1 7° Early History of American Auctions 



Through the rise of auctions the native American importing 

 merchants were placed in a most pecuHar position relative to the 

 tariff. Normally they would oppose the tariff since it was to 

 their interest to have large importations, and the higher the 

 duties the stronger would be their opposition.^^ The rise of 

 domestic industry would shift trade from the importing mer- 

 chants to the jobbers. Some persuasion was needed to ally the 

 merchants with the protectionists.^^ But this alliance was 

 effected because the system of foreign agents selling through 

 auctioneers diverted a considerable trade to new groups of 

 middlemen and gave them competitive advantages which tended 

 to rob the merchants of their business. The merchants were 

 therefore in the dilemma of losing business either to domestic 

 jobbers by the stoppage of foreign trade as effected by the 

 tariff and the abolition of auctions, or to British agents and 

 auctioneers by the consignment and auction sales system. The 

 diversion of trade to the British agents and auctioneers was 

 more obvious, direct, sudden and offensive, and the merchants 

 therefore supported the tariff program and its counterpart, the 

 abolition of auctions. 



VOLUME OF AUCTION SALES. 



Except for the City and State of New York the statistics of 

 sales at auction are wanting. The petitioners from other cities 

 often made rough estimates of the total auction sales or of the 

 proportion of the total sales of merchandise that were done by 

 auction.^* Such estimates are questionable and probably exag- 

 gerate the importance of auctions. In New York, where auction 



the existing system of auctions; and that we will use all honorable 

 exertions to suppress it." Xiles, 35 : 131. The same year a report of a 

 citizens' committee in New York said : "The abolition of auctions is their 

 best remedy. It would be worth ten tariffs. . . . The existing duties 

 would be more than a sufficient protection, in the absence of auctions, 

 which, alone, are fatal to native industry." Xiles, 34: 258. 



^' Niles, 20: 245, 298, 342; 18: 422. 



^^ Niles, 20 : 66. 



*^ For the year 1818, when auctions were at about their best, it was 



estimated from auctioneers' reports that auction sales in New York City 



amounted to $14,000,000, and the total auction sales in the United States 



were at least $30,000,000. See petition from New York City, Dec. 20, 



1819, in Annals of Congress, i6th Congress, ist session, 2291. 



J 



