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One of the little rituals all international travelers go through is customs. To most people, this is just another stop in an airport or a minor inconvenience at a countrys borders. But when you go through customs, you are actually taking part in a key component of the global economy. A nations customs service has many responsibilities. At its most basic level, its purpose is to regulate what comes into and goes out of a country. The foremost element of this regulation is controlling international trade. The concept of trade is as old as civilization itself. If my tribe has a huge supply of bananas, and your tribe has a huge supply of fur, we will trade goods so that both our tribes can eat and both can keep warm. In the modern world, international trade is based on money, but it works in pretty much the same way. My country may produce more televisions than the population needs, but not enough cars. In order to have everything the population needs, businesses in my country will export TVs and import cars. Any nation wants its own businesses to do well, so most of the time they prefer their people buy domestic goods over competing foreign goods. But in many cases, goods are available cheaper in another country than in your country, and people naturally want to buy them at the lower price. To tilt the balance in favor of domestic businesses, governments impose tariffs, also called duty, on foreign goods coming into the country. | 
