Excise, [9 May] 1794
Excise
[9 May 1794]
On 7 May the Committee of the Whole reported eight resolutions on ways and means of raising revenue. JM voted with the minority when the House upheld provisions for a carriage tax, a stamp duty, and an excise on tobacco (, 3d Cong., 1st sess., 653–56, 666–67). On 9 May the House considered the first resolution, which increased the impost. Clark moved that an additional duty of to percent be placed on British goods; FitzSimons claimed “that there was a progressive diminution of trade with Britain compared to increase of American commerce with other nations.”
Mr. Madison thereupon read a paper containing a state of trade with Britain.
In 1791, the exports from that country to America were to the value of
| Dollars. | |
| 19,502,070 | |
| Imports from America to Britain in the same time. | 5,511,843 |
| 13,990,226 | |
| 1792, Exports | 19,711,369 |
| 4,798,848 | |
| 14,913,5271 |
Philadelphia Gazette, 10 May 1794.
1. Clark withdrew his motion. JM was in the majority when the House defeated an increase in duties on domestic tonnage but in the minority when additional foreign tonnage duties were also defeated. He again voted with the minority on to May when the House defeated increased tonnage duties on British ships and upheld a tax on deeds. The House then passed the eight resolutions and ordered the select committee on ways and means to report bills pursuant to the resolutions (, 3d Cong., 1st sess., 670–73; see also JM’s speech of 19 May 1794 and nn., and JM to Jefferson, 1 June 1794, and nn. 1 and 2).