Hf \754 UC-NRI II $B n E3D t FEB -9 1938 DUPLICATE SOLD N. Y. STATE LIBRARY EXPORTS AND IMPORTS, AS SHOWING THE RELATIVE ADVANCEMENT OF EVERY NATION WEALTH, STRENGTH, AND INDEPENDENCE [in a series of articles contributed to the boston transcript.] BY JAMES L. vBAKER. PRINTED BY ORDER OF THE COMMITTEE OF CORRESPONDENCE APPOINTED UNDER THE RESOLUTIONS OF A MEETING ON THE 15th of JUNE, 1858, OF THE FRIENDS OF PROTECTION TO DOMESTIC INDUSTRY. PHILADELPHIA 1859. At a meeting held in the city of Philadelphia, December 31, 1858, of the Committee of Correspondence, appointed under the resolutions of a meeting on the 15th of June last, of the friends of Protection to Domestic Industry, irrespective of party, it was : — Resolved, That the Secretary of the Committee of Seventy-Six, be, and he is hereby requested to procure, for the use of this Committee, five thousand copies of a pamphlet entitled '« Exports and Imports, as showing the relative advancement of every nation in wealth, strength, and inde- pendence ; by James L. Baker." HENRY C. CAREY, JAMES MILLIKEN, WM. D. LEWIS, G. N. ECKERT, JOHN W. O'NEILL, AVILLIAM ELDER, THOJ^IAS BALCH, Committee. Hrn54 B23> f^- EXPORTS AID IMPORTS. The September number of Hunt's Merchant's Magazine contains some very interesting statistics in regard to the commerce of Great Britain. It seems that England imports annually, to feed her pop- ulation, grain and produce to the amount of over $12(>,000,,000, Of this food, a large part is exported in the shnpe of cotton cloth, the export of which, in 1857, reached near to 2,000,000,000 yards, valued at about $140,000,000. The principal markets to which these goods were sent, are as follows : To Turkey, Syria and Palestine, Egypt, - United States, Foreign West Indies, Brazil, Buenos Ayres, - Chile, - Peru, - _ _ China and Hong Kong, Yards. 123,000,000 39,000,000 55,000,000 177,000,000 72,000,000 186,000,000 32,000,000 38,000,000 34,000,000 121.000.000 Java, - - - Gibraltar, British North America, British West Indies, British East Indies, - Australia, Hanse Towns, Holland, Yards. 30,000,000 19,000,000 32,000,000 45,000,000 469,000,000 30,000,000 50,000,000 30,000,000 Portugal, Azores,Maderia, 47,000,000 First on the list stands the East Indies, then Brazil, then the United States, then Turkey, and then China. The United States seems to be in rather odd company, two of these nations being Pagan and half civilized, one Mahommedan and fast going to decay, and the fourth not much advanced beyond either of the others. Eng- land has persuaded them, however, as well as ourselves, of the admirable working of free trade ; and we find ourselves standing high on the list. We may hope to rival Brazil, but can hardly ex- pect to come up to the East Indies, which are entirely under English control. If we add to this $140,000,000, the value of cotton yarns M897263 (^^ZiTtA. 4 EXPORTS AND MIPORTS. exported, which are not included, and also the amount of cotton m& consumed in Great Britain, we shall find the sum sufficient to pay ihe $120,000,000 imported for food and a very large part of the raw cotton imported ; or, in other words, the manufacturers of cotton alone, after paying for the raw cotton, pay also for nearly the whole of the grain and produce imported for the benefit of that and all other branches of manufacture. This shows how manufacturing nations grow rich at the expense of the producing ones. Here we see how England, after coming out of the Crimean war, which would alone have exhausted the resources of half the civilized world, was even stronger than when she went into it, and immedi- ately engaged in another war with about half the human race, calling for nearly 100,000 men to be supported thousands of miles from home. No nation was ever in possession of such enormous wealth as is requisite for such enterprises as these, which England carries on without feeling the burden, while we are borrowing money in a time of profound peace to defray the current expenses of our Gov- ernment. Such is the difference between nations which send off other produce to a foreign and far distant market, and those that buy that produce to feed their operatives and pay for it in manufactured goods. England has been teaching the Asiatics some lessons in free trade. She finds the process rather more severe, to be sure, than was found necessary with the United States, Brazil, and Turkey. In the case of the last three respectable communities, she was not obliged to pro- ceed vi et armis, but found it not difficult to effect her purpose by diplomacy and large subscriptions of money to circulate free trade documents and operate with, as was the case especially in the United States just before the passage of the Tariff of 1846. Hindoos and Chinamen require a different sort of argument, or what may be called " argumentum ad hominem.'^ Gradually she stretches out her wiry arms to assist the thunders of her fleet and army, and the persuasive voice of her moral suasion, in annexing the whole world to the great manufacturing centre. In foresight and practical wisdom, England is yet a generation in advance of all other nations, and hence her immense wealth and power, before which France and all Europe stand in awe. With all our invention, genius, mental and bodily activity, we need to take some lessons of that wonderful people from whose ancestors we also descended. What we need is to theorise less and to consult experi- EXPORTS AND IMPORTS. O ence more, and, in our universal benevolence, to remember that charity which begins at home and looks first after our own interests' and then after those of our neighbors. If a reduction of our tariff was necessary in order to induce England to take our cotton, that would furnish some excuse for us, though a very poor one, lecause if she was not obliged to take it, as is the fact, still our true policy would be to work it up ourselves, and export it not in its crude state, but in the compact form of manufactured goods. All nations that export produce to a foreign and distant market must remain poor. It would be far better for us if we were importers of grain like France and England, and exporters of it in the results of mechanical labor, than to send our produce five thousand miles to be returned in the shape of foreign mechanical labor. Our present condition may be summed up as follows : The West has been sending her grain and produce 5000 miles to a distant and uncertain market, where they mu^t compete with the pauper labor of the grain growing regions of Europe on the Danube and Baltic, after paying nearly their whole value in cost of transportation. The necessary results of such a system are now manifest. The West is poor, and is likely to be poorer, unless she goes to work to build up a home market for her produce, and to bring the mill and the forge much nearer to her farms than 5000 miles. Our factory and railroad stocks are not worth an average of fifty cents on the dollar.* A foreign commission is coming over from London to examine into the affairs of our Illinois Central Railroad, and the Presidency of our Reading Road has passed into the hands of an agent of foreign in- terests. Our foreign debt is from $300,000,000 to $400,000,000, calling for a large annual amount of specie to pay up our interest. * The following is the list of stocks prepared by Joseph G. Martin, for the week ending Dec. 21, 1858. Thi.s list does not include the Bay State Mills, Iladley Falls, Lawrence Machine Shop, the New England Worsted Company, and other failed concerns involving a loss of five or six millions, and shows conclusively that the present value of Factory Stock is less than fifty per cent, of its cost. If the history of New England Manufactures should be written it would probably appear that they had averaged a loss of seventy-five per cent, or more, to those who have invested in them. It is curious to notice how purely incidental are the benefits derived from the protection of manufacturers. These benefits accrue not to the manufacturer but to the commission merchant, the operative, the mechanic, and laborer, the farmer who sells his produce, the wool grower, the cotton grower, the consumer, the country at large, to every one in fact, except the very