Volume of Auction Sales 171 



duties were imposed, certain relatively authentic statistics exist. 

 It was common to assert in petitions (i) that the proportion of 

 auction sales to private sales was increasing; (2) that the pro- 

 portion of sales done on foreign account, i. e., by British agents 

 on consignment, to sales done on domestic account, i. e., by 

 domestic importing merchants, was increasing; and (3) that the 

 auction business tended to become concentrated in relatively few 

 houses, thus creating an idle mercantile class and making possible 

 monopolistic abuses. ^^ The following table"'' will indicate the 

 growth of auction sales in New York State: 



'''^"It has already (1820) become alarming to all the commercial cities." 

 Niles, 18: 419; 35: 39. 



^° Based on Williams Annual Register, 1836 : 196. Revenue figures, 

 slightly varying from these and probably more authentic, from 1784 to 

 1844 are found in New York Assembly Document 208 (1845), Vol. 6, 

 and from 1845 to 1862 similar data are found in New York Senate 

 Document 80 (1863), Vol. 5. 



An auction duty is a tax assessed upon auctioneers in proportion to the 

 volume of sales made by them. The auction duties' system of New York 

 State is described in pages 197-9. This table of duties and dutiable goods 

 should be interpreted in the light of the changes of rates imposed by the 

 following laws respectively : 

 Act of April 6, 1804: 



On East India goods, in original package i^% 



On West India " " " "' 2% 



On wines and ardent spirits, " " 2% 



Act of April 6, 1813 : 



On East India goods, in original packages i/^% 



On domestic goods i^% 



On West India goods, in original packages 2% 



On wines and ardent spirits 2% 



On all other goods, 



if sold in New York City 3% 



if sold in other places 2% 



Act of April 13, 1814: 



On all goods i^% 



Act of April IS, 1817: 



On East India goods, in original package 1% 



On wines and ardent spirits 2% 



On all other goods i^% 



Two or three other States derived revenue from duties on sales at 

 auction or by licensing auctioneers, but these were small compared with 

 New York. Niles, 27 : 290. Pennsylvania in 1845 received $71,248.03, 

 and Maryland got from Baltimore auctions $27,263.27 (Niles 69: 336), 

 whereas New York got that year $176,198.62. 



