Bonded warehouse (Part 3) History

 

Mason Transfer and Grain Co., bonded warehouse on the South Texas Border. Taken by Robert Runyon  sometime between 1900-1920.

Previous to the establishment of bonded warehouses in  England the payment of duties on imported goods had to be made at the time of importation, or a bond with security for future payment given to the revenue authorities. The inconveniences of this system were many:

• it was not always possible for the importer to find sureties, and he had often to make an immediate sale of the goods, in order to raise the duty, frequently selling when the market was depressed and prices low;
• the duty, having to be paid in a lump sum, raised the price of the goods by the amount of the interest on the capital required to pay the duty;
• competition was stifled from the fact that large capital was required for the importation of the more heavily taxed articles;

To obviate these difficulties and to put a check upon frauds on the revenue, Sir  Robert Walpole proposed in his "excise scheme" of 1733, the system of warehousing for tobacco and wine. The proposal was unpopular, and it was not till 1803 that the system was actually adopted. By an act of that year imported goods were to be placed in warehouses approved by the customs authorities, and importers were to give bonds for payment of duties when the goods were removed.