Full text of The Merchants' Magazine and Commercial Review : August 1841, Vol. V, No. II

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H UN T ’ S

MERCHANTS’ MAGAZINE.
A U G U S T ,

A

rt.

1841.

I.— T H E C O M M E R C IA L H IS T O R Y O F F R A N C E .
I.

THE BOURBONS BEFORE THE REVOLUTION.
C o u l d the marshals who paid, a few months ago, the last tribute to the
Emperor Napoleon, have reviewed the revolutions in which they stood by
his side ; or, going further, have called up before them the memory o f the
convulsions in the midst o f which their childhood had passed, they would
have brought together the materials for a drama more bold than the most
imaginative poet could have conceived, and yet as strictly shackled by the
laws o f unity as could have been required by the most rigid censor. The
course o f an ordinary lifetime was sufficient to cover the humiliation and
overthrow o f the most absolute dynasty in Europe ; the subsequent con­
struction o f a dem ocracy, the most licentious; the establishment o f an
empire the most splondid ; and finally, after every note had been struck
to which the finger o f the speculatist could reach, the erection o f a mon­
archy whose chief characteristic is its freedom from the points that more
prominently distinguished its predecessors. The Bourbons were dethron­
ed because they paid no attention to the demands o f the lower classes;
and after them arose a system which was ineffectual, because it paid at­
tention to nothing else. The empire was built on the experience o f the'
structures whose place it was to supply; and while, on the one hand, by
means o f its splendid victories and munificent improvements, it conciliated
the affections o f the third estate, it preserved to its founder the supreme
authority, untrammelled by the restraints which a representative govern­
ment would throw over him.
The administration o f Louis Philippe, like
a shuttlecock, which can only be kept above-ground by being kept in
motion, has passed from policy to policy with a swiftness so great, that it
is difficult to discover in it the existence o f those great characteristics
which marked the establishments which it follows. There has been a
steady progress, we acknowledge, since the revolution o f 1830, to an in­
creased liberalization o f the state. Its finances have been placed in an
vol. v .— no. n.
14




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The Commercial History o f France.

order which gradually approaches, in its symmetry, to the model which is
afforded by those o f Great Britain. W hile the political constitution o f the
realm has varied from shape to shape, its commercial energies have ex­
panded to an extent which will oppose a barrier to the encroachments o f
prerogative, which it will require a second revolution to overthrow. The
smallest manufactory at Lyons is a republic in itself; and by its looms,
or at its engine, stand men who have learnt in the best school which the
philosopher can devise, the value and the extent o f their rights. The
peasant, who lifted his arm against the crying oppression and the gross
licentiousness o f Louis X V ., has been followed by the well-fed and enter­
prising manufacturer, who still retains, in the increased advantages which
he possesses for self-defence, the spirit which would enable him to make
use o f them. W e traced, in a preceding number, the course by which a
private bank, started by a Scotch adventurer in Paris, arose to a pitch o f
credit and o f strength so great, that it involved in its existence the tem­
porary prosperity and the immediate resources o f the state. W e might
rehearse at present, as a fit introduction to a consideration o f the commer­
cial history o f the French nation, the bold assumptions by which it drew
within its vaults the entire circulation o f the kingdom, till after having
fairly taken on board the floating wealth which was thus brought together,
it foundered in the first storm, and cast its treasures in wreck on the
shore, to be snatched up by the officers o f the customs as the prizes o f the
king’s prerogative. T h e history o f the Mississippi Scheme is the best
illustration which can be brought forward, o f the profligacy o f the times
that produced it. W e proceed, in carrying out the plan which we sug­
gested in the summary which we have already given o f its operations, to
consider the condition o f the actual resources o f the realm, in the period
that intervened between the bankruptcy under Louis X V ., and the revolu­
tion under his successor.
“ I may be blamed for having neglected the agricultural resources o f
the realm,” said Calonne, when delivering his last a ccou n t; “ but if I
have done so, it has been because my whole administration has been de­
voted to the fostering o f its manufactures.” The principle o f Louis X IV .,
that the producing and the working classes must ever remain hostile, had
led the court, in choosing which o f the antagonist interests it should pre­
fer, to bestow its patronage on that which possessed the most available
means at hand. The silk and porcelain manufactories were growing up
with a rapidity that had startled the old economists from theories which they
had drawn from the sluggish movements o f the landed capitalists. The
shackles which a little while after were laid on trade, were not then in
existence ; and the operations o f the French merchants were extending
over the continent under the privilege with which they were endowed, o f
pursuing their schemes without the interference o f the king or his council.
W hile the native productions o f the realm were rapidly vanishing, its
manufactures, whether they were framed from the resources which were
supplied at home, or from the raw material from other countries, increased
till they obtained throughout Europe a market which opened to them a
source o f boundless wealth. Had the commerce o f France been left to
itself by the civil administration, and had it been properly backed by her
producing interests, it would have preserved, in all probability, to the
present moment, the supremacy, both in east and west, to which it had at
first attained.