party who, in language sometimes heard, is said to be the one to be benefited by what is called a monopoly and partial legislation. Under complete protection, the manufacturer is fortunate if he averages six per cent, on his investments, while under inadequa^te protection as at present, he must be content with few 6 EXPORTS AND IMPOIlTS. Our ocean steamships are nearly driven off, and, in the opinion of some, the character of our shipping is declining. Our ships have long been idle or doing a losing business, and our Government is borrowing money to meet its daily wants. Such are the facts to be explained in some way or other, and this picture is in no way colored or exaggerated. It is not necessary to repeat that I consider all this to flow mainly from one source, and that is the Tariff of 1846. Had the Tariff of 1842 remained, most of our railroads would now be worth par, and be owned here as they should be, and not abroad. Instead of gradually declining into a colonial condition, we should have been independent of the world, and if not as wealthy and pow- erful as the older branch of our family, we should have been advanc- ing very rapidly toward that point, and been worth many hundred millions more than at present. When we adopt a protective policy, we shall find immediate relief, and enter on a new course of pros- perity. Until we do so, we shall continue on our present course, tending toward national poverty, dependence, and demoralization, for these three go always together. exceptions to lose not only his interest, but a large part of his principal, while he gives employment and prosperity to all other classes of the community in which he lives. MANUFACTURING COMPANIES. ■ht, Amoskeag, Apple ton, Atlantic, Bates, . Boott Mills, Boston, Boston Duck Boston Gas I _ Cambridge Gas Chicopee, Cocheco, Dwight, Franklin, Great Falls, Hamilton, Do. Woollen Hill Mill, Jackson, Laconia, Lancaster Lawrence, Lowell, (av. par) Par. Off'd. As'd. 1000 940 975 . 1000 1000 1050 1000 675 725 100 95 100 . 1000 600 525 750 465 465 700 400 440 500 690 700 100 104 106 . 1000 185 225 650 450* 500 . 1000 475 525 100 80 85 200 167 170 . 1000 925 975 100 110 120 100 80 83 . 1000 550 600 1000 625 675 450 280* 300 . 1000 850 860 690 650 575 Lowell Bleachery, Do. Miich. Shop, Lyman Mills, Manchester, Massachusetts Mills, Merrimack, . Middlesex, Nashua, Naumkeag, . New England Glass, Otis. Pacific Mills, Palmer, Pepperell, Salisbury, Silmon Falls, Sandwich Glass, Stark Mills, . SufiFolk, Thorndike, . Tremont, York, . Par. Off-d. As'd. 200 240 2Ab 500 195 205 100 47 i 50 1000 890' 910 1000 700 800 1000 1180 1200 1000 160 186 500 325 350 100 102 106 500 505 526 1000 850 1000 1000 600 600 1000 400 500 530 560 100 120 130 500 200 220 100 60 76 1000 675 750 1000 650 750 1000 350 450 1000 650 700 1000 750 800 EXPORTS AND IMPORTS. No. 2. I often find myself interested and instructed in looking over tables of exports and imports. We find here condensed into a few figures as it were, the life of the world, an epitome of commerce, and learn much of the character and habits of the different nations. More than this, we can, if we mistake not, deduce from them a law more certain and invariable than can be found in most of the speculations of political economy. If such a law exists, and if given the exports and imports of a nation, we can decide at once upon the progress that nation has made in wealth and power, together with the fine arts and all that moral and intellectual culture that grows out of wealth, then such tables must be looked upon with far greater interest than they have usually excited, and instead of being dry and repulsive, become in the highest degree attractive and usefuL These reflections were forcibly suggested by the table of English exports of cotton copied into my last article. I doubt if we make ourselves sufficiently acquainted with such statistics, and believe that very few are aware that we imported in 1857, 177,000,000 yards of cotton cloth, valued at $13,000,000, from England alone, or nearly one-tenth of the 2,000,000,000 yards exported by that nation during the last year, and that we figured prominently in such respectable company as the East Indies, Brazil, China, and Turkey. It is quite common to hear the remark that England cannot trouble us much now in the article of cotton. She troubles us, however, to the extent of $13,000,000 per annum, and more than she would be allowed to trouble any otber civilized nation. It is well to look at such figures, and to ask ourselves what they mean, if they mean anything which it is important for the people to know ; for they are in theory at least our legislators and rulers. The law to which I have referred is this, — that the progress a nation makes in wealth and strength is in proportion to the ratio which its exports of manufactures bears to its exports of produce and raw material ; or, in other words, that na- tions are rich or poor according as their population is engaged in agricultural or manufacturing employments. O EXPORTS AND IMPORTS. Our exports for the year ending June 30, 1857, were $338,985,- 065. Of this sum $30,000,000 only consisted of manufactured goods, of which $6,000,000 were in cotton goods, $4,766,981 in iron, and nothing in woollen. Here we have then, $309,000,000 in prod- uce and raw material, and $30,000,000 in manufactures, or about ten to one. Some of our principal exports were as follows : productions of the sea, such as oil, whalebone, sperm candles, fish smoked and pickled, $3,739,644; productions of the forest, such as staves, timber, lumber, all manufactures of wood, naval stores, tar, pitch, ashes, and furs, $14,699,711; products of agriculture, such as animals, beef, tallow, hides, butter, cheese, pork, hams, lard, wool, hogs, horses, sheep, &c., $16,736,458; vegetable food, such as wheat, flour, corn, meal, potatoes, apples, onions, rice, &c., $58,333,176; cotton, $131,- 575,859 ; tobacco, $2,805,865 ; gold and silver coin, $28,777,372 ; gold and silver bullion, $31,300,980. In the same year, England exported to the extent of $610,000,- 000. Of this sum about one-third goes to her colonies, over $100,- 000,000 to the United States, about $60,000,000 to the Hanse-towns, Hanover, Prussia, &c., and $30,000,000 to France. This enormous sum of $610,000,000 consists almost entirely of manufactured goods in one shape or another. England exports no produce or raw material to any extent, except as it is worked up into the products of mechan- ical skill. Here, then, we have two systems diametrically opposed to each other. In the one case the exports are nearly all of produce or raw material, and in the other case nearly all manufactured. We export $339,000,000, of which only $30,000,000 are manufactures. England exports $610,000,000, of which nearly the whole is in manufactures. The highest and best evidence of the existence of the law which I suppose to exist is to be found in*fhe condition of England, to which I alluded in my last article. It is hardly possible to exaggerate the wealth, and therefore the power of that nation whose warehouses may be called the storehouses of the world. The debt of England, commenced in the timo of William and Mary, has steadily grown until it has reached the enormous sum of $4,000,000,000, divided among about 270,000 stockholders. This debt in its early history was a source of constant alarm to the English statesmen, but still the ability to pay increased more rapidly than the debt. Just before the American Kevolution, when the debt was in its in- fancy, Mr. Burke declared it his opinion that the burden would prove EXPORTS AND IMPORTS. 