National Duties: Custom Houses and the Making of the American State (American Beginnings, 1500–1900)

In the wake of the American Revolution, if you had asked a citizen whether his fledgling state would survive more than two centuries, the answer would have been far from confident. The problem, as is so often the case, was money. Left millions of dollars of debt by the war, the nascent federal government created a system of taxes on imported goods and installed custom houses at the nation’s ports, which were charged with collecting these fees. Gradually, the houses amassed enough revenue from import merchants to stabilize the new government. But, as the fragile United States was dependent on this same revenue, the merchants at the same time gained outsized influence over the daily affairs of the custom houses. As the United States tried to police this commerce in the early nineteenth century, the merchants’ stranglehold on custom house governance proved to be formidable. In __National Duties__, Gautham Rao makes the case that the origins of the federal government and the modern American state lie in these conflicts at government custom houses between the American Revolution and the presidency of Andrew Jackson. He argues that the contours of the government emerged from the push-and-pull between these groups, with commercial interests gradually losing power to the administrative state, which only continued to grow and lives on today. "In the wake of the American Revolution, if you had asked a citizen whether his fledgling state would survive more than two centuries, the answer would have been far from confident. The problem, as is so often the case, was money. Left millions of dollars of debt by the war, the nascent federal government created a system of taxes on imported goods and installed custom houses at the nation's ports, which were charged with collecting these fees. Gradually, the houses amassed enough revenue from import merchants to stabilize the new government. But, as the fragile United States was dependent on this same revenue, the merchants at the same time gained outsized influence over the daily affairs of the custom houses. As the United States tried to police this commerce in the early nineteenth century, the merchants' stranglehold on custom house governance proved to be formidable. In National Duties, Gautham Rao makes the case that the origins of the federal government and the modern American state lie in these conflicts at government custom houses between the American Revolution and the presidency of Andrew Jackson. He argues that the contours of the government emerged from the push-and-pull between these groups, with commercial interests gradually losing power to the administrative state, which only continued to grow and lives on today."--Provided by publisher This study of 19th century commerce and federal oversight "reveals the importance of customs houses in the creation of the federal government" ( Choice ). In the wake of the American Revolution, the young nation found itself victorious, liberated, and in millions of dollars of debt. To address this founding financial crisis, the nascent federal government devised a system of taxes on imported goods and installed custom houses at the nation's ports to collect the fees. But, as the United States became dependent on this revenue, the import merchants gained outsized influence over the daily affairs of the custom houses. As the United States tried to police this commerce in the early nineteenth century, the merchants' stranglehold on custom house governance proved to be formidable. In National Duties , Gautham Rao makes the case that the early development of the federal government and the modern American state lie in these conflicts at government custom houses—specifically in the period between the American Revolution and the presidency of Andrew Jackson. Rao argues that the contours of the government emerged from the push-and-pull between these groups, with commercial interests gradually losing power to the administrative state, which only continued to grow and lives on today. Contents Acknowledgments A Note on Archival Sources Introduction Part I. Revolution: Philadelphia, 1769 1. Custom Houses, Negotiated Authority, and the Bonds of Empire, 1714–1776 Part II. Revenue and Empire: Bermuda Hundred, 1795 2. Political Economy and the Making of the Customs System 3. Negotiating Authority in Federalist America, 1789–1800 Part III. Revenue and Crisis: Baltimore, 1808 4. Commerce or War? 5. Jefferson’s Embargo and the Era of Commercial Restrictions, 1807–1815 Part IV. Reform: Boston, 1817 6. Dismantling Discretion, 1816–1828 Epilogue: Charleston, 1832 Abbreviations Notes Index