The Commercial History o f France.

107

W hen the feudal tenures were abolished in Great Britain, they opened
to the tenant himself the prospects o f self-advancement, which the freehold
possession o f his land afforded to him. H e was master o f the soil, unclogr ged by those unwise restrictions, which could rob him o f the feeling o f
independence, and place him in the position o f a slave, rather than o f a
citizen. The sharpest incentive to labor, is the certainty o f reaping its
fruits. The laboring man will never sow that the wild-fowl may gather ;
and when he finds that the taxes which gild the royal nest, eat away threefourths o f what he produces, he throws aside his spade, and falls back on
pauperism, as the most likely means o f support. W hen the military ser­
vices which were due from the tenant to the lord paramount, were com ­
muted into a pecuniary tax, it affected those only who ceased, under its
provisions, to bear arms ; while the nobles and gentlemen who followed
the court, were discharged from the payment o f money, on the ground
that they continued to perform the military services for which it was in­
tended to be a compensation. But when, after a while, both peer and
peasant became liable to be called upon to serve in the armies o f the king,
nothing could be more unjust than a distinction which was based upon a
principle which no longer existed. T h e nobleman was discharged from
tax-paying, because he was liable to be drawn into military service ; the
people themselves, though they had consented to a tax on condition they
should be relieved from bearing arms, w ere forced, before a great while,
to perform the duty, from the obligations o f which they had been by con ­
tract discharged. The consequence was, that the whole burden o f the
realm fell on the minor proprietors o f the soil, who were forced to pay, not
only for their own oppression, but for the extravagance o f the overseers
who imposed it. The burden it would be difficult to estimate by the ordi­
nary rules o f political econom y. T h e lands alone were taxed at one tenth
o f their value ; while every article which they produced, after having been
subject to the exactions which the remains o f the feudal system placed in
the hands o f the lord paramount, was brought under the ordeal o f a heavy
excise. There was no distinction made between what was necessary for
every-day use, and for exportation or luxury. Salt was in great demand
by the lower classes, as the only relish which they could obtain to flavor
their rough fo o d ; and therefore, salt became the subject o f a heavy
impost. If it was discovered that the revenue o f the approaching season
would be insufficient to meet the expenditures, the court, by an edict o f a
character so despotic that it is difficult to imagine authority absolute
enough to support it, would lower the value o f the coin before tbe tax was
collected ; and then, when their treasury was rich with the unusual prize,
raise it again to its former standard. That vast achievement o f fraud and
violence, which in a former number we described, and which involved the
smaller proprietors o f the kingdom in a bankruptcy which pushed them to
utter ruin, is the most striking illustration which we can bring forward,
o f the recklessness o f the financial policy o f France before the adminis­
tration o f N ecker.
It may not be out o f place at present, to explain briefly the character
o f the French tenures, as they existed at the accession o f Louis X V I.
W h o is there, who looks at the masses who sprang up when the first
trumpet was sounded, without wondering from what quarter they had
come, or under what auspices they had been diverted so totally from that
natural love o f the soil on which they had grown, and the cottages in*




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The Commercial History o f France.