9 greater than could be borne, and that the nation was ruined. The minister, George Grenville, was of the same opinion, unless the colonies could be compelled to bear a part of the heavy load. Hence our Revolution. It has been long conceded that Mr. Burke made a great mistake, and Lord Macaulay quotes it as an instance of the liability to err on the part of the shrewdest and most profound statesmen. The three per cents., he says, are the safest investment the world has ever known, and undoubtedly he is right. The people are heavily taxed, but it is to pay each other, and the national debt is now considered a bond of union and a sure guaranty of the sta- bility and permanence of the English Constitution. England is far better able to pay the interest on her debt now, than when it originated, one hundi-ed and fifty years ago ; and can go into the market to-day and raise more money than could be bor- rowed by half, if not the whole of Continental Europe. She has the solid wealth, and of course, a credit corresponding to it. Great Britain has invested in railroads, since 1829, $15,000,000,000. The gross earnings of her railroads for the last year were $120,000,000, and the declared dividends $65,000,000. Besides which, English capital has been invested in American railroads and other securities to the extent of some hundreds of millions. The Crimean war cost many hundred millions, to say nothing of the War in the East. The wealth of England was the destruction of Bonaparte, and is the dread of his nephew, who well knows its extent and its irresistible power. In another article I propose to inquire into the cause of a phenomenon so wonderful, as that a small island, territorially not much larger than Cuba, " should so get the start of this majestic world, and bear the palm alone." 10 KXPOUTS AND IMPORTS. No. 3. lESngland. In my last I affirmed the existence of a certain and invariable law in political economy, which was that all nations must be poor and weak who relied on their exports of produce and raw material to a distant market. Many things come in to modify the operation of this law, such as race, natural advantages, emigration, &c. We should not expect to see the law operating as immediately or as completely in the United States as in Cuba, the P]ast Indies, Brazil, or other producing countries ; but still I contend we cannot escape the inexorable rule, however great may be our natural advantages, and have before shown, by our present condition, that we are already feeling its pressure to a very great extent, and I doubt not we shall continue to feel it in an accelerated ratio, as a downhill course has always a tendency to increase in rapidity. I instanced England as affording the highest and best evidence of the rule, and referred to her enormous wealth and power, overshadow- ing as they do those of all other nations, and indeed exceeding every thing known in the history of the world. The sight of the red cross flag, and the sound of the reveille at Quebec, are said to have inspired Mr. Webster to apply to Great Britain the following language, alike beautiful and true : "A power to which, for purposes of foreign conquest and subju- gation, Rome, in the height of her glory, is not to be compared ; a power which has dotted over the surface of the whole globe with her possessions and military posts, whose morning drum beat, follow- ing the sun, and keeping company with the hours, circles the earth daily with one continuous and unbroken strain of the martial airs of England." Such is England; and the inquiry comes, whence this wealth, which can thus send fleets and armies to the remotest corners of the world ? It is due, no doubt, to many causes, among which are those EXPORTS AND IMPORTS* 11 great qualities of the Anglo Saxon race to which we belong, such as foresight, industry, prudence, love of home and love of order, courage without rashness, and coolness in times of excitement, which have enabled the English alone to establish and maintain a constitu- tional government amid the monarchies and despotisms of Europe. This love of order and capacity for self-government, while it has given security to government, has given security to property, and thus encouraged its accumulation. For centuries, men have felt in P^ng- land that what they accumulated might descend to their distant posterity. - Other causes might be enumerated ; but a greater one than all others put together is to be found in a fortunate adoption of a. fortunate system, and in taking advantage of the great law of trade. Most of this wealth has been accumulated within the last century, and since the adoption of a policy which secured complete protection to everything which a British hand could make. Adam Smith, who was a cotemporary with Hume, and died in 1790, announced the doctrine of free trade ; but Englishmen were too wise to adopt it^. Their natural resources were limited to the coal and minerals under their soil, and helped by no tide of emigration. These resources Were to be developed, and could only be developed by a pro- tective policy which, aided by the recent wonderful inventions of steam power have made her mines more valuable than all the gold mines of the world. Rapidly and surely she grew in wealth, and sent her vessels to every part of the inhabited globe, loaded, not with raw material, sent to distant markets to be wrought up and then sent back again; but worked into the compact form of merchandise by the hands of her operatives. Within the last few years, when she had acquired such an amount of skill and capital as to fear no competition with the great source of her wealth, and could feel that her manufactures were no longer in danger, while she needed food for her great army of operatives, and was desirous of seeking new markets tor her manufactures, she remembered the doctrines of Adam Smith, and invited the nations to participate in the advantages of free trade — that is, she wished them to do as she said, but not as she had done — 'to follow her advice, but not her example. It is a little singular that having actually acquired most of her great wealth since the death of Adam Smith, and by a policy just the reverse of the one he promulgated, she should now be found 12 EXPORTS AND IMPORTS. endeavoring to introduce his doctrines and subscribing large sums of money to circulate tracts for that purpose in the United States. The practical English mind has always rejected his free trade views, and could by no means be imposed upon by any such specious but wholly delusive theory as that. How does it happen that she now appears as the champion of that which she has never practiced? Let the people of the United States ask themselves if there is not somewhere a cat buried in this meal. Let them see that when England proffers free trade she is not offering a Trojan horse filled with armed men. England now imports grain and produce to the amount of $120,000,000. Her exports, however, are nearly all of manufac- tured goods, and amount, as I have stated, to the enormous sum of over $600,000,000. She has never faltered in her course, never fluctuated in her policy, but kept straight on until she has risen to her present colossal height. That her great wealth has grown out of her manufacturing industry no one can doubt, nor can there be any more doubt as to the manner in which that industry has been fostered and built up. The great facts are that she is by far the richest nation on. the globe, and with the exception of France, her wealth is beyond all comparison. Also that she is the largest exporter, and that her exports are almost exclusively of manufac- tures. Between these facts there must be an intimate relation, and we may say with perfect safety, that England affords in herself the highest and best evidence of the existence of the law that in pro- portion as a nation exports goods in a manufactured state, it grows in wealth, and therefore in strength and independence. We might almost rest the case on the testimony of England alone, but may find it useful in a future article to take a hasty glance at some of the other nations of the world, with reference to their exports and imports, as bearing on this law, and also more particularly of our own country, as illustrating it, and of course, as affected by its operation. EXPORTS AND IMPORTS. 