invoice currency in United States currency was 10 per cent more or less than the proclaimed value. United States v. Whitridge, supra. The procedure under the latter provision depended on a consular certificate to establish the percentage of depreciation of the currency. T. D. No. 23725, 5 Treas. Dec. 396. There was thus no single source (and none at all in the United States) to which customs officials could look to determine the extent to which foreign currency had depreciated. Moreover, violent fluctuations in foreign exchange rates had occurred after the first World War. It was for those reasons that § 403 (c) was added to the Emergency Tariff Act of 1921, 42 Stat. 9, 17. See S. Rep. No. 16, 67th Cong., 1st Sess., p. 16; H. Rep. No. 79, 67th Cong., 1st Sess., p. 12; Fry & Friedsam v. United States, 12 Cust. App. 486, 489. And § 403 (c) of the 1921 Act now appears as § 522 (c) of the 1930 Act on whose meaning the present decision turns.

This history makes clear the search which has been made for a measure of the true dollar values of imported merchandise for customs purposes which was accurate (see Cramer v. Arthur, 102 U. S. 612, 617) and at the same time administratively feasible and efficient. The formula finally selected is dependent on the actual value of the foreign currency in our own money. The rate for the foreign exchange with which the imported goods are purchased is recognized as the measure of value of the foreign currency; the use of that rate reflects values in United States currency which are deemed sufficiently accurate to serve as the measure of the valuation of the goods for purposes of the ad valorem tax. As noted in United States v. Whitridge, supra, p. 144, the actual "unit of cost" conforms with the truth and the meaning of the invoice.

We would depart from that scheme if we read § 522 (c) as saying that on a given date only one buying rate for a specified foreign currency could be certified by the Fed

eral Reserve Bank of New York or proclaimed by the Secretary of the Treasury. Dual or multiple exchange rates have resulted in recent years from measures for the control and restriction of foreign exchange and export transactions. In the present case the British Government fixed the "official" rate for the purchase of specified commodities for export. One who purchased woolens for export need not acquire pounds at that rate. A lower rate was available and was indeed taken advantage of by petitioner when he purchased pounds to pay for the woolens. If the higher "official" rate is used in the valuation of the woolens, the cost of the goods will be distorted and an inflated value for customs purposes will be placed upon them. Such a result would be quite out of harmony with the history of these statutes and should be avoided unless the result is plainly required by the language of § 522 (c). We do not think it is.

We may assume that the dual or multiple exchange rates which have emerged were not in contemplation when the 1930 Act was passed. As we have noted, they are parts of rather recent measures for the control and restriction of foreign exchange and export transactions. But if Congress has made a choice of language which fairly brings a given situation within a statute, it is unimportant that the particular application may not have been contemplated by the legislators. Puerto Rico v. Shell Co., 302 U. S. 253, 257; Browder v. United States, 312 U. S. 335, 339, and cases cited. Sec. 522 (c) contains no language indicating that the Secretary of the Treasury has any function to perform except the publication of any buying

See United States Tariff Commission, Regulation of Tariffs in Foreign Countries by Administrative Action (1934); Twenty-second Annual Report of the United States Tariff Commission (1938) p. 1; Southard, Foreign Exchange Practice and Policy (1940) pp. 185

et seq.

rate which is certified. The determination of the rate is left exclusively to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. It alone is given discretion in computing it. The duty of the Secretary to publish the certified rate is as clear as the duty of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to determine and certify it. It is true that § 522 (c) speaks only of the "buying rate." And that use of the singular rather than the plural is stressed by respondent. We may note, however, in passing that § 1 of the Revised Statutes, 1 U. S. C. § 1, provides that "words importing the singular number may extend and be applied to several persons or things." Beyond that is the fact that we are construing a provision of a tariff act designed, as we have said, to value imports for customs purposes by means of the buying rate of the invoice currency. The use of the singular is not inappropriate since there is a buying rate for the foreign exchange used to purchase each separate import. We assume that the "official" rate was the all-inclusive rate and could have been used in payment of exported goods of all kinds. But § 522 (c) means to us that that buying rate is to be used which is in fact applicable to the particular transaction. To look to other transactions for the buying rate is to make a valuation of a wholly hypothetical import, not a valuation of the actual one before the collector of customs. Congress could, of course, choose any standard of valuation, for the purposes of the assessment and collection of duties. But Congress in this situation endeavored to provide a flexible and realistic, not an arbitrary, standard. We can indeed see no difference in principle between the use of one of several rates for the currency of a single country and the use of one of several rates each of which is for the currency of a different country. In each different rates are used to ascertain the value of specific imports. The language of § 522 (c) read against the background of these statutes indicates to us that Congress undertook to provide in each case the rate which

