Custom House

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For other uses, see Custom House (disambiguation).

A Custom House or Customs House was a building housing the offices for the government officials who processed the paperwork for the import and export of goods into and out of a country. Customs officials also collected customs duty on imported goods.

The Customs House was typically located in a seaport or in a city on a major river with access to the ocean. These cities acted as a port of entry into a country and the government was interested in locating a customs house in those cities in order to collect taxes and regulate commerce.

Due to advances in electronic information systems, the increased volume of international trade and the introduction of air travel, the Customs House is now a historical oddity. There are many examples of buildings around the world whose former use was as a Custom House but have since been converted for other use.