This being Sunday I shall hear no news, for I will not be in
any of the departments.
There is a vague understanding that notwithstanding the
repulse of the enemy at Charleston, still the Federal Government collects the
duties on merchandise brought into that port, and, indeed, into all other
ports. These importations, although purporting to be conducted by British
adventurers, it is said are really contrived by Northern merchants, who send
hither (with the sanction of the Federal Government, by paying the duty in
advance) British and French goods, and in return ship our cotton to Liverpool,
etc., whence it is sometimes reshipped to New York. The duties paid the United
States are of course paid by the consumers in the Confederate States, in the
form of an additional per centum on the prices of merchandise. Some suppose
this arrangement has the sanction of certain members of our government. The
plausibility of this scheme (if it really exists) is the fact that steamers
having munitions of war rarely get through the blockading fleet without trouble,
while those having only merchandise arrive in safety almost daily. Gen. D.
Green intimates that Mr. Memminger, and Frazer & Co., Charleston, are
personally interested in the profits of heavy importations.
SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's
Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 1, p. 299
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