our officers while the merchandise is in the possession of the Govern ment, and according to a standard which is altogether national and domestic. That would be partially true of an ad valorem system levied upon "home value," but there are constitutional impediments in the way of such a system which appear to be insuperable. But under an ad valorem system, the facts to which the ad valorem rate is to be applied must be gathered in places many thousand miles away, and under circumstances most unfavorable to the administration of justice.

One hears it often said that if our ad valorem rates did not exceed twenty-five or thirty per cent. undervaluation and temptation to undervaluation would disappear, but the records of this Department for the years 1817, 1840, and 1857, do not uphold that conclusion. Of course I am very far from advocating the universal application of specific rates, but I do believe it to be possible for the more experienced and conscientious. of our appraising or examining officers in different parts of the country, and for the experts in this Department, to prepare a plan for the prudent enlargement of specific rates which will greatly promote the welfare of the Government, and of the country, and, as a matter of administration, not work injustice to any class in the community beyond the injustice inevitably entailed by any system that levies annually one hundred and fifty millions of dollars tax on imported merchandise of so many kinds, at war rates, and on a scheme otherwise so unscientific and disorderly. A complete system of rates of duty has not, in the last quarter of a century, as I am informed, been prepared by the official experts in our custom-houses, under the general advice and direction of this Department, and commended by the Secretary to Congress. I have caused a careful examination to be made of the tariff law of March, 1883, to ascertain the number of specifications, ad valorem, specific, and mixed, contained in that enactment, and I present below the result:

CONSIGNED MERCHANDISE.

The sending to New York of merchandise by foreign manufacturers and presenting it there for sale, or the taking in this country of orders, on samples, of merchandise to be delivered in New York at duty-paid prices arranged in our currency, is a growing fact which this Government must face in selecting and prescribing rates of duty. Just as manufacturers in other States of our own Union send their merchandise on consignment to their own agents to sell in New York, so do, and so will, European manufacturers. The ledgers of commerce and trade will, more and more, be written and kept, in that city, and laws of taxation, state or national, immediately probable, are not likely to greatly impede or change the current. As buyers in New York do not go to New England to buy her staple manufactures, but find all the elements of buying in New York, so it will naturally be with European productions. If that is to be the case, I do not think our existing ad valorem rates can in the future be honestly, or satisfactorily, worked, under the existing conditions of our invoice law, our appraising law, and the force of consular and appraising officers that we now have. I fear that to begin reform with the enactment of new "Coercive Laws" will be to begin at the wrong end.

Respectfully yours,

DANIEL MANNING,

Secretary.

To the Honorable

THE SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.

APPENDIX.

APPENDIX A.

CIRCULAR.

Application of Section 9, Act of March 3, 1883, to the Ascertainment of Foreign Market Values of Merchandise Imported into the United States.

1883.

Department No. 93.

Secretary's Office.

TREASURY DEPARTMENT, Washington, D. C., July 7, 1883.

TO COLLECTORS OF CUSTOMS AND OTHERS:

The Department has been informed through consular officers that manufacturers of merchandise abroad which is intended for importation into the United States, to be consigned to their agents in this country, may probably claim the right to enter such merchandise at cost price instead of its market value under Section 9 of the Tariff Act of March 3, 1883. That section is as follows:

"If upon the appraisal of imported goods, wares, and merchandise, it shall appear that the true and actual market value and wholesale price thereof, as provided by law, cannot be ascertained to the satisfaction of the appraiser, whether because such goods, wares, and merchandise be consigned for sale by the manufacturer abroad to his agent in the United States, or for any other reason, it shall then be lawful to appraise the same by ascertaining the cost or value of the materials. composing such merchandise, at the time and place of manufacture, together with the expense of manufacturing, preparing, and putting up such merchandise for shipment, and in no case shall the value of such goods, wares, and merchandise be appraised at less than the total cost or value thus ascertained."

Section 2854, Revised Statutes, requires that all invoices of imported. merchandise

"shall, at or before the shipment of the merchandise, be produced to the consul, vice-consul, or commercial agent of the United States nearest the place of shipment, for the use of the United States, and shall have indorsed thereon, when so produced, a declaration signed by the purchaser, manufacturer, owner, or agent, setting forth that the invoice is in all respects true; that it contains, if the merchandise mentioned therein is subject to ad valorem duty, and was obtained by purchase, a true and full statement of the time when and the place where the same was purchased, and the actual cost thereof, and of all charges thereon; and that no discounts, bounties, or drawbacks are contained in the invoice but such as have actually been allowed thereon; and when obtained in any other manner than by purchase, the actual market value thereof at the time and place when and where the same was. procured or manufactured."

Section 2845, Revised Statutes, provides that—

"no merchandise subject to ad valorem duty belonging to a person not residing at the time in the United States, who has not acquired the same in the ordinary mode of bargain and sale, or belonging to the manufacturer, in whole or in part, of the same, shall be admitted to entry, unless the invoice thereof is verified by the oath of the owner, or of one of the owners, administered and authenticated in the mode prescribed in the two preceding sections, and certifying that the invoice contains a true and faithful account of the merchandise, at its fair market value, at the time and place when and where the same was procured or manufactured."

Section 2902, Revised Statutes, is as follows:

"It shall be the duty of the appraisers of the United States, and every of them, and every person who shall act as such appraiser, or of the collector and naval officer, as the case may be, by all reasonable ways and means in his or their power, to ascertain, estimate, and appraise the true and actual market value and wholesale price, any invoice or affidavit thereto to the contrary notwithstanding, of the merchandise, at the time of exportation, and in the principal markets of the country whence the same has been imported into the United States, and the number of such yards, parcels, or quantities, and such actual market value or wholesale price of every of them, as the case may require." Neither of these provisions is repealed, but they all remain in full force.

The Department regards Section 9 of the Act of March 3, 1883, as in nowise changing or modifying the requirements of the Revised Statutes as to the duty of manufacturers, owners, or agents in making their declarations to invoices, under Section 2854, Revised Statutes, or as to the verification by the oath of the owner, under Section 2845. Both sections require a statement that the invoice contains a true and faithful account of the merchandise, at its fair market value, at the time and place when and where the same was procured or manufactured. The oath for the cases under consideration prescribed in the Tariff Act of 1883, is as follows:

"I, do solemnly and truly swear (or affirm) that the entry now delivered by me to the collector of contains a just and true account of goods, wares, and merchandise imported by or consigned to me in the is master, from

whereof

-; that the said goods, wares, and merchandise were not actually bought by me, or by my agent, in the ordinary mode of bargain and sale, but that, nevertheless, the invoice which I now produce contains a just and faithful valuation of the same, at their fair market value, at the time or times and place or places when and where procured for my account (or for account of myself or partners); that the said invoice contains also a just and faithful account of all the cost for finishing said goods, wares, and merchandise to their present condition, and no other discount, drawback or bounty but such as has been actually allowed on the said goods, wares, and merchandise; that the said invoice and the declaration thereon are in all respects true, and were made by the person by whom the same purports to have been made; that I do not know nor believe in the existence of any invoice or bill of lading other than those now produced by me, and that they are in the state in which I actually received them. And I do further solemnly and truly swear