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 rera of the Revolution, customs duties were charged indiscriminately on most com-. whether exported or imported; hut since the epoch in question they have been almost exclusively laid on imported articles; those laid on exports being, in most instances, imposed rather to check or prevent the exportation of the articles, than in the view of raising revenue. Were this tie proper place for such investigations, it might be easily shown that moderate customs duties are about the least exceptionable of all taxes. They are collected with the greatest po ible facility, involruu no inquiry Into the circumstances of individuals, as is the case with taxes on income or properly; 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 ami the importer, the revenue is protected, without its t.' iy for the importer to pay the duties till the goods be withdrawn for consumption, so thai but little additional capital is required to be at the command of the Importing merchant because of the articles in which he deals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 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 smuggliie. 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 be agood deal more productive, were they effectually reduced. The existing brandy and geneva are, perhaps, the very worst in our tariff; bat they would be about the very best, were they reduced from 22s. W. to 8s. or 10s. a gallon. We subjoin an account of the gro and nett amount of the customs duty collected in each of the great divisions of the United Kingdom in 1837 and 1838. Grow Receipt. Gi-om Receipt, Nett Receipt, Nett Receipt, 1837. 1837. 1838. 1838. L. «. L. «. L. ». L. i. 19,555,250 15 17,471,469 10 Scotland England 19,1,626,291321, '.'24 1915 17,734,405 17 Ireland 1,945,849 3 1,951,5071,666,999 170 1,40-29201,682; 169 fi7 1,3.0,000 18 Total 22,893,465 17 23,203,157 12 20,5311,559 3 1,693,776 0 20,754,182 15 [s. 325]