Page:History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce (Volume 2).djvu/430



Previously to 1802, if the duties were not paid on the arrival of the goods at the port of discharge, their owners or consignees were required to enter into bonds with the Customs to provide security for the amount due to the Crown. "It was often," remarks McCulloch, "very difficult to find sureties, and the merchant, in order to raise funds to pay the duty, was frequently reduced to the ruinous necessity of selling his goods immediately on their arrival, when perhaps the market was already glutted. Neither was this the only inconvenience that grew out of this system, for the duties having to be paid all at once, and not by degrees as the goods were sold for consumption, their price was raised by the amount of the profit on the capital advanced in payment of the duties; competition, too, was diminished in consequence of the greater command of funds required to carry on trade under such disadvantages, and a few rich individuals were enabled to monopolize the importation of those commodities on which heavy duties were payable. The system had besides an obvious tendency to discourage the carrying trade. It prevented this country from becoming the entrepôt for foreign products by hindering the importation of such as were not immediately wanted for home consumption, and thus tended to lessen the resort of foreigners to our markets, inasmuch as it rendered it difficult, or rather impossible, for them to complete an assorted cargo. And in addition to all these circumstances, the difficulty of granting a really equivalent drawback to the exporters of such commodities as had