TREASURY DEPARTMENT, _November 16, 1847_.
The PRESIDENT.
SIR: With a view to augment the military contributions now collected by
the Departments of War and of the Navy under your order of the 31st of
March last, I recommend that the export duty exacted before the war by
the Government of Mexico be now collected at the port of exportation by
the same officers of the Army or Navy of the United States in the
Mexican ports in our possession who are authorized to collect the import
duties, abolishing, however, the prohibition of export established in
certain cases by the Mexican Government, as also all interior transit
duties; dispensing also with the necessity of any certificate of having
paid any duty to the Mexican Government.
The export duty would then be as follows:
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Per cent.
Gold, coined or wrought 3
Silver, coined 6
Silver, wrought, with or without certificate
of having paid any duty to the Mexican Government 7
Silver, refined or pure, wrought in ingots,
with or without certificate of having paid
the Mexican Government duty 7
Gold, unwrought or in a state of ore or dust 3
Silver, unwrought or in a state of ore 7
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Where gold or silver in any form is taken from any interior Mexican city
in our military possession, the export duty must be paid there to the
officer of the United States commanding, and his certificate of such
prepayment must be produced at the Mexican port of exportation;
otherwise a double duty will be collected upon the arrival of such gold
or silver at the Mexican port of exportation. Whenever it is
practicable, all internal taxes of every description, whether upon
persons or property, exacted by the Government of Mexico, or by any
department, town, or city thereof, should be collected by our military
officers in possession and appropriated as a military contribution
toward defraying the expenses of the war, excluding however, all duties
on the transit of goods from one department to another, which duties,
being prejudicial to revenue and restrictive of the exchange of imports
for exports, were abolished by your order of the 31st of March last.
Yours, most respectfully,
R.J. WALKER
_Secretary of the Treasury_.