In the payment of duties, which constitute by far the greater portion of
the revenue, a very large proportion is derived from foreign commission
houses and agents of foreign manufacturers, who sell the goods consigned
to them generally at auction, and after paying the duties out of the
avails remit the rest abroad in specie or its equivalent. That the
amount of duties should in such cases be also retained in specie can
hardly be made a matter of complaint. Our own importing merchants,
by whom the residue of the duties is paid, are not only peculiarly
interested in maintaining a sound currency, which the measure in
question will especially promote, but are from the nature of their
dealings best able to know when specie will be needed and to procure
it with the least difficulty or sacrifice. Residing, too, almost
universally in places where the revenue is received and where the drafts
used by the Government for its disbursements must concentrate, they have
every opportunity to obtain and use them in place of specie should it be
for their interest or convenience.
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