which they had dwelt, which in other countries bears so powerful an
influence ? The French revolutionist was without a home, and we may
say, without a country. He was deprived o f a freehold interest in the
soil, and was deprived, therefore, o f a corporate interest in its welfare.
That men will be found, under the most favorable circumstances, who will
refuse to earn a livelihood by their own industry, or retain that which was
transmitted to them by others, there is no dou bt; but in France, at the
period that preceded the revolution, two thirds o f the population were out­
casts. T h ey were bankrupt and homeless ; and we think that it may be
said to have been the leading cause o f the convulsion which succeeded,
that they who produced it had no means o f subsistence, except in the con­
fusion it should afford. W ith a gigantic effort o f despair, they tore up the
forest that shaded them, to seek amid its roots the food which should sup­
ply their hunger. Th ey were in a condition which has been called inter­
mediate between slavery and freedom ; but if they were subject to the
responsibilities o f the latter state, they were equally bound by the restraints o f the former. The M etayers, or, as they were named in Latin,
the Coloni Partiarii, formed the greater part o f the out-door laborers
under the old econom y ; and though their immunities were greater than
those o f the old English villains, we cannot but believe that in many in­
stances, the superior privileges with which they were intrusted became
additional links in their shackles. The great proprietor, though without
an absolute ownership o f the land, was able, through the possession o f the
capital with which its stock was to be bought, and its implements to be
provided, to reduce its cultivators into vassalage. A s the farmer was
unable to pay immediately the sum thus borrowed, he bound his land as
security through a perpetual rent, by which he stipulated to pay half its
produce to the proprietor. “ It could never,” says Adam Smith, “ be the
interest o f the metayers to lay out, in the further improvement o f the land,
any part o f the little stock which they might save from their own share
o f the produce, because the lord, who laid out nothing, was to get one half
o f whatever it produced.”
The substraction o f a tithe from the annual
produce o f land, has a sensible effect in diminishing the tenant’s expenditure for its im provem ent; and when one half o f its value is taken from
his hands, he must possess still less disposition to throw the scanty fund
that will remain after his immediate expenses are paid, into so barren an
investment. It was very natural, therefore, that in a country where five
parts out o f six o f the cultivators held their land by so oppressive a ten­
ure, the landlords found that the land grew yearly more barren, their rents
m ore irregular, and their estates less productive. It may palliate the bit­
terness o f the first insurrectionists, we may be permitted to add, to reflect
that they were slaves in every thing but in the exemption from self-sup­
port which slavery affords ; and that they pressed, like the wolf, to the
road-side, from the frozen hills in which they could no longer be nourished,
to prolong their existence by a recourse to those primary laws which a state
o f desperation recalls.
W e pass over, as foreign to the subject at present before us, the consideration o f French taxation, as finally developed in the reign o f Louis
X V . W e might argue, with Necker, that as the productiveness o f the land
must vary with the extent o f the burdens with which it is laden, and as its
political welfare, as well as its commercial existence, must depend upon its
productiveness, the extent in which its taxes are imposed must affect, in the




The Commercial History o f France.

109

highest degree, its mercantile interests. But when the revenue itself is
made a tool in the hands o f a favored class, for the conferring o f bounties
on manufactures in which they are interested ; or when, in order to raise
it, discriminating duties or imposts are laid which overturn the natural
laws o f trade ; it becomes justly the object o f deep observation, both by
the merchant and the political economist. N o scheme more plausible
could have been presented to Louis X IV ., when his funds were exhausted
by his splendid career o f empty triumphs, than that which was brought
before him by Colbert, for the raising o f a fresh revenue, at the same time
that home manufactures were encouraged. A sudden stimulus was given
to the looms o f Lyons and o f Nantes ; and, in a little while, the French
capitalist flattered himself that while his wealth was increased by orders
from every port in Europe, there was not an article imported within the
shores o f France which he found it necessary to purchase. By the tariff
o f 1667, duties were imposed that threw the whole patronage o f the nation
in the hands o f its manufacturers. But the system was hardly in opera­
tion, before the natural balance o f trade was destroyed ; and the English
and Dutch, finding that their commodities were no longer o f value in the
French market, thought themselves called upon to make French commod­
ities o f no value in their own. The Dutch laid an entire embargo on the
wines, brandies, and manufactures that came from France. W illiam III.,
who was doubly incensed with the French for harboring his father-in-law,
and for taxing his exports, retaliated with a severity which has been the
source o f continued bickering between the countries, and more than once
the cause o f war. A discriminating duty o f £ 8 a tun was imposed, in
1693, on French wine, which, in 1697, was raised to £ 3 3 a tun.
The
consequences have been, though we may be anticipating future topics in
adverting to them, that the seaports o f France, which, in some cases, are
nearer the shores o f England than those o f Ireland herself, and which, in
all cases, are com m ercially more connected with Liverpeol, or with Bris­
tol, than they are with Paris, have been thrown, through the “ ingenuity”
o f the restrictive laws o f both countries, at such a distance, that the famil­
iar productions which they bear, are more inaccessible than if they were
raised in the sands o f Africa, or the wilds o f the Pacific islands.
It was not without reason that Calonne, when be surveyed the great
kingdom which was intrusted to his charge, saw in it the future manufac­
tory from which Europe should be clothed, if not the granary from which
it was to be fed.
Spread, as they are, under a bright sky and a temper­
ate climate, those broad and fertile plains which have been made the
camps o f revolutionary armies, or the base on which Napoleon erected
those stupendous calculations that overthrew the feeble and threadbare
policy on which the old econom y was built, might have become, under
other circumstances, the scene o f triumphs more substantial by far than
those which his arms have won. W e shall review, when in a succeeding
paper we speak o f the present condition o f the com m erce o f France, the
resources which she now possesses, and the extent to which they are cul­
tivated. W e transcribe, at present, a table o f her imports and exports
before the revolution, which is collected from N ecker’s work on the ad­
ministration o f the finances, and which may be relied on, as giving the
most accurate account o f the commercial relations o f the kingdom at that
important period.