13 No. 4. Prance. The nation which comes next to England, in point of wealth and strength, is France ; and hence it naturally next attracts our attention when looking for evidence of the law which I have supposed to exist and to be universal, viz.: that the wealth of a nation is to be measured by its exports of manufactures as compared with its exports of raw material and produce. In France, we find a different race, different manners, habits, climate and soil — all of which modify to some extent the accumula- tion of wealth. That stability of character and love of order which, on the English side of the channel, secure stability of government, and hence stability of property, are sadly wanting on the French side. Here change is the rule and not the exception. In less than three-quarters of a century, France has run the whole circle of government twice over. First came the Revolution, then the Consuls, then the Empire or military despotism, then the old Monarchy back again, then a new Monarchy, then a Republic again, and now another Empire and strong military government. Change has followed change until France is, perhaps, capable of no other form of government than the one she now enjoys, and which is, in many respects, well suited to the habits and genius of her people. As might be expected, fluctuations in commercial policy have attended these great and constant political convulsions. One of these changes in the French tariff is thus described by List, in his chapter on France : " In his peremptory style. Napoleon had said that a country which, in the actual state of the world, should attempt to carry out the principle of free trade, would be ground to dust. By this he evinced more political good sense than the cotemporary economists in all their works. We cannot but be astonished at the sagacity with which this great man, without having studied the systems of political 14 EXPORTS AND IMPORTS. economy, appreciated and understood the nature and importance of manufacturing industry. ' Formerly,' Napoleon is reported to have said, ' there was only one kind of property ; another has since arisen — industry.' Napoleon then saw and expressed clearly what the economists of the time did not see, or at least did not distinctly express, ' that a country which unites manufacturing industry and agriculture is far better adjusted and far richer than a country merely agricultural.' "The downfall of Napoleon was the signal for English competi- tion, restrained, during his rule, to the work of smuggling, to assert and regain its power upon the continents of Europe and America. For the first time, the English were then heard to denounce the protective system, and to extol Adam Smith's theory of free trade — a theory which these practical Islanders had hitherto branded as Utopian. " France, though her old dynasty had been brought back to hel* under the banner, or, at least, by the gold of England, listened but a short time to these arguments. Free trade with England occa- sioned such dreadful disasters to an industry wliich had grown up under the continental system, that it became necessary to seek a speedy refuge in the prohibitive system, under the shield of which, according to the testimony of M. Dupin, the manufacturing industry of France doubled between 1815 and 1827." Henri Richelot, in a note to the French Translation, says : " In 1828, the English policy was revealed with great distinctness by the Liberal Joseph Hume, who spoke without reserve of strangling the manufactures of the Continent." Sir Robert Peel with equal honesty is said to have remarked that, as an Englishman, he was in favor of free trade, but that he could not speak in favor of that doctrine were he an American. That such is the policy of England no one can doubt ; but her statesmen have been generally too wise to expose it, having covered it up under the name of free trade, a specious and popular term, by which the unthinking are imposed upon. All who allow themselves to be thus deluded, will learn at no distant time, that free trade between all manufacturing and agricultural nations is like an agreement between a lion and a dog to have a free hunt together, the dog being free to catch the game, and the lion being free to eat it. The following extracts from Mr. Carey's twenty-third and twenty- fourth letters to the President, furnish some very interesting information in regard to the exports and commercial policy of France : EXPORTS AND IMPORTS. 15 " The French system is based upon the idea of the enlargement of commerce, resulting from the compression of raw commodities into their smallest form, and from the emancipation of the farmer from the tax of transportation. " France, after long experience, lias announced to the world, through the President of the Council, M. Baroche, its determination * formally to reject the principle of free trade as incompatible with the independence and security of a great nation, and as destructive of her noblest manufactures.' ' No doubt,' as he continued, ' our customs tariffs contain useless and antiquated prohibitions, and we think they must be removed. But protection is necessary to our manufactures. This protection must not be blind, unchangeable, or excessive, but the principle of it must be firmly maintained.' " Her exports of raw produce are insignificant in amount ; and even of wine the amount exported but little exceeds that of the years immediately preceding the revolution, the average from 1814 to 1846 having been only 1,401,800 hectolitres, against 1,247,700 tons from 1787 to 1789. " The total value of French produce and manufactures exported in 1856 was $370,000,000. The food and raw material raised and imported had 'been reduced in bulk so as to economise, to the utmost extent, the cost of transportation. Land and labor rise in value precisely as they are emancipated from that first and most oppressive of taxes ; and therefore it is that we witness so large an increase in the price of those in France.' " ' What now,' asks Mr. Carey, ' is our condition compared with that of France? Can we maintain commerce where we will? Are we not on the contrary forced to go where we must? Can we send wheat or corn to the people of California or Australia ? Do those of Brazil or India desire to purchase rice or cotton ? Assuredly not — their demands upon the outer world being for finished com- modities, and not for the rude products of the soil. Plow, then, do we maintain commerce with Brazil and California ? Is it not by the circuitous route of Manchester and Lyons — the whole of the tax of transportation being paid hy the farmers and planters of the Union ? That it is so cannot be questioned.' " The exports of France, then, are $370,000,000 against $600,- 000,000 from Great Britain. These exports are also, like the Eng- lish, almost exclusively of manufactured goods. France is also, as we know, second only to England in wealth and strength. Indeed, we should not probably come very far out of the way if we esti- mated the power of France, compared with that of England, as being about in the proportion of 370 to 600. France furnishes, then, the next best argument, and a very strong one, in favor of the law that nations are rich and strong to the extent of their manu- 16 EXPORTS AND IMPORTS. factured exports, while they are weak and dependent to the extent of their exports of produce and raw material. France in 1815, as we have seen, found her only security against the commercial policy of the English in a protective tariff. Under this system she has risen to become a powerful rival of England by sea as well as by land. "We must look for our safety to precisely the same course pursued by France in 1815. England stands on one side and all the world on the other. In my next, I propose to consider the commercial policy of Germany and Eussia, and also the conditioji of some of the producing countries. EXPORTS AND IMPORTS. l7 No. 5. Germany and Spain. In my last I alluded to the exports and imports of France as affording, next to England, the strongest evidences in favor of the law that nations are rich and strong to the extent that their exports consist of manufactured goods, and their imports of produce and raw material. We have seen that the exports of both England and France— the former $600,000,000, and the latter $370,000,000— are almost exclusively of manufactures, or, in other words, of raw material and food, which they export, compressed into the smallest compass for transportation. We also know that these two nations are, by far, the most wealthy and powerful on the earth ; and, indeed, when united, as at present, are fully a match for all the world in arms. The evidence afforded by such nations in favor of the law