Episode 098: Gautham Rao, Birth of the American Tax Man

by Liz CovartSeptember 6, 2016

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Could customs collectors, the tax men of early America, be the unsung founders of the early United States?

Today, we explore the creation of the United States Customs Service and its contributions to the establishment of the federal government with Gautham Rao, an Assistant Professor of History at American University and author of National Duties: Custom Houses and the Making of the American State.

About the Show

Ben Franklin’s World is a podcast about early American history.

It is a show for people who love history and for those who want to know more about the historical people and events that have impacted and shaped our present-day world.

Each episode features a conversation with a historian who helps us shed light on important people and events in early American history.

Episode Summary

In this episode, Gautham Rao, an Assistant Professor of History at American University and author of National Duties: Custom Houses and the Making of the American State, takes us through the establishment of the United States Customs Service.

During our investigation, Gautham reveals details about the origins of custom duties and custom houses; The role British custom officers played in North America prior to and during the American Revolution; And, the establishment of the United States Customs Service and the role it played in instituting the federal government.

What You’ll Discover

Custom duties and custom houses
Custom houses in British North America
The fiscal military revolution
Duties of British custom officers prior to the American Revolution
The role British custom officers played in the American Revolution
The Boston Massacre & the custom house
Why the United States established a customs system modeled on the British imperial system
How custom collectors gave permanency to the new government
How United States custom collectors’ worked
Relationship between U.S. Custom Houses & importing merchants
How Democratic-Republican leadership affected U.S. custom collection policies
Thomas Jefferson’s embargoes
How Thomas Jefferson enforced (or tried) the embargoes with custom houses
Custom houses along the Canadian border
Smuggling
How the government reformed the Customs Service after the War of 1812
How the customs policies from the early republic influence the United States’ present-day fiscal system

Links to People, Places, and Publications

Gautham Rao
Gautham’s website
Gautham’s American University webpage
National Duties: Custom Houses and the Making of the American State
Thomas Truxes, Defying Empire: Trading with the Enemy in Colonial New York
Joshua Mitchell Smith, Borderland Smuggling: Patriots, Loyalists, and Illicit Trade in the Northeast, 1783-1820

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Time Warp Question

In your opinion, what might have happened if the customs officials, appointed by President Washington, had not viewed it as their duty to use their office to provide permanency and legitimacy to the new federal government after 1787? What would have happened to the United States government if customs collectors had not been able to forge a cooperative relationship with importing merchants?