8270. TARIFF, Reciprocal.—
There
might have been mentioned a third [475]
species
of arrangement, that of making special agreements
on every special subject of commerce,
and of settling a tariff of duty to be paid
on each side, on every particular article; but
this would require in our Commissioners [to
Spain] a very minute knowledge of our commerce;
as it is impossible to foresee every
proposition, of this kind, which might be
brought into discussion, and to prepare them
for it by information and instruction from
hence. Our commerce, too, is, as yet, rather
in a course of experiment, and the channels in
which it will ultimately flow are not sufficiently
known to enable us to provide for it
by special agreement. Nor have the exigencies
of our new government, as yet, so far
developed themselves, as that we can know
to what degree we may, or must have recourse
to commerce, for the purpose of revenue. No
common consideration, therefore, ought to induce
us, as yet, to arrangements of this kind.
Perhaps nothing should do it, with any nation,
short of the privileges of natives, in all their
possessions, foreign and domestic.—
Mississippi River Instructions. Washington ed. vii, 589.
Ford ed., v, 479.
(March. 1792)
