Customs and Excise Duties.
Among the acts of the first assembly under the Patent in 1647, occurs the following:
"It is ordered that the Dutch, French or other alliants, or any Englishman inhabitating among them, shall pay the like customs and duties, as we do among them for all such goods as shall be imported for the English, except beaver."
This act was probably of little practical importance as the trade of the colony during the seventeenth century was very small. In 1655, an excise duty of five shillings was imposed on every anchor of liquors and quarter cask of wine, and three years later a like customs duty was added. The revenue from both taxes at first went to the towns, but in 1674 it was transferred to the colony, as "the whole excise seems almost all lost by neglect." The collection of the tax was to be farmed out. Whether the tax was more productive than under town government we do not know. It was repealed in 1686. Both customs and excise duties were introduced by Andros, but disappeared with his government. In 1696, however, the customs duties on liquors was reimposed by the colony, and molasses was added to the list.[[130]] In 1707 slaves were added to the dutiable articles, at £3 per head. About twenty or thirty were annually imported from the Barbadoes, and their value was from £30 to £40 a piece. The income from this source must have been of considerable importance at the period. In 1715 the revenue from this tax in the naval officers' hands was £289-17-3. In the same year the law was amended so as to cover negroes brought in from the neighboring colonies. The act seems to have remained in force until May, 1732, when it was repealed under instructions from the English government. There seems to have been no further imposition of customs or excise duties on the part of the colony until the period of the Revolution. The state, as we have seen, was left in an exhausted condition at the close of the war. The people were unwilling to continue the payment of taxes and were behind on those already levied. The annual interest on the debt was considerable.
A committee, appointed to devise means for supplying the treasury, reported November, 1782, recommending the imposition of customs and excise taxes. In February of the following year, an act was passed in accordance with this recommendation to take effect on the tenth of April following. Both customs and excise duties were imposed. Collectors do not seem to been appointed until May, and in June the act was repealed so that it was of little practical importance. At the same session, however, its place was supplied by an act laying a duty of two per cent ad valorem "on the Value, and at the Time and place of landing of all Goods which shall be imported into this State being of the Growth or Manufacture of any foreign State," the revenue, as before, to be devoted to the payment of interest on the public debt. The act was to take effect on July 1.
The law was enforced with severe penalties. No imported goods were to be landed without permit obtained, on penalty of forfeiture of vessel and cargo. No dutiable goods imported by land could be removed from the town into which they were imported, or sold or consumed in that town without a permit from the collector of impost, under penalty of forfeiture or a fine equal to the value of the goods. In June, 1784, the duty was raised to two and one half per cent. It was at this period that manufacturing industries began to take root in Rhode Island, and, as a natural result, we find evidence of the growth of the protective principle in tariff legislation.
In February of the following year a committee was appointed "to draught an act laying an additional duty upon hats, shoes, boots and such other articles of foreign manufacture as may be manufactured within this State." In May an act was passed discriminating against British vessels. It provided for an additional duty of 7 1/2 per cent on goods imported in any vessel owned in whole or in part by British subjects.
The result of the work of the committee appointed in February is seen in an act of June, 1785, entitled 'An Act for laying additional Duties on certain enumerated Articles, and for encouraging the Manufactory thereof within this State, and the United States of America." The act is quite extensive including the following articles:
25 %
Ready made garments, canes, brush handles, warming pan handles, mop sticks, tailors' press and notch boards, house bells, toys.
20 %
Scythes, hoes, leather goods.
12 %
Paper, blank books, pewter ware, tin ware.
10 %
Tools for the use of block makers, chaise makers, tanners, curriers, caulkers, shoe makers and husbandmen, (sickles, plane irons and saws excepted) muffs, tippets, ermine, candles, soap, manufactured tobacco, goldsmiths, silversmiths and jewellers ware. Instrument and cabinet makers work, frame chairs, porter, beer.
5 %
Cordage, twine.
Special Duties.
Axes and adzes (per doz.) 6s.-20s.
Cards (per doz. boxes) 12s.
Women's shoes (per pair) 1s. 1s. 6d.
Cheese 3d. per lb.
Wrought gold 6s. per ounce.
Clocks and gold watches 18s.
Carriages £ 3, 15s. - £ 15.
Loaf sugar (3d. per lb.)
Hats 1s. - 6d. - 3s.
Iron hollow ware 3s. per cwt.
Dressed and tanned leather 3d. per lb.
Wrought silver 1s. per ounce.
Silver watches 6s.
Though the purpose of the act was protective, it is evident that in the case of many of the articles enumerated, the duty was entirely a revenue tax. In March, 1786, steps were taken towards laying an excise duty. A committee was appointed to draw up a bill for the purpose. The committee reported at the same session and an elaborate excise act was passed, which was to go into effect on May 16; but at the session in that month the act was suspended until the next session, when a committee of revision was appointed. There is no farther mention of any legislation in regard to the excise until December, when another excise law was passed to go into effect on May 15, 1787, and remain in force for three years. Neither of these acts seem to have been generally enforced. No collectors were appointed under the act of March. Under the December act collectors were appointed in May, 1787, but there is no record of any subsequent appointments.
When government under the United States constitution went into operation, in 1789, it became impossible for Rhode Island to pursue an independent policy in regard to customs duties, and the General Assembly at the May session passed a law providing that the same duties, payable in the same money, be collected in Rhode Island as should be ordered by Congress for the United States. In September the assembly supplemented this provision by enacting a law similar to that which had been passed by Congress. Goods imported from the United States and from North Carolina were exempt from duty. In May, 1790, the state adopted the constitution and the power to levy impost duties ceased.
The want of method in keeping accounts at the time renders it impossible to state exactly the amount of revenue received under the acts imposing import duties. I have found however nearly complete returns of the duties collected in the counties of Providence and Newport, which contained the principal posts of entry.
| County of Providence. | |
|---|---|
| (Includes receipts from October 1, 1783) | |
| Total nominal receipts | £21,533-14-7 3/4 |
| Receipts in paper money of 1786, | 11,464-4-1 |
| Receipts in specie | 10,069-10-6 3/4 |
| Specie value of paper money receipts | 1,550-14-6 3/4 |
| 11,620-5-1 1/2 | |
| Value in present dollars | $42,414. |
| County of Newport. | |
| (Includes receipts from July, 1783, May, 1789, and from Sept. 1789) | |
| Total nominal receipts July, 1783, May, 1789, | 18,900-1-8 3/4 |
| Receipts in paper money of 1786, | 10,131-12-8 3/4 |
| Receipts in specie | 8,768-1-0 |
| Specie value of paper money receipts | 2,181-10-4 1/2 |
| Total specie value of receipts | 10,949-11-4 1/2 |
| Value in present dollars | $39,966. |
| Receipts from September, 1789, | 3,202. |
| Total | 43,168. |
| Providence County | 42,414. |
| Total for both counties | 85,582. |
Such figures, of course, are not exact, and it has been impossible to find more than fragmentary returns from other counties. Such counties were, however, comparatively unimportant. It will probably not be far from the truth if we place the total receipts under the customs acts for the period of between six and seven years, when they were in force, at something over $90,000 or about $14,000 a year. The interest on the public debt must have amounted to between $30,000 and $40,000 per annum, so that the revenue from customs duties fell far short of satisfying the purpose for which it was imposed.