National Duties
Custom Houses and the Making of the American State
Seiten
2025
University of Chicago Press (Verlag)
978-0-226-84009-3 (ISBN)
University of Chicago Press (Verlag)
978-0-226-84009-3 (ISBN)
A historical account of the relationship between the federal government and merchant capital in the formative years of the American Republic.
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 customs 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 customs 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.
Gautham Rao is associate professor of history at American University. He lives in Maryland.
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
| Erscheinungsdatum | 02.05.2025 |
|---|---|
| Reihe/Serie | American Beginnings, 1500-1900 |
| Zusatzinfo | 10 halftones, 3 tables |
| Sprache | englisch |
| Maße | 152 x 229 mm |
| Gewicht | 399 g |
| Themenwelt | Geschichte ► Allgemeine Geschichte ► Neuzeit (bis 1918) |
| Geisteswissenschaften ► Geschichte ► Regional- / Ländergeschichte | |
| ISBN-10 | 0-226-84009-3 / 0226840093 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-0-226-84009-3 / 9780226840093 |
| Zustand | Neuware |
| Informationen gemäß Produktsicherheitsverordnung (GPSR) | |
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Buch | Hardcover (2024)
C.H.Beck (Verlag)
CHF 47,60