supposed, ought, it would seem, to satisfy a reasonable man, if not met and contradicted by some very strong testimony on the other side. In looking at the condition of other nations, we shall, if I mistake not, find everything to confirm and nothing to refute the evidence afforded by England and France. If we turn to Germany and Russia, we shall find them fast rising under a protective policy, the former to a highly respectable position in the scale of nations, and the latter to that of a first class power. The establishment of the German Customs Union, or Zoll- Verein, gave a great impulse to the manufactures of Germany. The form- ation of this association is, to a very great extent, due to the untiring labor of Frederick List, author of the " National System of Political Economy," for many years a resident in this country, where the substance of his work was first published in a series of letters in the National Zeitung. These letters attracted great attention and were extensively copied throughout the country. His " National System" appeared in Germany in 1841, and its success was very great. He afterwards, says his translator, G. A. Matile, " edited the Zoll-Vereins Blatt, a periodical established, at his instance, in 1843, by Baron Cotta, in which he exhibited remarkable talent as a journalist. Without any official station, without title or fortune, 18 EXPORTS AND IMPORTS. though his doctrines were attacked on every side, he became a prominent man bj the single prestige of his talents and character." Under the influence of this association, which has suppressed internal Custom Houses, and established against foreign countries a common rate of duties, the manufacturing industry, commerce, and agricul- ture of the German States, which it embraces, have grown rapidly, and are fast becoming secure against English competition. Neither English diplomacy nor English money can open the doors of Ger- many to the doctrines of free trade. She has suffered too much in former days to be burnt again in the same fire. Spain was once distinguished for her manufactures and her wealth, but must now be classed among the producing nations, her exports consisting mainly of produce and raw material. Of her poverty and defenceless condition it is unnecessary to speak. England has left the marks of her policy in Spain as we may learn from the following paragraph in List's chapter on Spain and Portugal : " Thus all the English treaties of commerce exhibit a constant tendency to make every country, with which they negotiate, subser- vient to their industry and profit, offering to all af)parent advantages in the purchase of agricultural products and raw materials. Their constant effort has been to ruin the industry of other countries, by the cheapness of their manufactures, and by the length of their credits. When they cannot secure a low tariff, they try by fraud or cunning device to elude the duties, or to organize smuggling on a large scale; they succeeded, by the first plan, in Portugal, and by the second in Spain. The imposition of duties ad valorem upon impor- tations has been especially to their advantage ; it was with a view to this policy that they recently endeavored to discredit the system of duties by weight, established by Prussia." This seems to be a harsh judgment, and yet, when we consider the mercantile character of the English, and the temptations under which men labor to secure their own interests, we feel less surprise at what can hardly be denied. Millions of dollars worth of goods are annually introduced into New York, by means of fraudulent invoices under this same ad valorem system. I know of one instance, writes an intelligent merchant, where goods worth four thousand eight hundred francs, paid duty on twelve hundred only, and this is no doubt a fair sample of the way in which our laws are evaded, holding out, as they do, a direct, irresistible, and wholly needless EXPORTS AND iMfORtS. 19 temptation to wholesale fraud and perjury. These frauds, not only upon the revenue, but the labor of the country, are well known at Washington, but are regarded with very little attention or notice. What is true of Spain, is also true of Turkey, which is but a pro- ducing country, turned by England into a market for her manufac- tures, to which she sent, as we have seen, in 1857, 123,000,000 yards of cotton cloth alone, about 54,000,000 yards less than was sent to the United States. All the South American States, Central America, Mexico, and Cuba, are almost exclusively producing countries, their exports being of produce and raw material, which, as they have no home market, must, of course, be sent to a far distant one, at the usual sacrifice of price and cost of transportation. The usual result of poverty and weakness, as w^ell as, in many cases, degradation and vice, is also seen in all these countries. As a general rule, those who raise produce for a distant market consume nearly or quite the whole of it, if not more, before it leaves home. Accumulation is, there- fore, out of the question ; and where there is no accumulation there is no wealth, and consequently no strength. The producing nations thus afford an argument as strong in favor of the law which I have assumed to exist, as is furnished by the great manufacturing nations, England and France. Go where you will, you find the same relation between the exports of a nation and its physical and moral condition ; so that if we know the former, we can with safety pronounce upon the latter. In another article I propose to consider what is of most importance to ourselves, the condition of the United States as affected by, or proving this law. 20 EXPORTS AND IMPORTS. No. 6. United States. The United States must be classed among the producing nations, nine-tenths of our exports being of produce and raw material. Yet we have made rapid progress, and, in many respects, are greatly in advance of all other producing nations. For this, there are many reasons, and the most important one is that we belong to the ruling and foremost race of the world — the one which exhibits in their greatest perfection all those qualities of enterprise, energy, daring, prudence, thrift, love of order and love of home, which have helped make the English name so respected and feared throughout the world, and which no circumstances, nor any commercial system, however false, can wholly neutralize or depress. We have also an immense tide of emigration setting towards our shores — so great that, added to our natural increase, it swells our population to the extent of something like a million per annum. Again, we have immense natural advantages, embracing every soil and climate of the globe j millions of acres of virgin soil, not yet exhausted by the free trade process, offering such inducements and such rewards to the hand of labor as were never known in the history of the world. Our political institutions, also, are in the highest degree favorable to the development of energy and industry and intellectual activity, our mechanics being not only laborers, but legislators and inventors. Common schools distribute the elements of learning and a high average of intelligence throughout the land. Such are the unequalled advantages and natural resources in the hands of the unequalled Anglo-Saxon race. The Revolution left us poor and feeble, nor was it until, under the lead of Mr. Calhoun, we adopted the protective policy, that we started forward and developed with great rapidity our immense resources. Under this system, many of our States have accumu- lated considerable wealth, which has grown with the growth of our manufactures. What wealth we have, lies not in the producing, but in the manufacturing States, and it is on these States that the credit of our government is mainly based. EXPORTS AND IMPORTS. 