[Report on the Return of Exports], 15 March 1792
Report on the Return of Exports for
the Year Ending September 30, 1791
Treasury Department
March 15. 1792.
[Communicated on March 16, 1792]1
Sir
In further pursuance of the order of the Senate of the 8th. instant,2 I have the honor to transmit a return of the exports from the United States for one year ending the 30th. September 1791, exhibiting the islands and countries to which those exports have been shipt.3
This document is completed so far as the returns have been received at the Treasury, but an addition is yet to be made of the exports from Charleston in South Carolina, and from some ports of inferior consequence for the two last quarters of the returned year, the papers relative to which have not been received. There is also transmitted a return of outward tonnage for one year ending March 31st. 1791.4
In regard to the remainder of the statements required by the Senate; it is very uncertain whether the delay of the returns from certain of the Custom houses, and the length of time they will require, will not prevent the completion of them before the end of the session.
I have the honor to be, Sir Your most obedient & most humble servant
Alexander Hamilton
Secy of the Treasy
The Vice President of the United States
and President of the Senate.
LS, RG 46, Second Congress, 1791–1793, Reports of the Secretary of the Treasury, National Archives.
1. , III, 108.
2. The Senate “Ordered, That the Secretary of the Treasury be directed to furnish the Senate with returns of the imports of each of the United States for twelve months, specifying the different articles, with reference to the places from whence the imports are made, the kind of vessel or vessels in which they are brought, and to what power said vessel or vessels may belong, at the time of such import or imports. Also, with returns of the exports, in the same form as those of the imports” (Executive Journal, I, 110).
3. The enclosure, signed by Tench Coxe, Assistant to the Secretary of the Treasury, is entitled “A General Statement of Goods, Wares, and Merchandise, exported from the United States, from the 1st day of October, 1790, to the 30th September, 1791” and is printed in , Commerce and Navigation, I, 104–38.
4. A footnote to this sentence in MS reads: “This statement is not now to be found.” There is a crossed-out footnote to the same sentence which indicates that the statement had been returned to the Treasury Department for use in another compilation.