egotiation is made, is
interstate commerce." In short, whereas in foreign commerce, importation
is succeeded by the right to sell in the original package, in interstate
commerce sale was succeeded by the right of importation, which continued
until the goods reached the hands of the purchaser. The benefits of this
holding were extended in a series of rulings in which it was held to
apply whether solicitation of orders was or was not made with
sample,[582] and to sales which were not, accurately speaking,
consummated until the actual delivery of the goods, which was attended
by local incidents. So, where a North Carolina agent of a Chicago firm
took orders for framed pictures, which were then sent to him packed
separately from the frames and then framed by him before delivery, the
rule laid down in the Robbins case was held to apply throughout, with
the result that North Carolina could tax or license no part of the
transaction described;[583] so also as to a sewing machine ordered by a
customer in North Carolina and sent to her C.O.D.;[584] so also as to
brooms sent in quantity for the fulfillment of a number of orders, and
subject to rejection by the purchaser if deemed by him not up to
sample.[585] Said Justice Holmes in the case last referred to:
"'Commerce among the States' is a practical conception not drawn from
the 'witty diversities' * * * of the law of sales. * * * The brooms were
specifically appropriated to specific contracts, in a practical, if not
in a technical, sense. Under such circumstances it is plain that,
wherever might have been the title, the transport of the brooms for the
purpose of fulfilling the contracts was protected commerce."[586] Nor
did it make any difference that the solicitor received his compensation
in form of down payment by the purchaser.[587] Moreover, sales under a
mail order business, with delivery taking place within the State to a
carrier for through shipment to another State to fill orders, was held
to be beyond the taxing power of the first State.[588] The fact that a
concern doing a strictly interstate business had goods on hand within
the State which were capable of being used in intrastate commerce, did
not, the Court declared, take the business out of the protection of the
commerce clause and allow the State to impose a privilege tax on such
concern.

LIMITATION OF THE ROBBINS CASE

On the other hand, it was early held that the rule laid down in the
Robbins case did not