21 It is well that we should not put too extravagant an estimate on our attainments in wealth and power. Men often err in over-estimating, but seldom in under-estimating, their property. Un- doubtedly, defended as we are by the Atlantic ocean, and the martial spirit of our people, we are invincible to any force that can be brought against us ; but that may be said of the Swiss mountaineers, and was for centuries true of the unbreeched Highlanders, whose wealth consisted in what they carried on their backs. The power that raises and equips large fleets and armies for foreign campaigns, like that of the Crimea, is something different from this, and is based on a solid accumulation of capital. We have accumulated a very large debt abroad where our State and railroad securities (nearly all very much below par) are held, and we pay over twenty millions of interest money per annum. It is the poor who borrow, not the rich. Our government is borrowing money to meet its daily wants, a process which savors not very much of wealth. Its credit is good, as far as it goes, without a technical national debt, but not so good as that of England, with a debt of considerably over $4,000,000,000. How far the credit of our gov- ernment, based partly on an annual crop of cotton and grain, for the most part consumed before it leaves home, would go in the way of raising and equipping an army of only 10,000 men, and a corres- ponding fleet for a two years' campaign in China, each one can judge for himself, and this is the test of wealth and power. How is it, that, with a population increasing at the rate of nearly a million per annum, we have been for years afraid to build a new factory or a new forge, and that those we have are not worth half the cost ? It is not because we have glutted our markets, because that has been done by England, who has sent over $100,000,000 of manufactured goods during the last year ; nor because we have over-supplied our foreign markets, since all our exports of manufactures, to all parts of the world, do not exceed $30,000,000 per annum. Our $300,000,000 of exported produce I regard as being evidence not of strength, but of weakness, as is the immense export of sugar and molasses from the Island of Cuba, which, if the Spanish armies and fleets were withdrawn, would be entirely defenceless, and the prey of the first comer. It may seem extravagant, but may be, nevertheless, true, that in any emergency which should test our resources as fitting out such an expedition, as I have supposed, to China, in connection with England and France, our capacity to raise 22 EXPORTS AND IMPORTS. money would compare with that of those two nations, as our exports of manufactures compares with theirs, that is, in the ratio of 30, 370, and 600, those being the number of millions of manufactured goods exported by each nation. A nation that exports to distant markets its cotton and corn in bulk, instead of working it up at home and then exporting it, is in a very poor way, and tending constantly to a lower grade of civilization and refinement. The last twelve years furnish abundant evidence of this. It stares us in the face in every direction. Such a system, instead of tending to diversify employments, which is the grand secret of national pros- perity, tends to reduce everything to a rude and unprofitable agri- culture, if such it can be called, impoverishing both to the land and to those who till it ; subjecting them to enormous taxes in trans- portation, and compelling them to sell at from 25 to 50 per cent, less than they could get from customers at home, if such were to be found. Our railroad securities all over the country are not worth an aver- age of half their par value, and we have failed in our attempt to support a line of ocean steamers. Where then shall we look for the evidence of our great wealth and power. If it exists at all, it is in the credit of the general government, for when a man has the real property he can borrow money on it. How far that credit would go must be a matter of conjecture, and as I have said, each one must judge for himself. In another article I propose to inquire into the condition of the producing portion of our country, and to see to what extent they are really entitled to credit, from which we may infer something as to the extent to which the credit of our general government might be extended. EXPORTS AND IMPORTS. 23 No. 7. The South and West. A farmer who is surrounded by his customers, and can sell his produce at his own door, realises 25 to 50 per cent, better prices than if he is obliged to send it to a distant market, to which also he must pay the cost of transportation. This, every farmer knows, and it is this home market which diversifies the products of his farm, enables him to return something each year to his land, bring the year about, and, by prudence and economy, perhaps, to save something for a rainy day. AVhere the farmer and manufacturer work together, each buy- ing of the other, there we see the most rapid accumulation of capital, as in the New England States. The farmer, however, is more de- pendent on the immediate vicinity of the manufacturer, than is the latter upon the immediate vicinity of the farmer. The operatives must eat, but their food maybe brought thousands of miles, as in the case of England. The farmer must also sell his produce, but if he has to send it several thousand miles he is engaged in a process which is impoverishing his land, and impoverishing himself Of course he cannot accumulate wealth, or enjoy the credit that is based upon wealth. The latter condition is precisely that of our slaveholding States, and those States exclusively engaged in agricultural pursuits — such a^ Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Kanzas, and Cali- fornia — the most impoverishing and demoralizing of all productive employments being that of mining for silver and gold. All the gold that has been dug has enriched neither the miner, nor the State, nor the world, but only reduced the relative value of that metal ; and it may be true, as has been said, that California has cost us four times as much as she is worth. The cotton and grain producing States have each one advantage over the other — offset, however, by a cor- responding disadvantage. The former are compelled to use the most expensive and impoverishing labor in the world, while they enjoy a monopoly of the article they raise, and are therefore better able to keep up the price. The grain growing States have no mo- nopoly of their produce, but must compete in the London market with the pauper labor of the grain growing regions of Europe, while, on the other hand, they enjoy the advantage over the South of more intelligent and profitable labor. 24 EXPORTS AND IMPORTS. Both South and West, under a free trade system which removes the farmer from the manufacturer and compels him to send his prod- uce at great loss and expense to a foreign market, labor under a very great disadvantage as compared with what their condition would be under a protective system, which builds up for them a home market and secures for them more remunerative prices. The South and West are poor, and from the necessity of the case must remain so, — certainly while they send their produce to foreign mar- kets.* As individual States they can enjoy but very limited credit ; and if they were joined in a confederacy, the new union would find it impossible to raise fleets and armies, build churches and colleges, and do all those things which pertain to a wealthy community. No producing nation ever did or ever can do these things. As before suggested, their crops are for the most consumed before they go to market, and oftentimes more than consumed, leaving them in debt and without the basis on which credit must rest. Strictly producing nations are unable to carry their own produce to market, still less to support fleets and armies. California 7 per cent, securities sell for 82 per cent., showing the lowest point of credit among the States, and that based upon an ex- port of over $50,000,000 of gold per annum. Now the producing States are twenty-one, out of the thirty-two composing the Union, while the great States of Ohio, New York, and Pennsylvania, al- though they have made considerable progress in manufactures, are still largely producing States. Notwithstanding, therefore, the capital accumulated in a few of the manufacturing States, we must conclude that the credit of the nation, which must be based on the wealth of the individual States, would not be equal to any large demand upon it, nor have we any reason, from the present state of things, to suppose otherwise. If these things are true, with what propriety can we call ourselves very rich and powerful, or compare ourselves, in either of these respects, with England and France. We can defend ourselves, no doubt ; but that, as we have seen, is not in itself alone a proof either of strength * " At St. Paul's, Minnesota, rents haTe declined from twenty-five to fifty per cent., while real estate has, on an average, lost one-third of last year's valuation. Outside the city the decrease has been greater. Wages have partaken of the downward tendency, and laborers who last year obtained $1,59 per day, are this year forced to be content with 90 cents. From. Iowa, too, there is a general cry of hard times. We hear of young men who have gone from this section to the West during the last six months, to seek employment, who came back with very diEferent notions of the resources of the West from what they had when they started, and purses sadly depleted." — [Boston Journal, Dec. 9, 1858. EXPORTS AND IMPORTS. 