The Issue of Tariffs: How U.S. Revenue Collection Was Turned Inside-Out

05/20/2005 John Sophocleus

We went from tariffs being the major source of federal government revenue to what we have today under the income tax and payroll taxes. The time scope is from 1789 to the Great Depression. In 1790, 99.9% of federal government revenue is generated by tariffs – the first year we operate under the Constitution. In 1860, still 94% of total fed government revenue is generated by tariffs. Only the War Between the States changes this and we get our first federal income tax.

Presented as part of the Mises Institute’s Brown Bag Seminar series on May 19, 2005 in Auburn, Alabama.

The handouts from this lecture are available above.

What is the Mises Institute?

The Mises Institute is a non-profit organization that exists to promote teaching and research in the Austrian School of economics, individual freedom, honest history, and international peace, in the tradition of Ludwig von Mises and Murray N. Rothbard.

Non-political, non-partisan, and non-PC, we advocate a radical shift in the intellectual climate, away from statism and toward a private property order. We believe that our foundational ideas are of permanent value, and oppose all efforts at compromise, sellout, and amalgamation of these ideas with fashionable political, cultural, and social doctrines inimical to their spirit.

Become a Member