equally with importations. While commodities selected for the imposition of revenue duties should be such as are greatly in demand and such as do not lend themselves easily to substitution, they should not |