Definition
A tax levied by the German government on manufactured goods at the point of sale for domestic consumption or distribution within Germany. The distinguishing feature of the German duty is its remissibility: when goods subject to this tax are purchased while still in bond, or consigned for export while in bond, the German government refunds or waives the duty. The goods thereby enter foreign markets free of the tax burden that would apply to identical goods sold domestically. The mechanism by which the duty is remitted on export is known as bonification.
In practical terms, the German duty functions as an internal consumption tax that artificially lowers the export price of German manufactured goods relative to their domestic price — a dynamic that attracted significant attention in late nineteenth and early twentieth century American customs and trade law.
Common Confusion
GERMAN DUTY vs. CUSTOMS DUTY: These are distinct impositions operating at opposite ends of a transaction. A customs duty is levied by the importing country on goods entering its territory. The German duty is levied by the exporting country (Germany) on goods sold domestically — and then remitted when those goods leave. Confusion arises because both affect the final cost of imported merchandise, but they operate through entirely different governmental authorities and legal mechanisms. American customs cases examining German duty were typically concerned with whether the remission (bonification) affected the dutiable value of imported goods under U.S. law, not with the German duty itself as an import charge.
Why It Matters in Research
Researchers will encounter this term almost exclusively in the context of late nineteenth and early twentieth century U.S. customs valuation litigation. The central legal question was not the German duty itself, but what happened when it was removed: did bonification artificially depress the "market value" of German goods for U.S. customs appraisal purposes? The Supreme Court addressed this in Downs v. United States, 169 U.S. 316 (1898), and related cases from that era — researchers should verify that the 169 U.S. 16 citation in Bouvier's refers to the correct reporter and page for their specific research question.
The term is historically bounded. It belongs to a specific era of bilateral trade tension between the United States and Germany and does not describe a continuing legal concept. Do not expect to find it in post-World War II customs or trade law materials. Modern researchers working on export subsidy issues, countervailing duties, or WTO-era dumping analysis should treat German duty as a historical precursor concept rather than operative doctrine.
The connection to bonification is essential. Bouvier's cross-reference to BONIFICATION is not incidental — the legal significance of the German duty in American courts derived almost entirely from the bonification mechanism. Any corpus research on this term should be run in parallel with bonification to capture the full documentary record.
Jurisdictional note: The German duty was a creature of German domestic fiscal law. Its legal relevance in American sources arises solely through customs valuation disputes before U.S. courts and the Treasury Department's appraisal practices. It has no independent existence in American substantive law.
Historical Dictionary Support
Bouvier's Law Dictionary provides the only entry among standard historical legal dictionaries. The definition is compressed but accurate: it identifies the tax, its domestic trigger (sale by manufacturers for consumption or sale in German markets), and the remission condition (purchase in bond or consignment in bond for export). The citation to 169 U.S. 16 anchors the term in federal judicial treatment, confirming this was not merely an academic classification but a live issue in American customs litigation.
What Bouvier's does not supply — and what no historical legal dictionary fully addresses — is the policy context: the German duty and its bonification were understood by American trade officials as a form of export bounty that gave German manufacturers a price advantage in U.S. markets. The legal debate over whether bonification-depressed prices constituted the true "market value" for customs purposes drove much of the litigation. Researchers relying solely on Bouvier's definition will have the mechanics but will miss the adversarial trade context that gave the term its legal significance.
No other historical dictionary in the standard reference shelf (Black's, Stroud's, Wharton's) carries an independent entry for this term, reflecting its narrow technical application and geographic specificity.