gives the closest approximation to the value in dollars of the imported merchandise. That purpose would be thwarted if in the circumstances of this case only one buying rate could be used in making the valuation of the goods. The application of the "official" rate to this particular transaction would assume that petitioner imported whiskey, furs, tin, rubber, or jute rather than woolens. The valuation of the woolens would be inflated and a higher duty would be paid than a fair reading of § 522 (c) necessitates.

It is said that this result runs counter to the provisions of § 402 of the Act which require that the value of imported merchandise shall be the "foreign value or the export value, whichever is higher." But it is not apparent how that policy need in any way be defeated or impaired by the use of the "free" rate of exchange where it is in fact applicable.

4

Reliance for the other conclusion is also placed on the general authority given the Secretary over the collection of duties on imports and over collectors of customs." It is also pointed out that § 624 of the Tariff Act of 1930 provides that "In addition to the specific powers conferred by this Act, the Secretary of the Treasury is authorized to make such rules and regulations as may be necessary to carry out the provisions of this Act." But these

4 "The Secretary of the Treasury shall direct the superintendence of the collection of the duties on imports as he shall judge best." Rev. Stat. § 249, 19 U. S. C. § 3. And see Rev. Stat. § 248, 5 U. S. C. § 242. 5 "The Secretary of the Treasury shall prescribe forms of entries, oaths, bonds, and other papers, and rules and regulations not inconsistent with law, to be used in carrying out the provisions of law relating to raising revenue from imports, or to duties on imports, or to warehousing, and shall give such directions to collectors and prescribe such rules and forms to be observed by them as may be necessary for the proper execution of the law." Rev. Stat. § 251, 19 U. S. C., Supp. III, § 66. And see Rev. Stat. § 161, 5 U. S. C. § 22.

Sec. 502 (c) of the Act provides that "It shall be the duty of all officers of the customs to execute and carry into effect all instructions

provisions merely implement authority which is granted the Secretary and make clear the existence of authority which otherwise might be only implied. They may not be used to detract from the express authority given the Federal Reserve Bank of New York under § 522 (c). But this result is criticized on the ground that it interferes with the control of foreign exchange, which fiscal function has been entrusted to the Secretary, not to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. It hardly need be pointed out in reply, however, that our decision, like § 522 (c), is concerned only with the assessment and collection of duties upon imports through the use of a formula which Congress designed. If the use of that formula under the changed conditions of these war years is disadvantageous or undesirable, Congress, of course, can change it. But we cannot assume that Congress did not mean what it said when it selected the Federal Reserve Bank of New York rather than the Secretary to perform a restricted function on this single phase of the complicated foreign exchange problem.

Nor is there substance in the argument that the Secretary's action in publishing only one of the rates certified by the Bank is non-reviewable. Sec. 522 (c) plainly gives discretion to the Bank to determine the buying rate. And for the reasons stated we cannot say that only one buying rate must be determined and certified.' The exercise of

of the Secretary of the Treasury relative to the execution of the revenue laws; and in case any difficulty arises as to the true construction or meaning of any part of the revenue laws, the decision of the Secretary shall be binding upon all officers of the customs."

7

The case is therefore different from Collector v. Richards, 23 Wall. 246. In that case the Director of the Mint certified two values of the franc-one under the provisions of the Act of March 3, 1873, 17 Stat. 602, the other under the Act of May 22, 1846, 9 Stat. 14. The Director of the Mint was uncertain whether the latter act had been repealed by the former. The Secretary proclaimed the rate estimated by the Director under the 1873 Act. This Court sustained a collection