George Washington was the first president of the United States, for two consecutive terms (1789-1796). One of the questions of that time was how to pay the debt the US had after several years of war. One solution was to impose tariffs on imports and exports (B).
Alexander Hamilton (1755-1804), then-Secretary of the Treasury, proposed a series of progressive tariffs in order to have a source of income to pay the debt and to support the growth of the country. One example is the Tariff of 1789 which created the collection of duties on imported goods.
