Εικόνες σελίδας
PDF
Ηλεκτρ. έκδοση

6. Richard Sears, 50 years old, effects an insurance for life for $5000, for which he pays an annual premium of $ 4.60 on each $100 insured. If he should die at the age of 80 years, how much less will be the amount of insurance than the payments, allowing the latter to be without interest? Ans. $1900.

7. A gentleman, 56 years old, gets his life insured for $4000, at the office of the Kentucky Mutual Life Insurance Company, by paying an annual premium of $5.20 on each $ 100 insured; and dies at the age of 60 years. Reckoning interest on his payments at simple interest, what is gained by the insurAns. $3043.20.

ance?

8. Alexander Murray, 28 years of age, effects an insurance on his life for $10000, at the office of the Massachusetts Hospital Life Insurance Company. If the company loan the premium at 6 per cent. compound interest, and he should die at the age of 39 years, just after paying the premium, who will gain by the insurance? Ans. The insured gains $ 6626.01.

CUSTOM-HOUSE BUSINESS.

455. DUTIES or customs are sums of money required by government to be paid on imported goods.

Ports of entry are ports into which merchandise may be imported, or from which it may be exported.

At each port of entry is an establishment, called a customhouse, at which certain officers, appointed by government, attend to the collection of the duties.

456.

Duties are either specific or ad valorem.

A specific duty is a certain sum paid on a ton, hundredweight, yard, gallon, &c., without regard to the cost of the article.

An ad valorem duty is a certain percentage paid on the actual cost of the goods in the country from which they are imported.

[ocr errors]

NOTE. As evidence of the cost value of merchandise subject to duties, the importer, owner, or consignee is required to produce an invoice or manifest, if one has been received, made out in the currency of the place or country whence imported, and containing a true statement of the actual cost of such goods in such foreign currency. When the currency of a place has a depreciated value compared with that of the United States, it is necessary that a consular certificate showing the rate of depreciation should be attached to the invoice. When, however, an invoice has not been received, the fact must be testified to under oath, and then the imported articles will be entered at an appraised value.

457. Under the tariff of 1861, duties are specific on some articles; and on others, either ad valorem, or specific and ad valorem.

458. ALLOWANCES are deductions required to be made before estimating the duties, on account of the weight of the cask, box, bag, &c. in which an article is imported, or on account of breakage, leakage, waste, or other damage.

Tare is the allowance made for the weight of the cask, box, &c. containing the commodity.

Draft is the allowance made for waste in the weighing of goods.

Leakage is the allowance made for waste on liquids imported in casks.

Gross weight is the weight of the commodity together with the cask, box, bag, &c. containing it.

Net weight is what remains after all allowances have been made.

459. No allowances for tare, draft, breakage, &c. are applicable to imports subject to ad valorem duties, except actual tare, or weight of a cask or box, and actual drainage, leakage, or damage. The collector may cause these to be ascertained, when he has any doubt as to what they are.

NOTE. When the tariff laws of the United States require the collection of specific duties, the allowance for draft is on 112lb., 1lb.; above 112 lb. and not exceeding 224lb., 2lb.; above 224lb. and not exceeding 336lb., 3lb.; above 3361b. and not exceeding 1120lb., 4lb.; above 1120lb. and not exceeding 2016lb., 7lb.; above 2016lb., 9lb. The allowance for tare is deducted after the draft has been deducted. The allowance for breakage is 10 per cent. on all beer and porter in bottles; and 5 per cent. on all other liquors imported in bottles; and a dozen bottles of common size are estimated to contain 24 gallons. The allowance for leakage is 2 per cent. on liquors imported in casks. In making the allowances for tare or leakage, a fraction, when equal to, or greater than, one half, is reckoned 1; when less, it is omitted.

Specific duties are calculated by deducting all allowances to be made from the given quantity of merchandise, and multiplying the remainder by the duty on a unit of the given quantity.

460. To calculate ad valorem duties.

Ex. 1. What is the duty on 2565lb. of sugar, invoiced at $256.50, at 24 per cent. ad valorem? Ans. $61.56.

OPERATION.

=

$25 6.50 X .24 $61.56, duty.

RULE. Find the percentage on the invoiced value of the goods, at the given rate of tariff, and the result will be the ad valorem duty.

NOTE 1. Other questions in ad valorem duties beside those requiring the finding of the amount of duty are likewise solved by some one of the rules in percentage. NOTE 2. - - In custom-house calculations 2240b. are considered a ton, and 112lb. a hundred-weight.

EXAMPLES.

