National Duties: Custom Houses and the Making of the American State - Couverture souple

Livre 3 sur 23: American Beginnings, 1500-1900

Rao, Gautham

 
9780226840093: National Duties: Custom Houses and the Making of the American State
Couverture souple
ISBN 10 : 0226840093 ISBN 13 : 9780226840093
Editeur : University of Chicago Press, 2025

Synopsis

A historical account of the relationship between the federal government and merchant capital in the formative years of the American Republic.

In the wake of the American Revolution, if you had asked a citizen whether his fledgling state would survive more than two centuries, the answer would have been far from confident. The problem, as is so often the case, was money. Left millions of dollars of debt by the war, the nascent federal government created a system of taxes on imported goods and installed custom houses at the nation’s ports, which were charged with collecting these fees. Gradually, the houses amassed enough revenue from import merchants to stabilize the new government. But, as the fragile United States was dependent on this same revenue, the merchants at the same time gained outsized influence over the daily affairs of customs houses. As the United States tried to police this commerce in the early nineteenth century, the merchants’ stranglehold on custom house governance proved to be formidable.

In National Duties, Gautham Rao makes the case that the origins of the federal government and the modern American state lie in these conflicts at government custom houses between the American Revolution and the presidency of Andrew Jackson. He argues that the contours of the government emerged from the push-and-pull between these groups, with commercial interests gradually losing power to the administrative state, which only continued to grow and lives on today.

Les informations fournies dans la section « Synopsis » peuvent faire référence à une autre édition de ce titre.

À propos de l'auteur

Gautham Rao is assistant professor of history at American University.

Les informations fournies dans la section « A propos du livre » peuvent faire référence à une autre édition de ce titre.

Éditeur
University of Chicago Press
Date d'édition
2025
Langue
anglais
ISBN 10 
0226840093
ISBN 13 
9780226840093
Reliure
Broché
Nombre de pages
287
Coordonnées du fabricant
non disponible
Personne responsable
non disponible

Autres éditions populaires du même titre

9780226367071: National Duties: Custom Houses and the Making of the American State

Edition présentée

ISBN 10 :  022636707X ISBN 13 :  9780226367071
Editeur : University of Chicago Press, 2016
Couverture rigide