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The Tariff Act of 1789, was the first major Act passed in the United States under its present Constitution of 1789 and had two purposes as stated in Section I of the Act which reads as follows; :::''"Whereas it is necessary for that support of government, for the discharge of the debts of the United States, and the encouragement and protection of manufactures, that duties be laid on goods, wares and merchandise:"''〔United States Statutes At Large, Vol. 1, Dennis & Co., Inc. Buffalo, N.Y. 1961, p. 24〕 The Federal legislature, acting under the recently ratified US Constitution, authorized the collection of tariff and tonnage duties to meet the operating costs of the new central government, to provide funds to pay the interest and principal on revolutionary war debts inherited from the Continental Congress.〔Miller, 1960, p. 15〕 It also provided a degree of protection. "The protective acts of the states furnished the experience on which the national legislators based their proceedings."〔William Hill, Protective Purpose of the Tariff Act of 1789, The Journal of Political Economy, Volume 2, December 1, 1893, p. 54 http://archive.org/stream/jstor-1819831/1819831#page/n1/mode/2up〕 The general range of duties was by no means such as would have been thought protective in later days; but the intention to protect was there.〔Frank W. Taussig, The Tariff History of the United States, Fifth Edition, G. P. Putnam's Sons, The Knickerbacker Press, 1910, p. 9, http://mises.org/etexts/taussig.pdf〕 The debates over the purpose of the tariff exposed the sectional interests at stake: Northern manufacturers favored high duties to protect industry; Southern planters desired a low tariff that would foster cheap consumer imports.〔Miller, 1960, p. 15, p. 19〕 The final bill extracted concessions from both interests, but delivered a distinct advantage to maritime and manufacturing regions of the country.〔Miller, 1960, p. 17-18〕〔Malone, 1960, p. 256〕 Representative James Madison of Virginia navigated to passage, but was unable to insert provisions that would have discriminated against British imports〔Miller, 1960, p. 16-17, p. 19〕〔Malone, 1960, p. 256〕 and shift the carrying trade to French and American vessels. The Tariff Bill was passed in the House by a vote of 31-19 on July 1, 1789; the resultant enrolled Bill was signed by the Speaker of the House and the President of the Senate on July 2, 1789; and President Washington signed the Act in law on July 4, 1789. 〔Miller, 1960, p. 15, p. 14-15〕 ==Economic Conditions Prior to Passage== The American Revolution was followed by an economic reorganization which carried in its wake a period of uncertainty and hard times. During the conflict, labor and investment had been diverted from agriculture and legitimate trade to manufacturing and privateer. Men had gone into occupations which ceased with the end of the war. Lowered prices, resulting from the cessation of war demands, in combination with the importation of the cheaper goods of Europe, were fast ruining such infant manufacturing concerns as had sprung up during the war, some of which were at a comparative disadvantage with the resumption of normal foreign trading relations.〔Harold Underwood Faulkner, American Economic History, Harper & Brothers, 1938, p. 181〕 Another factor which made the situation even more distressing was the British Navigation Acts. The only clause in the treaty of peace (1783) concerning commerce was a stipulation guaranteeing that the navigation of the Mississippi should be forever free to the United States. John Jay at this time had tried to secure some reciprocal trade provisions with Great Britain, but without result. Pitt in 1783 introduced a bill into the British Parliament providing for free trade between the United States and the British colonies, but instead of passing this bill Parliament enacted the British Navigation Act of 1783 which admitted only British-built ships and manned ships to the ports of the West Indies and imposed heavy tonnage dues upon American ships in other British ports. This was amplified in 1786 by another act designed to prevent the fraudulent registration of American vessels, and by still another in 1787 which prohibited the importation of American goods by way of foreign islands. The favorable features of the old Navigation Acts which had granted bounties and reserved the English markets in certain cases to colonial products were gone; the unfavorable alone were left. The British market was further curtailed by the depression there after 1783. Although the French treaty of 1778 had promised “perfect equality and reciprocity” in commercial relations, it was found impossible to make a commercial treaty upon this basis. Spain demanded as her price for reciprocal trading relations that the United States surrender for twenty-five years the right of navigating the Mississippi, a price which the New England merchants would have been glad to pay. France (1778) and Holland (1782) made treaties, but not on even terms; Portugal refused our advances. Only Sweden (1783) and Prussia (1785) made treaties guaranteeing reciprocal commercial privileges.〔Harold Underwood Faulkner, American Economic History, Harper & Brothers, 1938, p. 182〕 The weakness of Congress under the Articles of Confederation prevented retaliation by the central government. Power was repeatedly asked to regulate commerce, but was refused by the states, upon whom rested the carrying out of such commercial treaties as Congress might negotiate. Eventually the states themselves attempted retaliatory measures, and during the years 1783-88, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia levied tonnage dues upon British vessels or discriminating tariffs upon British goods. Whatever effect these efforts might have had were neutralized by the fact that the duties were not uniform, varying in different states from no tariffs whatever to duties of 100 percent. This simply drove British ships to the free or cheapest ports and their goods continued to flood the market. Commercial war between the states followed and turned futility into chaos.〔Harold Underwood Faulkner, American Economic History, Harper & Brothers, 1938, p. 182〕 Adoption of the Constitution meant the elimination of many of the economic ills under which industry and commerce had struggled since the war. A reorganization was absolutely essential and the immediate economic results were salutary. Its most important additions to the power of Congress were those relating to finance and commerce – it enabled the federal government to levy taxes, regulate trade, coin money, protect industry, and direct the settlement of the West, and, as later events proved, to establish credit and redeem its securities. Under it, freedom of trade was insured throughout the young republic.〔Harold Underwood Faulkner, American Economic History, Harper & Brothers, 1938, p. 190〕 In the months leading up to the passage of the tariff Act, the U.S. Congress received several petitions from different cities representing manufacturing groups asking for relief from the flood of European imported goods. The United States Congress answered the petitions of these groups for urgent attention, by making the Tariff of 1789 Bill the first major Bill to be considered in its first session and passed it. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Tariff of 1789」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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