Federal revenues Fiscal Year 1858-9 by port of entry

From Dixiepedia: The PC-Free Encyclopedia

Gross Revenues collected at US Customs Houses, June 58 to June 59.

Port Gross revenue % of total Federal tariff revenues

New Orleans .. $2,120,058 .. 4.6%

Charleston .. $299,339 .. 0.7%

Mobile ...... $118,027 .. 0.3%

Galveston .. $92,417 .. 0.2%

Savannah .. $89,157 .. 0.2%

Norfolk ...... $70,898 .. 0.16%

Richmond .. $47,764 .. 0.10%

Wilmington .. $33,105 .. 0.07%

Pensacola .. $3,578 .. 0.007%

St. Marks .. $-161* .. 0%

Key West .. $-7687* .. -0.017%

New York ... $35,155,453 .. 77.4%

Boston ........ $5,133,414 .. 11.3%

Philadelphia . $2,262,350 .. 4.9%

Total gross revenues $45,417,712

Source: Stephen R. Wise, Lifeline of the Confederacy, pg. 228.

• - Federal government spent more money to keep the Customs House open than the House collected over the fiscal year.

It must be noted that this is simply where the revenues were collected. This means that this is where the dutiable merchandise first entered the country. Once Congress had passed the Warehousing Act of 1846, importers could bring their goods into the United States, place them in a bonded warehouse (not paying tariffs at that time). Then, the importer could find a buyer for the goods, get his payment, pay the tariffs, get the merchandise out of the bonded warehouse and give them to the buyer. Even if the buyer was from Nashville, the tariffs would be paid in New York, where the warehouses were. Since New York was the largest banking center in the US, it made sense to warehouse bonded goods there until buyers were found.