Sec.3.  One object was, to secure a market at home for the products of agricultural labor.  How this is done by taxing foreign products, will appear from the following example:  Suppose the market value of a bushel of wheat in Great Britain to be one dollar a bushel, and the cost of raising the article here and carrying it to that market to be the same.  If now a duty of 40 cents a bushel is laid upon wheat from abroad, the English consumer, instead of buying it with this duty added, will buy of the English producer.  But more wheat is produced here than there is a market for; and the American farmer must find a market abroad.  But in order to sell it in the English market, he must pay 40 cents on every bushel to the British government; or, which is the same thing in effect, he must sell it for 40 cents a bushel less than its value to the British purchaser, who pays the duty to that government.

Sec.4.  Now, as much less American wheat will be sent to Great Britain than if it were free from duty, a better market is secured to the English farmer.  Besides this, of the value of every bushel which Great Britain may please to admit, or which the people of other countries maybe obliged to sell to her, 40 per cent, is paid into her treasury.  Thus by one operation, are two benefits secured, namely, the reward of agricultural labor at home, and the raising of revenue.  So by the duties imposed upon foreign vessels entering her ports, the national revenue was to some extent increased, and great advantages were secured to her citizens engaged in the carrying trade.

Sec.5.  The people of this country being nearly all employed in agriculture, and consequently dependent upon foreign markets for the sale of the surplus products of their labor, they were obliged to submit to the payment of these duties.  And not possessing at that time the means of manufacturing to any considerable extent for themselves, goods in large quantities came in from Great Britain, for which they must pay in produce heavily burdened with duties, or with money obtained for the produce subject to these heavy duties.

Sec.6.  To remove the inequality in the trade between the two countries, it was thought necessary to retaliate upon Great Britain by subjecting her goods and vessels coming into our ports to the payment of duties similar to those imposed on our produce and vessels in her ports.  But the power to lay duties was with the states; and, as we have seen, the states could not agree upon any effectual system; for, in order to make any system effectual, the duties must be uniform throughout the United States.

Sec.7.  It was intended, in regulating trade, to render our own country less dependent upon foreign nations for manufactured goods, by encouraging domestic or home manufactures by duties on goods imported.  Duties laid for this purpose are called protective duties, being designed to protect our manufacturers against loss from the competition of foreigners.  The nature and operation of a protective duty may be thus illustrated: