'The aggregate values, as stated in 1810, were probably one half short of the real values at that time. The returns of 1820 are so defective as to be useless for any general purpose, and were rightfully suppressed.' COTTON. 'The Cotton manufacture in the United States has advanced with irresistible energy, being protected by the national government, to the incalculable advantage of all parties-planters, manufacturers and farmers; the first, in supplying the material, and the last in feeding the people employed in making cloth, &c. In 1808, there were only about 8,000 spindles; all in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut, and not more than 300,000 lbs. of cotton were used in them. In the present year the mills will use about 70,000,000lbs. and before 1830, upwards of one hundred millions, unless some suicidal policy should be adopted by Congress. What a market is thus created! The goods made by our own mills are the cheapest and best in the world. They have driven like British goods out of every market accessible to us as to them, though our great rival has attempted to counterfeit our goods, in numerous instances, to deceive the people of Mexico and South America. Some small parcels of our goods have been smuggled into England, by way of experiment, and were sold at a good profit. A thousand bales were exported from Baltimore to foreign places in one week of the last month (August);* large quantities are shipped to the Mediterranean, and many bales have been sent to Canton! They would These bales contain about 700 yards, the average value may be put down at 75 dollars, and the raw cotton required for the manufacture, at 200 lbs. Let us see the result of this ordinary operation, $ 75,000 Deduct the value of 20,000 lbs. of cotton at 10 cents 20,000 $ 55,000 Leaving 55,000 dollars actual profit on domestic labour, or for capital employed, and a clear gain to that amount to the country, as not one cent's worth less of value would have been exported had these goods never been made; and there is a considerable difference on account of freight, because of the longer voyages of the vessels carrying out the goods. It is probable that about 3,000 bales of cottons have been exported from Baltimore since the first of April last to countries beyond Cape Horn, besides many have been sent to Mexico, Brazil, &c. drive the like British or India goods out of Calcutta, were their importation thereat liberally allowed! There is nothing more than sober truth in these statements; but how wonderful are the changes that have taken place! "The following amount of the foreign exportation of domestic goods from the port of New York, published in the "Statesman," is highly interesting : In 1824 the shipments from New York to foreign "Should the shipment of the remaining four months of 1827 keep pace with the previous part of the year, they will amount to 3,125 packages, about 500,000 dollars value, and from a single port, be it remembered. The kind of goods exported, it should also be remembered, are those that have been protected by government. The finer goods we do not export, nor even manufacture our own supplies.' 'It is supposed that about 4 or 4 pounds of raw cotton, is the average daily amount used for each person employed in our cotton mills, the weavers not being counted. The bale of cotton, some weighing much more and some less, may be generally taken as a quantity representing nearly 400 lbs. 'Much cotton printing is doing at several places. Taunton, Massachusetts, and Dover, New Hampshire, are among the most famous; at the first named, 2,000 pieces are printed weekly, and the quantity is increasing; much also is printed at the Warren factory, near Baltimore, at which between 900 and 1,000 persons are subsisted. These prints are all of coarse cottons; but the finer fabrics will be made, and sold cheaper than at present, if the minimum is advanced as suggested. Great preparations are making to extend this business. 'Six hundred and twenty-five thousand lbs. of cotton are annually manufactured in Oneida county, New York. The product of labour employed in the manufactories is estimated at 300,000 dollars a year. There are many other besides those of cotton; but not much is doing in the woollen business. 'In 1784 an American vessel was seized by the officers of the customs at Liverpool, for having on board eight bales of cotton, supposed not to be of the growth of the United States. 'Large quantities of American manufactured cotton goods are exported from New York to Canada, and the people are supplied with cottons cheaper than they can import them from England, the import duty of 15 per cent. being honestly paid. 'During the year ending on the 1st October 1827, there was exported from Petersburgh, Va. 36,780 bales of cotton, to wit, 16,094 coastwise, and 20,686 to foreign places. Some part of this quantity was the product of North Carolina; but not a bale of Virginia cotton was exported a little while ago. 'Cotton is cultivated in Indiana and Illinois, but not extensively. Its quality is said to equal that of Tennessee. Its manufacture has commenced. 'Fifteen thousand yards of cotton cloth are wove daily at Lowel, Massachusetts. 6 Greece, with the islands, emancipated and under settled government, is capable of supplying cotton, perhaps, nearly equal to the usual production of the United States, and at a much lower rate, because of the more moderate cost of labour. The quality also is excellent. Large quantities were heretofore manufactured in, as well as exported from Greece. British supplies were drawn from the Levant, assisted by some from the West Indies, previous to 1790. 