It has been seen that interstate commerce does not begin until, by some definite act, the goods have started upon their trip outside the State of origin. As to the termination of interstate transportation it has been established that this does not occur until the goods transported have reached their destination, been delivered, and, either sold.or taken out of their original packages in which shipped, and thus commingled with the other goods of the State.

The right to import including the right of the importer to sell the goods imported, and the right to engage in interstate and foreign commerce being a federal right, the States have no more constitutional power to restrain or regulate the sale of imported commodities by the importer than they have to prevent or regulate their being brought within the State.

This principle was first clearly declared by Marshall in Brown v. Maryland.24 " Sale," declared the Chief Justice, " is the result that the duty would devolve on Congress to regulate all of these delicate, multiform and vital interests - interests which in their nature are and must be Local in all the details of their successful management."

23 116 U. S. 517; 6 Sup. Ct. Rep. 475; 29 L. ed. 715.

24 12 Wh. 419; 6 L. ed. 678.

object of importation, and is an essential ingredient of that inter- course of which importation constitutes a part. . . . Congress has a right not only to authorize importation, but to authorize the importer to sell."

The case of Brown v. Maryland had to deal with foreign commerce and it seemed for a number of years that its application would be limited to that commerce. Indeed, that this was so was intimated as late as 1886 in Robbins v. Taxing District.25 But in Bowman v. Northwestern Railroad,26 decided in 1887, the reasoning indicated that the doctrine would be applied to interstate commerce, and in Leisy v. Hardin,27 decided in 1890, this was squarely declared and has since been repeatedly affirmed.

The fact that the right to engage in commerce carries with it the right to sell the goods transported, does not, it has been held, exclude the right of the State to tax goods brought from another State still unsold, and still in their original packages, provided such goods be not discriminated against because of their having been brought into the State from another State. As to imports from foreign countries, however, the rule is that until sale in the original package, or until the breaking of the package, no state tax may be imposed. This prohibition is, however, not drawn from the commerce clause but from the express provision of the Constitution that "No State shall, without the consent of Congress, lay any impost or duty on imports or exports (Art. I, Sec. X )."

This branch of the subject will be more fully discussed elsewhere in this treatise.