TARIFF 



5703 



TARIFF 



up to the time of the War of the Nations 

 (1914) was Great Britain Free trade does not 

 mean freedom from all tariff restrictions ; Great 

 Britain levies a revenue duty on tea, sugar, 

 coffee, wines and a few other articles which 

 could not possibly be raised at home. 



Early Tariffs. The custom of collecting such 

 revenue is very ancient. The early Egyptians 

 and Babylonians levied import duties at their 

 ports and city gates, while the government of 

 Athens laid a duty of two per cent on both in- 

 coming and outgoing merchandise. Moreover, 

 a duty or tax was collected by the Athenians 

 for the use of their harbor by foreign vessels. 

 The Roman government, about the time of 

 Christ, was demanding five per cent of the 

 value of goods as a regular import duty, and 

 under the later emperors this was increased to 

 twelve and one-half per cent. Between the 

 years 800 and 1500 the tariff conditions in Eu- 

 rope were perplexing. Every petty feudal lord 

 claimed the power to collect a revenue on 

 goods passing through his lands, and often- 

 times a merchant going from one city to an- 

 other was obliged to pay such a fee every ten 

 or fifteen miles. Merchandise going overland 

 from Rome to Germany or Holland sometimes 

 paid in tolls many times its original price. 



England. It is certain that duties were col- 

 lected at the London ports as early as 980, and 

 by 1380 these were so important that Chaucer, 

 the first great English poet, considered himself 

 honored when appointed to the post of super- 

 visor of London customs. Under Edward I, 

 who ruled from 1272 to 1307, special duties 

 were levied on goods brought by foreign mer- 

 chants, thus establishing the first tariff for pro- 

 tection in England. Such duties were called 

 poundage, because they were based on weight. 

 In the seventeenth century the ruler acquired 

 the further right of taking two tuns or barrels 

 of wine from every twenty imported; this tax 

 was called tunnage. All these taxes on imports 

 were considered temporary and were frequently 

 increased, decreased or dropped; but toward 

 the close of the seventeenth century duties were 

 made permanent, and were levied expressly for 

 the purpose of paying the government debt. 



Gradually it had become the custom to ad- 

 just the duty to the value and not the bulk or 

 weight of an article, and from time to time, 

 between 1545 and 1800, rate books were issued 

 by the government to show exactly what arti- 

 cles were thus taxed. The suffering of the Brit- 

 ish people, especially the Irish, because of a se- 

 ries of famines after 1840, caused Parliament to 



see that the islands could not produce enough 

 cheap food for the inhabitants. The first great 

 step towards free trade was the repeal of the 

 Corn Laws in 1846, followed by the abolition 

 or reduction of more than a thousand duties. 

 Great Britain became, therefore, a free-trade 

 country. The British colonies failed to follow 

 the mother country in advocating free trade; 

 Australia, South Africa and Canada have in- 

 sisted upon protective rates for numerous com- 

 modities. India is the only important British 

 colony which has free trade. 



Other Countries. Countries not so peculiarly 

 situated have not been inclined to adopt free 

 trade. In France, for instance, high tariff was 

 the rule until 1790, not only at the entrance 

 ports but between each little province within 

 the country. The internal tariff was abol- 

 ished during that year, but with the exception 

 granted by a few reciprocity treaties France 

 still demands a protective tariff on foreign 

 goods. Germany had only moderate protective 

 rates until 1902, when the duties on numerous 

 agricultural and manufactured articles became 

 almost prohibitive. Other European nations 

 have followed the examples of France and Ger- 

 many, and few civilized countries are now with- 

 out high duties. 



United States. From the earliest days of the 

 American nation, peculiar circumstances seemed 

 to compel the adoption of protective rates. 

 The bitterness between Great Britain and the 

 new country had caused both Englishmen and 

 Americans to desire each other's goods kept 

 out, and it was looked upon as an act of patri- 

 otism in an American to discourage the impor- 

 tation of foreign merchandise. The immense 

 debts of the Revolution and the War of 1812 

 made necessary the gathering of every avail- 

 able penny of revenue, while the feeble and 

 easily-frightened industries of the new land 

 needed every possible aid. In time, when these 

 infant industries became strong, their very 

 strength was an argument for the continuance 

 of the policy that built them up. 



The first national tariff law in the United 

 States was that of 1789. Although the law 

 states that one of its objects is the "encourage- 

 ment and protection of manufacturers," the 

 duties levied by it were so moderate that the 

 protection granted was slight. This act was 

 superseded by the tariff of 1816, a distinctly 

 protective measure. The duties were not high 

 the highest rate was twenty per cent but 

 they were in several cases sufficient to demon- 

 strate the possibilities of protection to home 



