CUSTOMS

(Lat. port or i a.) In Finance, duties charged on the importation or exportation of certain commodities; that is, on their being brought into, or sent from, a country. Such duties were levied in antiquity, and form an important part of the revenue of this and most other modern states. Down to the sera of the Revolution, customs duties were charged indiscriminately on most commodities, whether exported or imported; but since the epoch in question they liave been almost exclusively laid on imported articles; those laid on exVOTts being, in most instances, imposed rather to check '■• prevent the exportation of the articles, than in the.'. of raising revenue. Verc this the proper place for such investigations, it ight be easily shown that moderate customs duties are 309 CYANOMETER. about the least exceptionable of all taxes. They are collected with the greatest po ible facility, involving no inquiry into the circumstances of individuals, as is the case with taxes on income or property; nor any interference of any sort with the proce es carried on in the arts, as is the case with certain excise duties. By allowing imported goods to be lodged in bonded warehouses, under the joint locks of the king and the importer, the revenue is protected, without its being nece ary for the importer to pay the duties till the goods be withdrawn for consumption; so that but little additional capital is required to be at the command of the importing merchant because of the articles in which he deals being subject to duties, and but little addition is consequently made to the price of the goods on account of the profits accruing to the dealers on the duties. Customs duties should not be carried to such a height as to give any overpowering stimulus to smuggling. They then contradict and defeat the very purpose for which they are intended. Our finance ministers have not, however, been sufficiently alive to this obvious consideration. There can be no articles better fitted to bear customs duties than tobacco and spirits; but the duties with which they are loaded are so extravagantly high, that they occasion a great deal of smuggling, with its accompanying crime and demoralization, and would certainly bo a good deal more productive, were they effectually reduced. The existing duties on brandy and geneva are, perhaps, the very worst in our tariff; but they would be about the very best, were they reduced from 225. 6rf. to 8s. or 105. a gallon. We subjoin an accoimtof the gro and nett amount of the customs duty collected in each of the great divisions of the United Kingdom in 1837 and 1838. England Scotland 'Ireland 1 Total Gro Receipt, Gro Receipt, 1837. 1838. Nett Receipt, 1837. "^ Nett Receipt J 1838. 19,321,324 15 19,585,250 16 1,626,291 19 1,666,399 0 1,945,849 3 1,951,507 17 17,471,469 10 1,402,920 6 1,682,169 7 L. ». 17,734,405 17! 1,326.000 18! 1,693,776 0> 22,893,465 17 23,203,157 12 20,556,559 3 20,754,182 I5I [s. 322]