2o8 Early History of American Auctions 



on auction sales. The rates of duty ranged from $2.50 to $5.00, 

 depending upon whether the goods were foreign or domestic and 

 upon the value of the parcel.--* 



Neither bill was acted upon. The short session of Congress 

 and the disinclination to act upon any important subject till the 

 new President was installed, were the reasons alleged for the 

 default. ^-^ But the campaign continued. A larger mass meeting 

 than ever was held in New York and a memorial to Congress 

 was drawn up praying for a resumption of the consideration of 

 the auction bill of the last session.--'' The response, however, 

 was that the Ways and Means Committee brought forward the 

 Ingersoll bill, which was the 1829 bill in all essentials.--' Thus 

 all efforts to procure help from Congress against auctions failed. 



Within the next decade auctions ceased to play as important 

 role relatively, and became less offensive. There were several 

 reasons for this. Steam navigation brought together the agents 

 of foreign commission houses and the jobbers of this country 

 and the inducements for a speculative and uncertain market 

 were lessened. The introduction of the bond and warehouse 

 system enabled importers to hold their surplus stocks from auction 

 until the market could absorb them in the regular mode of 

 private sales. Many articles which were formerly sold largely 

 at auction either ceased to be imported on account of our rising 

 manufactures or for other reasons, or came to be largely sold 

 through brokers.--® It seems that the auction duties proved 

 prohibitive in case of certain commodities, and these were 

 increasingly sold through brokers.--^ By 1844, at least, the anti- 

 auction war had passed and the era of peace prevailed.-^'' 



"* Ibid., 380. 



"'Niles, 36: 185. 



""Niles, 37: 303. 



-" Niles, 37 : 422. 



■■*N. Y. Assembly Document (1849) 218, Vol. V, p. 



--°N. Y. Assembly Document 25 (1846), p. 44-5. 



-'"Hunt's, 10: 154. 



