The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 21, July 1917 - April, 1918 Page: 30
434 p. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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The Southwestern Historical Quarterly
fense of the East, saying that a great many of the merchants of
their section carried their goods to Houston and Galveston, and
received in return goods on which duties had been paid.203 There
was very likely some trade of this character, but not enough to
explain the great discrepancy in returns. The facilities for
smuggling, the mild punishment for smugglers when caught,
made this illegal trade very profitable. And it is not reasonable
to suppose that the merchants of the East would go to the ex-
pense of taking their cargoes to Houston or Galveston and pay-
ing the comparatively high duty on their return cargoes, when
they could make a better profit by smuggling goods across the
Sabine or the border to the North, especially since the objection
to any tariff in that section enabled a man to maintain social
standing while engaged in illicit trade.
The imports were mostly from the United States and the ex-
ports to the United States. At another point in this discussion
I have shown the failure of the 5 per cent discriminatory duty
of January 27, 1842, to decrease the importation from the United
States. An explanation for this may be found in the character
of imports for the fiscal year 1845, when there was very active
trade with foreign countries. The total value of imports for that
year was $1,204,370.32. It was made up, of the following
articles: distilled spirits, $55,832.40; tobacco, $34,476.30; bread-
stuffs, $54,342.33; meats, $9,031.83; sugar, $42,655.42; salt, $8,-
143.68; associated groceries, $115,536.89; and associated mer-
chandise, $878,346.52. The scheduled articles would here be al-
most wholly from the United States regardless of the tariff, and
that it was most profitable to purchase in the United States is
indicated by the fact that of these imports the United States
furnished $1,151,733.21. or 95.6 per cent of the whole.204 A
glance at the table in the appendix will show a similar result for
the years preceding.
The period of greatest importation and the least exportation
was from 1835 to 1840. Gouge points out that this was due to
the fact that paper money encouraged imports and discouraged
203Ninth Congress, House Journal, 288.
204Report of the Secretary of the Treasury, First Legislature, House
Journal, ap. 32.
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 21, July 1917 - April, 1918, periodical, 1918; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101073/m1/36/?rotate=270: accessed April 23, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.