'It is asserted that the crop of cotton in the United States exceeded 900,000 bales in 1826, * and the present year's crop, (without accident) it is supposed will amount to 1,000,000! If the price shall yet further fall, though it does not appear to yield the planter an average of more than 8 cents, let not the Tariff be blamed for it! The more we export of this great commodity, the less it generally brings us, as may be seen by a reference to the large table of exports and imports in a previous page. The year's crop being usually successful, and the quantity a million of bales, we fear that not more than six cents can be realized for it. The increase goes far beyond the increasing demand. Much is said in some of the cotton growing states about making bagging out of cotton, to reduce the excess, and because of the duty upon the imported article. The cost at Dundee of foreign bagging is about 14 cents; the duty is 3 cents per square yard, equal to 44 cents per running yard, or only at the rate of 33 per cent, an amount moderate enough for " protection." The Natchez "Ariel," speaking of the complaints against the present high price of bagging, because of the failure of the hemp crops in Kentucky last year, observes, "We have seen the article bring 50 cents per yard, when there was no Tariff, and again 15 cents after the first duty was imposed. It must also be recollected, that the bagging now made in Kentucky, is fully 10 cents per yard better than it was in the years previous to 1820 or 1821. "The following items are particularly addressed to the consideration of the cotton planters. If we have not exceedingly mistaken *The receipt at New Orleans of the crop of 1826, up to the 1st September last, was 336,000 bales, 85,000 more than in the preceding year, though in that, because of the high price, every pound was pushed to market. the facts, they are of overwhelming importance to this great interest of our country. We request that attention may be paid to the dates. 'For six years previous to 1816, the average importation of East India cotton into Great Britain, was 84,148 bales. 'But in 1816, the price of our uplands having advanced to 28 cents, 117,000 bales of East India cotton were imported in 1817; and the price rising to 32 cents, the quantity was increased to 247,604 bales in 1818! This caused a sudden fall of 7 cents per lb. in the price of our cotton in January 1819, and it further declined to 16 cents in 1820; and, ranging between 10 and 15 cents in 1821, 1822, 1823 and 1824, the importation of East India cotton was only 60,484 bales in 1825, leaving a stock on hand of 81,450 on the 1st January, 1826. 'During the last bubble, on the arrival of the news at Calcutta, of the high price of cotton in England, a large ship, on the point of sailing for Canton with cotton, was sent to Liverpool; when she arrived, the bubble had burst, and the owners of the ship and cargo lost 40,000 pounds sterling, compared with what would have been a fair result had the vessel proceeded as originally destined! And in these fluctuations, though so destructive in their effects, is one of the great causes why very large importations of East India are not oftener made, to add to the difficulties of the American planters, and re-act the ruin that followed the imports of 1818. In the long period required to send out advices and receive cargoes, the price of cotton may easily decline 50 per cent. And it is only when the price is pretty good, that great quantities of Bengal and Surat cottons are desired. 'But, when our cotton is worth 18 cents per lb. our own manufacturers can afford to pay three cents per lb. duty on the East India article, and use it to advantage. That is, at all those mills whose machinery is fitted to the spinning of it. The writer of this has seen a large parcel of it in one of our mills, and the proprietor told him it was (at that time) cheaper than the domestic product. 'The chief part of the coarse cotton goods which Great Britain had exported to the United States, and to Mexico and South America, were made out of East India cotton. We have seen several specimens of those sent to Rio Janeiro, &c. marked and stamped, or put up as American goods, the material of which, as decided by practical men, was East Indian. And when an article, in its first cost, is only nine or ten cents per yard, one cent in the yard is a large profit. This is the difference between American and East India cotton. At Liverpool, on the 25th August last, the price of uplands was from 5d. to 74d.; of East Indian 44d. to 44d.; average difference 2d. or 4 cents per lb. or in the cost of material for one yard of cloth, one cent. * Now, when these facts are duly weighed, and it is considered that the domestic manufacture of cotton is from 150,000 to 175,000 bales, does it not appear entirely reasonable to suppose, that our home supply and foreign export of cotton goods, rivalling or surpassing the British, and compelling them to improve the QUALITY of theirs, must have the effect to cause the consumption of 100 or 150,000 bales more of our cotton that would be used, except on account of our vigorous and bold competition with the British manufacturers? It is not in the nature of things that positive proof of what is here suggested should be offered, but we leave it to the deliberate judgment of all parties, to determine whether there is not something like a moral certainty in our proposition. There is no manner of doubt resting upon our minds of its reality. And this great extra consumption is added to the security and rivalry of the home market, for the benefit of the planters. They will all see and know this in a few years; and then feel the importance of domestic manufactures, as the growers of grain and of wool now regard them to be. 'The circular letter of Cropper, Benson & Co. of Liverpool, of the 27th September 1822, on the progress and prospects of cotton planting in the United States, is, probably, in the hands of many of our readers. The whole is of deep interest; but we shall take only one or two of its parts. "They say," The bale of cotton which the planter can sell for 41. 10s. cannot be delivered to the British manufacturer for less than 91.; and when to this the expense of manufacturing is added, the whole cannot be conveyed back to the planter without an addition of fully fifty per cent. in duty and profit. Then we may fairly say, that, in exporting cotton and importing manufactured goods, the planter pays 100 per cent. on the wages paid in England, and he would gain an advantage to this extent if he manufactured them at home. Perhaps it will be said that wages are higher; let us examine this. The average produce of a slave's labour is 14 bags of cotton, or 67. 15s., being about 5d. per working day. Now we think we do not over rate the earnings of a whole family in our cotton manufacturing districts, if we take them at 5s. per week, reckoning the whole population, whether able to work or not. Five shillings per week is 10d. per day; yet the planter now gives 100 per cent, which makes 20d." 'Let us partially apply the facts stated in this extract: British twist, N° 20, is now selling at 18s. for 10 lbs. say 40 cents per lb. and as good American twist for only 32 cents 3 mills per pound, a difference of nearly 20 per cent. in favour of this first manufacture of our article; and, admitting that nothing further is gained or lost * Unless the present low price be yet reduced, in not less than two cents per pound. |