United States House Committee on Commerce and Manufactures

The United States House Committee on Commerce and Manufactures was a standing committee of the U.S. House from 1795 until 1819, when the two initially related subjects were split into the Committee on Commerce and the Committee on Manufactures. Its related committee in the U.S. Senate was the Senate Committee on Commerce and Manufactures, which was established in 1816, and similarly split in 1825.

The committee's commercial aspects, issues and jurisdiction follow through the Committee on Commerce from 1819 to 1892, the Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce from 1892 to 1968. With the relatively recent addition of issues and jurisdiction related to energy, commerce is now within the United States House Committee on Energy and Commerce.

The standing Committee on Commerce and Manufactures was created in December 1795 to "take into consideration all such petitions and matters of things touching the commerce and manufactures of the United States, as shall be presented, or shall or may come into question, and be referred to them by the House, and to report their opinion thereupon, together with such propositions for relief therein, as to them shall be expedient." The records of the Committee on Commerce and Manufactures, during the 4th to 15th Congresses include many petitions and memorials and committee papers.

The petitions and memorials referred to the committee cover a wide variety of topics. There are a large number of petitions concerning import duties. Manufacturers, merchants, and other citizens from many areas of the country petitioned Congress for duty increases on dozens of imported products such as hats, shot, paper, and cork. Records of the 15th Congress (1817-1819) contain the largest number of petitions relating to duties from a single Congress. Other petitioners requested relief from paying duties on certain goods. Merchants and ship owners, for example, requested that Congress not require payment of duties on goods damaged in shipment or destroyed by fire before they were sold. Petitions were also referred from non-profit and educational institutions, such as the Library Company of Baltimore, the Associate Reformed Church in North America, the Saint Andrews Society of Charleston, and the Pennsylvania Hospital, asking for exemptions from paying duties on books or articles imported for their use. John Redman Coxe, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania, petitioned in 1815 for a refund of duties he had been required to pay for imported materials necessary for his chemistry classes.

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