- Title
- North Carolina historical review [1955 : April]
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-
- Date
- April 1955
-
-
- Place
- ["North Carolina, United States"]
-
North Carolina historical review [1955 : April]
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The North Carolina
Historical Review
Volume XXXII April, 1955
Number 2
NORTH CAROLINA TARIFF POLICIES, 1775-1789
By William Frank Zornow
The Articles of Confederation were often blamed by his¬
torians because of their inability to provide a general policy
of federal finance or a uniform system of customs duties.
There might be some justification for criticizing the general
financial policies of the central government, but there is
really no justification for condemning the tariff system which
was in operation throughout the thirteen states during the
period 1775 to 1789.
Historians who emphasized the conflicts among state tariff
policies and insisted that such policies presented a veritable
maze of rates were guilty of perpetuating a myth which
probably began when the movement was first launched to
amend the articles. Historians who came afterward belabored
this theme without investigating the facts.
In 1910 Albert Giesecke published a brief study on the
commercial policies of the country prior to 1789 in which
he made this significant statement in regard to state tariff
policies under the confederation: “We must not forget that
such action [discrimination among the states] was really
exceptional, for it was usual during the period to exempt
goods of the growth or produce of any of the United States
from import duties by the legislating state.” 1
Though the myth was questioned by Giesecke no signifi¬
cant studies were made to explode it once and for all. Merrill
Jensen in his latest study of American affairs during this
epoch devoted some pages to this important question in
“Albert Giesecke, American Commercial Legislation before 1789 (Phila¬
delphia, 1910), 135.
[151]
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