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The Customs Administration in Canadian Historical Development*
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 November 2014
Extract
The purpose of this paper is to attempt to place within the context of Canadian historical development an economic institution that has been relatively neglected. This institution is the customs administration. The justification for introducing it into the main stream of Canadian history is to be found in its ubiquity and pervasiveness, its antiquity and traditionalism, and its consequent conservatism and resistance to change. Such an institution seems capable of providing a strong element of continuity in Canadian development, and thus to invite analysis.
The English customs administration was transplanted from a European island economy to a continental environment which contained elements markedly unfavourable to easy transition and adaptation. The administration has been called upon to meet constantly changing conditions, and, in so doing, has had to deal with a commercial community which must exist, for the greater part, on the basis of short-run decisions. As the administration has struggled toward long-run stability and uniformity of procedure, it has produced anomalies. It has had serious effects on business expectations by creating delay and uncertainty, and, on occasion, by insisting on excessive formality. The incidence of the burden imposed by the customs administration was probably not determinable, but its net effect has been to contract international trade.
The customs is of ancient origin, and by the time it became relevant to Canadian history it had already undergone, in Europe, a great deal of scleriasis. It is the English customs that we are to be concerned with mostly in this analysis, since the Canadian customs, not surprisingly, is of pretty strictly Anglo-Saxon origin. According to Professor Gras, “the English Customs originated at home, on the initiative of the king, through prerogative right, and in money dues rather than prises.”
- Type
- Research Article
- Information
- Canadian Journal of Economics and Political Science/Revue canadienne de economiques et science politique , Volume 22 , Issue 4 , November 1956 , pp. 497 - 508
- Copyright
- Copyright © Canadian Political Science Association 1956
Footnotes
*
This paper was presented at the annual meeting of the Canadian Political Science Association in Montreal, Tune 6, 1956.
References
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