The Price of Gold and the Gold Customs

The Journal of Commerce says:

"The NEW-YORK TIMES, with a view probably of putting up the price of gold, has a long editorial on the fluctuations in rates, and closes with an intimation that an effort is to be made 'for such a regulation in the price of gold as will at once be of untold benefit to the government and the general interests of the public.' The editors of that paper are too intelligent not to know that any attempt to enforce such a 'regulation' will lead to an enhanced price; and to threaten such a measure, if the warning is at all regarded, is to contribute to that result."

It is a very pretty way of arguing, to attribute to an adversary a motive and a purpose that are bad and selfish, then falsify his position and principle, and then wind up by attempting to terrify him by saying that if something he never thought of were carried out, his selfish ends would be thereby subserved.

If the Journal writer had read the article in the TIMES from which a segment of a sentence is detached above, he would have seen that the regulation in the price of gold to which allusion was made, was simply such regulation as must flow from the improved commercial, financial, political and peaceful condition of the country, and that it was to be "enforced" by no other power than that which is inherent in the laws of political economy. Such was the general scope and special significance of our whole argument. It is these laws that in the long run will control and regulate all values, whether of gold or greenbacks, beef or bread, land, house rents, or labor, -- though it is true that the prices of all these things may be from time to time be affected by speculative combinations or temporary derangements.

But, notwithstanding all this, we may say, that if any authorized action or policy of the government incidentally deranges values, either as regards its own legal paper and credit, or the precious metals, or anything else, it has a perfect right, if it has the legal authority, to regulate such derangements, in its own interest and that of the country at large.

That the Secretary of the Treasury be authorized to anticipate the payment of interest on the public debt by a period not exceeding one year, from time to time, either with or without a rebate of interest upon the coupons, as to him may seem expedient, and he is hereby authorized to dispose of any gold in the Treasury of the United States not necessary for the payment of interest of the public debt. Provided, That the obligation to create a sinking fund, according to the Act of February 25, 1862, shall not be impaired thereby.

And be it further enacted, That all duties on imported goods shall be paid in coin, or in notes payable on demand heretofore authorized to be issued, and by law receivable in payment of public dues, and the coin so paid shall be set apart as a special fund, and shall be applied as follows:

First: To the payment in coin of the interest on the bonds and notes of the United States.

Second: To the purchase or payment of the per centum of the entire debt of the United States, to be made within each fiscal year, after the 1st day of July, 1862, which is to be set apart as a sinking fund, and the interest of which shall, in like manner, be applied to the purchase or payment of the public debt, as the Secretary of the Treasury shall, from time to time, direct.

The Customs Revenue for the three fiscal years since the above provision of 1862 was made for the Public Debt, amount to two hundred and fifty-seven millions, exclusive of twenty-three millions by way of premium on the surplus gold disbursed last year under the resolution of March, 1864. Of this total of two hundred and eighty millions, the sum of one hundred and thirty millions was paid for gold interest on the gold-bearing public debt; forty-five millions for currency interest on the temporary public debt, and sixty-five millions to the payment in gold of the principal of the public debt -- including Treasury notes made receivable for customs, and so recognized in the act of 1862 -- falling due within the three years. These payments left a surplus of customs for the three years, on 30th June ultimo, of forty millions, of which about thirty-five millions were in gold, actually in the Treasury, and the remainder in currency.

The gold interest for the new fiscal year will require less than sixty-five millions, as the gold-bearing debt now stands, or say four millions per month at New-York, and something less than one and a half millions per month at Washington and the other Treasury offices, while the present prospect is that the customs at New-York and the outports together will average ten if not eleven millions per month, and produce for the new fiscal year a total sum in gold, equal to the whole interest on the public debt, as it stood on the June return, or say one hundred and twenty-five millions per annum, divided nearly equally between gold and currency. And all this exclusive of the surplus customs, (nearly all in gold,) with which the year began on the 1st inst.

The regulation of the question is left almost entirely to the discretion of the Secretary of the Treasury. He can pay his gold interest twelve months in advance. He can convert his gold surplus into currency to the extent required to pay his currency interest twelve months in advance. He can purchase with gold or its proceeds a portion of the public debt not yet matured. He can hold such purchases for accumulation in a sinking fund, or he can hold them in reserve under the general authority to buy and sell in the act of July 11, 1862, for the general purposes of the Treasury, or to meet the possible contingency of falling short in his future customs.

We confess that we have always regarded the institution of a sinking fund out of the first clearly ascertained surplus from customs, as an important if not imperative obligation under the act of Feb. 25, 1862, and such seems to have been the view of Congress in the proviso to the above-quoted joint resolution of March, 1864. We know nothing of the purpose of Mr. MCCULLOCH on the subject.

UNIT VI.

Zambia: ZRA to launch e-Customs payment system

The Zambia Revenue Authority (ZRA) will this Wednesday launch an improved revenue collection mechanism called the Customs E-payment system.

According to a statement made available to Qfm this morning by ZRA Corporate Communications Division, the launch of the Customs E-payment system is aimed at improving its systems for information processing and revenue collection for the benefit of all stakeholders.

The Communications division has stated the move will ease to the delays that are experienced in payment of import duties and taxes.

The Customs e-payment mechanism will be officially launched with Access Bank Zambia Limited will have benefits such as elimination of queues for customs payment, a 24/7 payment platform and will also allow importers to pay via internet from anywhere.

ZRA has expressed hope that the new system will extend to domestic taxes encompassing e-filing of returns and e-payment of domestic taxes.

The revenue authority has called on the public to visit their banks or the ZRA for more information on the new system.

Date: 2016-01-14; view: 616