25 or of wealth, but only what was done by the Swiss Mountaineers or the Scotch Highlanders. The conclusions to which we must come, from the slight survey which my limits permit, is, that our real wealth is by no means what many suppose it to be, and that we have visibly declined, within the last few years, in all those elements which go to make up the strength of a nation. Against these facts, which can hardly be denied, I put the other great fact, that we are exporting to distant markets over $300,000,000 in produce and raw material, and only $30,000,000 of manufactured goods. The condition of the United States, then, with all the counteracting causes, of youth, virgin soil, race, and natural resources of all kinds, still adds its testimony in favor of the great law. No other nation ever flourished under such a system ; why should we expect to escape ? We have industry, invention, and energy, in the highest degree, but we cannot work miracles, we cannot control the laws of nature, or of trade. These still stand in our way. We can turn them both to our advantage, but we cannot alter them, whatever else we may do. What is true of Cuba, South America, Spain, and Turkey, must be true of ourselves, to a greater or less extent. No natural advantages of climate, or of race, can overcome the effects of a false system, though they may, for a time, postpone them, or diminish their force. In the end, all must submit to the law. Nothing is more vain than to suppose we can stand up against such tremendous odds as an export of $600,000,000 of manufactured goods, with only $30,000,000 on our side. Wherever England gets control of a market there she establishes a colony, in fact, whatever it may be in name. Gradually she brings it into her debt, and under the controlling influence of the great commercial centre. In one more article I propose to consider, briefly, the plausible, but most foolish, not to say absurd objection, ex- isting in the minds of many, that the protection of one interest or class of interests is at the expense of others. This is the principal difficulty in the way of a proper protective policy, and is the argu- ment you will hear used, on all occasions, by those who, either from want of thought, or servility to party, or some worse reason, if such there can be, would keep us perpetually under the depressing and ruinous influence of free trade with the great manufacturing nations of Europe. 4 26 • EXPORTS AND IMPORTS. No. 8. Protection to One is Protection to All. Without any such intention when I sent you the first article on Exports and Imports, I have been led on from step to step, until some of your readers have perhaps become tired of the subject. If any excuse were needed it might be found in its immense import- ance, not to one part of the country, but to all — to farmers and planters as well as manufacturers and miners. Unless we intend to run our ship entirely ashore, it is quite time that we should awake from our state of apathy and indifi'erence, and endeavor to exert what influence we have to help work off and avoid the breakers that threaten us. I have endeavored to show what is, perhaps, too obvious to be in need of proof, that nations become rich and powerful, civilized and refined, in the ratio which their manufactured exports bear to their exports of produce and raw material. The condition of all nations and of our own unites in proving the existence of this law, and that it is universal and in- variable. If this is true, we may well pause and consider of the course we are pursuing, of the fact that our exports are $300,000,- 000 in produce to $30,000,000 in manufactures, and that our legislation in 1846 and 1857 was intended, and operates constant- ly to increase this difference, and bring us, each year, nearer to the miserable condition of a merely producing nation. One of those popular fallacies which sometimes gain currency, and are used by designing men for some personal advantage of their own, is the common remark, that the protection of one inter- est is at the expense of others ; and so, from a most absurd and senseless jealousy of each other, we surrender our great industrial interests, throw away our advantages, and allow them to be reaped by foreigners and by the very people of whom we profess the greatest jealousy, against whom we thunder our patriotic speeches in Congress, and again, on each returning anniversary of our Dec- laration of Independence. We, each year, declare anew our Independence of Great Britain, and each year become, in fact, more in debt and more dependent EXPORTS AND IMPORTS. 27 on that nation, by throwing open our markets and allowing her to supply us with #100,000,000 worth of manufactured goods per annum. Nothing can exceed the patriotism of our speeches, un- less it is the want of it in our actions, and should Mustapha Rub-a- Dub pay us another visit and listen to some of our orators, he would, no doubt, find himself as much puzzled as ever, and ex- claim, as before, "what a wonderful people !" When a house is divided against itself it is exposed, of course, to the common ene- my. Let us look for a moment at this objection, that when we protect one interest we do so at the expense and to the injury of others. If it should prove entirely without foundation, how absurd will appear our conduct, quarrelling with each other, and making ourselves poor, in order to enrich and strengthen our foreign rival, of which we profess so much jealousy. Let us suppose, for instance, that only the single article of Iron was protected, and this so completely as to give our own market to'^our own manufacturers. Who, in this case, would be injured ? Certainly not those who require the cheapest, iron for railroads, or for other purposes, or the best iron, which the American is said to be, for the manufacture of rails and many other articles. Home competition, we know, is the severest of all, and necessarily brings the price down to the lowest living point, and lower than it could ever have been brought in any other wa)% as has been proved over and over again in the case of coarse cottons and other articles. No man can enjoy a monopoly in a business that is open to all, and the surest way to reduce an article to the lowest price is to secure to our own countrymen the exclusive right of making it. Competition does the work as surely as water runs down hill, and must always find its level. The consumer of the iron, then, is greatly benefited, instead of being injured, by what secures to our iron manufacturers the home market. The farmer is cer- tainly very much benefited by what gives him a home market and good prices for his produce ; the laborer and operative are bene- fited by what gives them employment and good wages ; while the physician, the lawyer, the minister, schoolmaster, editor, and mer- chant, together with all others who depend on the laboring and producing classes for support, are also greatly benefited. Who, then, is injured, supposing that only the single article of iron was protected, and all the rest left without protection ? For a short time, at first, consumers might have to pay a little more 28 EXPORTS AND IMPORTS. for tlieir iron, but tliey could pay in tlieir own way, and get