CUSTOM HOUSE. The house or office appointed by a Government where the taxes are collected upon the importation and exportation of commodities, where bounties or drawbacks receivable upon exportation are paid, where free goods imported or exported are declared, and where vessels are entered and cleared.
In early days it was the regular practice to farm the Customs revenue for lengthy periods, gener ally of three years, while for a long period the whole of the Customs revenue was in pawn to merchants of Leghorn and Florence. In the middle of the 17th century this system was found to be very cumbersome and inelastic and the revenue was therefore supplemented by the establishment of the Excise, which included duties on many imported articles and differed from the Customs duties only in the fact that they were collected by the Commissioners of Excise under the direct control of the Crown. The farming system finally collapsed after the Restoration owing, in the main, to its inconvenience, but also to the fact that the farmers were in a bankrupt state in consequence of the country having been in quarantine for the major part of a year during the period of the Great Plague. The Great Fire having neces sitated the erection of a new Custom house the Government de termined to take over the collection of the Customs revenue, following the Excise precedent of a directly appointed staff. The patentees, however, for a hundred years later continued to receive emoluments from their now sinecure offices.
From the earliest times the British Custom house has been made use of for other purposes than the collection of the Customs revenue. From very early times, the officials were responsible for the collection of the light dues on behalf of the various lighthouse proprietors, which they carried out on a commission basis. Here also was transacted all business connected with the measurement, registration and transfer of shipping, while until 1896 the Customs department was also responsible for the enforcement of the irksome quarantine regulations. (See CUSTOMS COLLECTOR.)