2. What is the duty at 8 per cent. on an importation of books invoiced at $ 4350?

Ans. $348.00. 3. Required the duty at 19 per cent. on 7890 pounds of cordage, invoiced at 15 cents per pound. Ans. $224.865.

4. What is the duty at 24 per cent. on an invoice of woollen goods, which cost in London 986£., the pound sterling being valued at $4.84? Ans. $1145.3376.

5. $112.50 duty is paid on an importation of window-glass whose invoice value was $750. What was the rate per cent. of duty?

6. Robinson & Brother of New York have imported wines from Havre, invoiced as follows: 60 baskets Champagne at 70 francs per basket; 36 baskets port at 35 francs per basket; 50 casks of sherry, each 31 gallons, at 4 francs per gallon. The allowance for breakage on the wine in baskets is 5 per cent.; and the actual waste of that in casks is 1 gallon to a cask. Required the duties at 30 per cent., allowing the value of a franc to be 18 cents. Ans. $624.2346.

ΤΟ

7. Paid $53.76 duties, at the rate of 8 per cent., on 60 casks of raisins, after the deduction of 12lb. to a cask for tare. Allowing the gross weight of each cask of raisins to have been 112lb., what was their invoice value per pound?

Ans. 11 cents.

8. A portion of the cargo of the ship Cuba from Havana was invoiced as follows: 40 hogsheads of molasses, 63 gallons each, at 3 reals plate per gallon; 24 boxes of brown sugar, 400lb. each, at 1 real vellon per pound; 260 boxes of oranges, at $2 per box; and 410 boxes of cigars, at $7 per box The tare on the sugar was 10 per cent., and the leakage of the molasses 2 per cent. Allowing the value of a real plate to be 10 cents, and a real vellon 5 cents, and the rate of duties on the molasses and the sugar to have been 24 per cent., on the oranges 8 per cent., and on the cigars 30 per cent., what was the whole amount of duties?

9. 270 tons of railroad iron, invoiced at $50 per ton, cost, when the duties were paid, exclusive of other charges, $ 16740. What was the rate per cent. of duty? Ans. 24 per cent.

10. A merchant of Baltimore makes an importation of goods invoiced at $20560. On goods invoiced at $3000 the duties were at the rate of 4 per cent.; on goods invoiced at $4200 the duties were at the rate of 8 per cent. ; on goods invoiced at $2100 the duties were at the rate of 15 per cent. ; goods invoiced at $6000 were free of duty; and on the remainder the duties were at the rate of 30 per cent. What was

the whole amount of the duties?

11. Willard, Fairbanks, & Co., of Boston, import from Liverpool 10 pieces of Brussels carpeting, 40 yards each, purchased at 5s. per yard, duty 24 per cent.; 200 yards of hair-cloth, at 4s. per yard, duty 19 per cent.; 100 woollen blankets, at 2s. 6d., duty 15 per cent.; and shoe-lasting to the cost of 60£., duty 4 per cent. Required the whole amount of duty, allowing the value of the pound sterling to be $ 4.84. Ans. $173.635.

12. A merchant imported from Bremen 32 pieces of linen of 32 yards each, on which he paid for the duties, at 24 per cent., $122.88, and other charges to the amount of $ 40.96. What was the invoice value per yard, and the cost per yard after duties and charges were paid?

Ans. Invoice value per yard, $0.50; cost per yard, $ 0.66.

COINS AND CURRENCIES.

461. COINS are pieces of metal legally stamped, and issued for circulation as money.

The currency of a state or country is its money or circulating medium of trade.

462. The former currency of this country had the denominations of sterling money, viz. pounds, shillings, and pence. On the adoption by Congress, in 1786, of the present decimal currency, with the dollar as its unit, there were in circulation colonial notes, or bills of credit, which had depreciated in value. This depreciation, being greater in some States than in others, gave rise to the difference in the States as to the number of shillings equivalent to a dollar, as shown in the following

[blocks in formation]

NOTE 1.- The State currencies are now merely nominal, accounts being nowhere kept in them. Articles, however, are sometimes priced in them, but much less often now than formerly.

=

=

25

NOTE 2.- $1 equals about 41s.£. of English or sterling money; and consequently 1£. $4.84; 1s. $0.24. Also $1 = 5s. £. of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Newfoundland, and Canada, called Canada currency; of which 1£. = $4; 1s. =20 cents.

463. The legal tender in payment of debts in the United States is gold and silver.

NOTE. The gold coins of the United States of coinage prior to 1834 are a legal tender for the payment of all debts, at the rate of 943 cents per penny

« ΠροηγούμενηΣυνέχεια »