a very much better price for their own goods, whether they were profes- sional, or agricultural, or mechanical, or railroad tickets. The extra price of iron, before competition, should reduce it to a lower point than it could ever have reached without protection, is noth- ing but the seed-corn which the farmer throws into the ground, that he may receive it back again an hundred fold. Every man, woman, and child in the country would receive immediate and di- rect benefit, then, if iron only was protected. The same is true of cotton. The present consumption of cotton, in this country, is en- tirely due to protection, and it can hardly be doubted that the ad- vantage of a double market is worth, to the planter, at least two cents per pound on his cotton, and it may bo much more than that while he gets in return a better and cheaper article of cotton drill- ing than he could obtain in any part of the world, if it was ad- mitted without duty — some of our coarser cotton manufactures having reached a point, sooner or later reached by all if sufficiently protected, when they can stand alone against foreign competition, and not only so, but furnish a cheaper and better article tlian can be obtained from abroad though it should be admitted, free of duty.* This would have been true of Iron before this time, had the Tariff of 1842 been allowed to remain — such are benefits of protection to the South and to the West. To suppose that manufacturers can enjoy a monopoly, in a business that is open to all, is absurd, and contradicted by the ex- perience of all business men. The great benefits of a protective tariff flow to other parties, rather than to the manufacturers, and a bill providing for such a tariff should be called a "bill to protect and secure the cotton planting and agricultural interests of the nation, together with labor of all descriptions, whether of the body or of the mind." This would be a perfectly proper and just de- * Mr. Nathan Apploton in his very interesting pamphlet upon the origin of Lowell, gives on page IG, tlio following changes in the price of the article of cotton cloth first nianti- facturod at AValtham. 1816, . . 30 cts. per yard. 1819, . - 21 " 182G, . - 13 " 1829, . - 8i " 1848, - - 6i " From that time pays Mr. Appleton, the price has fluctuated with the price of cotton from 7 to 9 cts. per yard. It is a very singular fact that precisely the same article first attempted in Waltliam forty years ago nhould lie the one called for ever since and made at the present day. EXPORTS AND IMPORTS. '29 scription of such a bill, which is supposed by some, both in and out of Congress, to be for ihc exclusive benefit of the manufacturers. The truth is that, when you protect manufactures, you protect every other interest, for all others are directly dependent on them, especially that of the farmer and planter. Instead of being a separate and distinct interest, as you might suppose from the language sometimes used, they constitute the great interests of each and every member of society, be he rich or poor, learned or unlearned, humble or exalted. They consume the farmer's prod- uce, the poor man's labor, the rich man's capital, the merchant's ship, and bring prosperity to all. Neglect them and all must suf- fer, as at the present time, and in the years preceding the tariffs of 1824, 1828, and 1842. Foster and protect them, and all must prosper, as in the years succeeding those dates. We have seen how important to the South, in a pecuniary point of view, is a protective tariff. It is important, also, for other and very grave reasons. When a nation is prosperous and the people employed, they are generally contented and happy, and not prone to run after abstractions, or seek causes for difference and quarrel. Such a state of things is highly desirable for the South, as well as for the North, and nothing will contribute so much to such a result as the abandonment, on the part of the South, of their free trade doctrines, delusive and absurd, because in the present condition of the world they are impracticable and impossible, and quite as fatal to the prosperity of the South and West, as to that of the East. England is making great efforts to obtain cotton from Af- rica and France, to get her supply from Algeria. There is reason to believe that the vast continent of Africa will become a cotton- growing region, and when that time comes the South will see more clearly the importance of building up a home market for her great staple.* * The following paragraph contains the whole sum and substance of the argument in favor of a protective policy, showing as it does the importance of a home market. New Cotton Market. Mr. Kendall writes to the Picayune, from New Braunfels, Texas: *' Our planters about here have a new market for their cotton — a market which was hardly thought of a few years since. In our streets can now be seen a long train of Mexican carts, all the way from Saltillo, picking up the cotton between this and the San Maroos, and lower down the country, all of which is destined for the Mexican factories beyond Monterey and the Sierra, Madre. The manufacturers there find it for their interest to send directly here to buy the cotton tliey require at tlie plantations, and send it off on the long journey in the rude carts of the country. Our plantees, meanwhile, receive better prices than tuet COULD POSSIBLT OBTAIN BY SENSING THEIR COTTON TO INDIANOLA OR QaLVESTON." 30 EXPORTS AND IMPORTS. The only chance for ^prosperity, to the jjroducer, is, that he can secure to himself a home market. If he depends on a distant market, his poverty and dependence are certain and inevitable. Mis true and only policy is, to bring his customers, as near as possible, to his own door, and thus raise up consumers at home for the products of his farm or his plantation. Protection does this, and the producer is the party most benefited by it, if either party has the largest share in a common and universal prosperity. Food and raw materials are not so much wealth as the means of producing wealth. The greatest mistake, therefore, that a na- tion can make is, to send away its materials to be worked up into wealth by others. No nation that does so should boast much of its shrewdness or intelligence. It is obvious, therefore, that our true and only policy is to protect our manufactures and increase the export of them, while we diminish, as fast as possible, the export of our raw materials, by consuming them ourselves. This is the policy which has made England so rich and so powerful, and to keep us from adopting it her manufacturers have raised large sums for the purpose of circulating Free Trade docu- ments in the United States. Fifty thousand dollars were sub- scribed by twenty firms in Manchester, Glasgow, and Leeds, for that purpose, just before the passage of our Tariff of 1846, and more will doubtless be ready when wanted to bear upon our legis- lation at Washington.*' It is quite time that we should be look- ing after our own interests, as we may be sure others will do in regard to theirs. Having endeavored, to the extent of my humble means, to arouse the attention of the people, too long indifferent upon a sub- ject of such vital consequence to individuals, to the nation, in every point of view, and to every conceivable interest, I take leave of your readers, with the hope that other and abler hands may be induced to take hold of this work, before we have lost many more millions of dollars, or sunk much further into the abyss of national bankruptcy and colonial dependence. * Abraham Lees, Manchester, $100; fl. Lees & Brother, Manchester, §200; Alfred Ringen, Manchester, $1,000; J. & N. Phillips & Co., Manchester, $2,500; Wm. Walker, Manchester, $1,000; Alfred Orrel, Manchester, $1,000; George Foster, Manchester, $1,000; Others in Manchester, $10,000; The Lord Prevost, Glasgow, $500; A. & J. Dunistown, Glasgow, $1,000; Chas. Tennant & Co., Glasgow, $1,000; Wm. Dixon, Glasgow, $1,000; Samuel Iligginbotham , Glasgow, $1,000; Dunlop, Wilson & Co., Glasgow, $1,000; Others in Glasgow, over $11,000; Marshall & Co., Leeds, $2,500; Others in Leeds, $9,000; AcKtoy & Sous, Halifax, $1,000? Others in HaUfax, $5,500; Total, $51,300. *ri:i':'^L ■'-it's