The Economic Policies of Alexander Hamilton. Hamilton Alexander

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      PUBLIC CREDIT

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      Communicated to the House of Representatives, December 13, 1790.

      Treasury Department, December 13, 1790.

      In obedience to the order of the House of Representatives, of the ninth day of August last, requiring the Secretary of the Treasury to prepare and report on this day such further provision as may, in his opinion, be necessary for establishing the public credit, the said Secretary respectfully reports:

      That the object which appears to be most immediately essential to the further support of public credit, in pursuance of the plan adopted during the last session of Congress, is the establishment of proper and sufficient funds for paying the interest which will begin to accrue, after the year one thousand seven hundred and ninety-one, on the amount of the debts of the several States assumed by the United States, having regard at the same time to the probable or estimated deficiency in those already established, as they respect the original debt of the Union.

      In order to this, it is necessary, in the first place, to take a view of the sums requisite for those purposes.

      For procuring which sum, the reiterated reflections of the Secretary have suggested nothing so eligible and unexceptionable, in his judgment, as a further duty on foreign distilled spirits, and a duty on spirits distilled within the United States, to be collected in the mode delineated in the plan of a bill, which forms part of his report to the House of Representatives, of the ninth day of January last.

      Under this impression he begs leave, with all deference, to propose to the consideration of the House—

      That the following additions be made to the duties on distilled spirits imported from foreign countries, which are specified in the act making further provision for the payment of the debts of the United States, namely:

      On those of the first class of proof, therein mentioned, per gallon, eight cents;

      On those of the second class, per gallon, eight and a half cents;

      On those of the third class, per gallon, nine cents;

      On those of the fourth class, per gallon, ten cents;

      On those of the fifth class, per gallon, ten cents;

      On those of the sixth class, per gallon, fifteen cents.

      And that the following duties be laid on spirits distilled within the United States, namely:

      If from molasses, sugar, or other foreign materials, and of the first class of proof, per gallon, eleven cents;

      Of the said second class of proof, per gallon, twelve cents;

      Of the said third class of proof, per gallon, thirteen cents;

      Of the said fourth class of proof, per gallon, fifteen cents;

      Of the said fifth class of proof, per gallon, twenty cents;

      Of the said sixth class of proof, per gallon, thirty cents.

      If from materials of the growth or production of the United States distilled within any city, town, or village, and

      Of the said first class of proof, per gallon, nine cents;

      Of the said second class of proof, per gallon, ten cents;

      Of the said third class of proof, per gallon, eleven cents;

      Of the said fourth class of proof, per gallon, thirteen cents;

      Of the said fifth class of proof, per gallon, seventeen cents;

      Of the said sixth class of proof, per gallon, twenty-five cents.

      And upon each still employed in distilling spirits from the like materials, in any other place than a city, town, or village, in lieu of the rates above mentioned, the yearly sum of sixty cents for every gallon, English wine measure, of the capacity of such still, including its head: exempting, nevertheless, all such stills, within a certain defined dimension, as are used essentially for the domestic purposes of their respective proprietors.

      The product of these several duties (which correspond in their rates with those proposed in the report above referred to, of the ninth of January last) may, upon as good grounds as the nature of the case will admit, prior to an experiment, be computed at eight hundred and seventy-seven thousand and five hundred dollars, the particulars of which computation are contained in the statement which accompanies this report.

      This computed product exceeds the sum which has been stated as necessary to be provided, by fifty thousand eight hundred and seventy-five dollars and twenty-seven cents; an excess which, if it should be realized by the actual product, may be beneficially applied toward increasing the sinking fund.

      The Secretary has been encouraged to renew the proposition of these duties, in the same form in which they were before submitted, from a belief, founded on circumstances which appeared in the different discussions of the subject, that collateral considerations, which were afterwards obviated, rather than objections to the measure itself, prevented its adoption, during the last session; from the impracticability, which he conceives to exist, of devising any substitute equally conducive to the ease and interest of the community; and from an opinion that the extension of the plan of collection which it contemplates, to the duties already imposed on wines and distilled СКАЧАТЬ