Page:Report on Manufactures (Hamilton).djvu/37

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REPORT ON MANUFACTURES.
37

objects, which in the present state of things appear the most fit to be encouraged and of the particular measure which it may be advisable to adopt in respect to each.

In order to a better judgment of the means proper to be resorted to by the United States, it will be of use to advert to those which have been employed with success in other countries. The principal of these are:

1. Protecting Duties or Duties on Those Foreign Articles Which Are the Rivals of the Domestic Ones Intended To Be Encouraged.

Duties of this nature evidently amount to a virtual bounty on the domestic fabrics, since by enhancing the charges on foreign articles they enable the national manufacturers to undersell all their foreign competitors. The propriety of this species of encouragement need not be dwelt upon, as it is not only a clear result from the numerous topics which have been suggested but is sanctioned by the laws of the United States in a variety of instances. It has the additional recommendation of being a resource of revenue. Indeed, all the duties imposed on imported articles, though with an exclusive view to revenue, have the effect in contemplation and except where they fall on raw materials wear a beneficent aspect toward the manufacturers of the country.

2. Prohibitions of Rival Articles or Duties Equivalent to Prohibitions.

This is another and an efficacious means of encouraging national manufactures; but in general it is only fit to be employed when a manufacture has made such progress and is in so many hands as to insure a due competition and an adequate supply on reasonable terms. Of duties equivalent to prohibitions there are examples in the laws of the United States; and there are other cases to which the principle may be advantageously extended, but they are not numerous.

Considering a monopoly of the domestic market to its own manufacturers as the reigning policy of manufacturing nations, a similar policy on the part of the United States in every proper instance is dictated, it might almost be said, by the principles of distributive justice, certainly by the duty of endeavoring to secure to their own citizens a reciprocity of advantages.

3. Prohibitions of the Exportation of the Materials of Manufacturers.

The desire of securing a cheap and plentiful supply for the national workmen, and where the article is either peculiar to the country, or of peculiar quality there, the jealousy of enabling foreign workmen to rival those of the nation with its own materials, are the leading motives to this species of regulation. It ought not to be affirmed that it is in no instance proper, but is certainly one which ought to be adopted with great circumspection, and only in very plain cases. It is seen at once that its immediate operation is to abridge the demand