CONTENTS First Period, August 1, 1789, to September 30, 1820 Second Period, October 1, 1820, to June 30, 1866 Third Period, July 1, 1866, to June 30, 1903 Distribution of information regarding American industries 60 Studies of technique of foreign trade 76 THE BUREAU OF FOREIGN AND DOMESTIC COMMERCE ITS HISTORY, ACTIVITIES, CHAPTER I HISTORY The Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce is a service of the Department of Commerce engaged chiefly in promoting the export trade of the United States. While the organic act creating the Bureau of Manufactures, one of the predecessors of the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce, stated that the duty of the bureau should be to develop "the various manufacturing industries of the United States and markets for their products at home and abroad," the work of the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce since 1912 has been confined almost entirely to the promotion of foreign trade. With the exception of the studies of the cost of production from 1913 to 1917 and some minor activities during later years, the bureau has not paid any particular attention to domestic trade problems. For the fiscal year 1924, however, definite provision has been made for studies of domestic trade problems. The history of governmental activity in the compilation of commercial statistics and other trade information may be divided into the five following periods: (1) The period of unorganized statistical activity from 1789 to the passage of the act of September 30, 1820, specifying the kind of statistics to be collected; (2) from 1820 to 1866, during which statistics were published by the Register of the Treasury; (3) from the creation of the Bureau of Statistics in the Treasury Department in 1866 to the creation of the Department of Commerce and Labor in 1903; (4) from 1903 to 1912, when statistical and trade information was distributed by two bureaus of the Department of Commerce and Labor-the Bureau of Statistics and the Bureau of Manufactures; and (5). since 1912, when the Bureaus of Statistics and Manufactures were consolidated to form the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Com merce. First Period: August 1, 1789, to September 30, 1820. This period begins with the date when the first tariff act (July 4, 1789; 1 Stat. L., 24) came into effect, and ends with the last fiscal year preceding the reorganization of the statistical work, brought about by the act of February 10, 1820 (3 Stat. L., 541). During this period there was no general system established by law for keeping statistical accounts of foreign commerce. No office of the government was required regularly to compile, to communicate to Congress, or to publish anything upon this subject. The act of July 31, 1789 (1 Stat. L., 29), regulating the collection of the duties imposed on merchandise imported into the United States and on the tonnage of vessels, established districts and ports, provided custom officers, and prescribed their duties. It required collectors of customs "to make due entry and record in books to be kept for that purpose, all such manifests and the packages, marks, and numbers contained therein; to receive the entry of all ships and vessels, and of all goods, wares, and merchandise imported in such ships or vessels, together with the original invoices thereof." The act of September 2, 1789, creating the Treasury Department (1 Stat. L., 67), made it the duty of the Secretary of the Treasury to prepare and report estimates of public revenue and public expenditures, and to make report and give information to Congress or either branch thereof in person or in writing, as required, respecting all matters referred to him by the Senate or House which appertain to his office. It provided, among other offices, for that of a Register of the Treasury" to keep all accounts of the receipts and expenditures of the public money," etc. Notwithstanding these meagre instructions bearing upon the recording of data concerning foreign commerce, the Secretary of the Treasury, through the collectors of customs and the Register's office, compiled statistics of exports and imports and of tonnage of vessels from the very beginning. Annual statements of foreign commerce were made by the officers of the Treasury Department, either without any requisition whatever or in compliance with resolutions of one or the other branch of Congress, each house having, from time to time, separately adopted resolutions as it thought fit, calling upon the Secretary for statements of imports, exports, and tonnage. The earliest order from either house was that of the House of Representatives of December 30, 1790, calling upon the Secretary of the Treasury to report "the amount of the exports from the several districts within the United States respectively; also the amount of duties arising on imports and tonnage from the first of August, 1789, to the thirtieth of September, 1790, and as soon as may be from thence to the end of the year." Most of the subsequent resolutions called for a single statement either for a year or series of years, while others, namely, Senate resolutions of February 10 and March 16, 1796, and House resolutions of March 3, 1797, and May 29, 1798, required annual statements of the imports, exports, and tonnage of vessels employed in the trade of the United States. The various statements of exports, of imports, and of tonnage arriving from foreign countries, which were laid before Congress annually, were detached from one another and presented at different times. They were incomplete and unsatisfactory, not through any fault of the Treasury Department, but on account of lack of adequate legislation. In addition to the annual statements of imports, exports, and tonnage, numerous special statements, more or less elaborate, were prepared by the Register from time to time in response to requests from both houses of Congress. The first report relating to the foreign commerce of the United States was submitted to Congress by the Secretary of the Treasury on January 6, 1791, in response to the above-mentioned order of the House of Representatives dated December 30, 1790. It contained only statements of the duties collected from tonnage for the year ended September 30, 1790. During the same year three separate reports were submitted on the exports, the imports, and the vessel tonnage for the same fiscal year. After that, annual reports concerning each of these subjects were submitted, except that no |