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The Commercial History o f France.
Articles o f Export in 1787.
W i n e s , ...........................................
24,276,000
B r a n d y , ...........................................
14,455,000
Vinegar,
.
.
.
.
.
130,000
244,000
Made wines and liqueurs,
1,518,500
Fruits,
.
.
.
.
.
Almonds, .
.
.
.
.
850,000
1,732,000
Olive oil, .
.
.
.
.
9,700,000
Corn and grain o f all kinds,
949,200
Beans, peas, lentils, & c.
644,000
H oney,
.
.
.
.
.
5,074,000
Oxen, sheep, and hogs,
1,400,000
Mules, asses, and horses,
2,322,000
Salt, ,
*
,
•
•
,

It must be remembered, that owing to the severe restrictions under which
French manufactures were placed in foreign countries, a large amount o f
goods passed through the hands o f smugglers, without being subject to a
registry in the customhouse. It will be seen by a reference to the follow­
ing statement, that such must have been the case very strongly in relation
to those carried into Great Britain. The proportion in which the various
countries with which the trade, was carried on, participated in it in the
year 1787, is thus exhibited :
Exports.

Spain and her colonies,
, , , . . Ls.44,431,000
Portugal and her c o lo n i e s ,.......$3,995,000
Italy, Savoy, Switzerland, and
Geneva, 78,343,000
England, Scotland, Ireland, and colonies, 37,962,000
Holland and c o l o n i e s , .....
46,022,000
Germany, Austrian Flanders, Prussia,
and Poland,
.....................................
95,614,000
Sweden, Denmark, Russia, and Hanse
towns,
.................................................
79,851,000
T urkey, and the Barbary powers, . .
25,609,000
United States o f America,
, , . .
12,607,000

Imports.

L s .33,343,000
10.468.000
82.022.000
63.054.000
$33,142,000
63.974.000
31.648.000
37.725.000
24,539,000*

W e can gather, therefore, so far at least as Spain, the Italian states,
and Germany are concerned, the actual amount o f the foreign trade o f
France, in the first moment o f the revolution. M. Arnould, in a work
which is largely quoted by a writer whom we have before us, has analyzed
with great sagacity the data which were so copiously afforded by N ecker
in his various reports, and has produced a view o f the commercial condi­
tion o f the nation at the time, which is worthy o f attentive consideration.
T h e exportations in 1787, to all parts o f the world, he calculated, amount­
ed to 542,604,000 liv re s; the importations to 611,003,000 livres : the
* T he foregoing statement o f the exports and imports o f France in the year 1787, is
taken from Peuchet’s great work on French statistics, as abridged by Mr. Taylor— pp,
127, 8, 9. It may be also found, though in an expanded form, both in M . Necker’s
history o f the finances o f France, and in his Compte rendu <m Roi. W e have given it
as it is, without alteration o f nomenclature, because the value which it then conveyed,
can be better expressed by a reference to the denominations curtent at the time, than by
$ reduction to our own standard.




The Commercial History o f France.

I ll

balance against France being, in consequence, 68,399,000 livres. The
amount thus due, and which must have been paid from the bullion o f the
realm, or its current coin, was much smaller than it had been at previous
periods, and, in fact, had been gradually diminished through the increased
excellence o f the silk manufactures. So great an inequality in trade, com ­
bined with the terrible oppression which was produced by the unequal
tenures, and the enormous taxes o f the kingdom, can go some way to
explain the extent o f the sufferings o f the people who experienced them.
The colonial grandeur o f France exists now only in history. Those
magnificent conquests, which her merchants and her privateers had
achieved on their own resources, were snatched one by one from her
when her government assumed them for a heritage. A notice o f the re­
sources o f the nation before the revolution, would not be complete without
a sketch o f the colonies that constituted the most lucrative and the most
promising among them. A century ago, two thirds o f North Am erica
was in the hands o f the French government. A t the south, Louisiana
was the base on which were erected those stupendous schemes, which
would have covered the continent had they been carried o u t; while, at
the opposite quarter o f the horizon, was stretched a country, which had
been conquered and peopled exclusively by French colonists and French
traders. In Canada and Louisiana were the abutments on which the new
system was to r e s t; and in the vast country that intervened, there were
thousands o f artificers employed on the structure that was to unite them.
Already a series o f forts hung around the thread which the Mississippi
and its great tributary traced out, shining to the French adventurer, as he
travelled over those boundless prairies which bordered on them, as bea­
cons by which his path was to be guided. Xerxes stretched an iron chain
across the H ellespont: it was reserved for the genius o f Colbert and
Henry to extend over the unpeopled wastes o f North Am erica, another o f
far more imposing dimensions. T o obtain the exclusive control o f the
Newfoundland fishery, the northwestern fur trade, and the Mexican gold
mines,— to lay the foundation, at the same time, for an empire that should
spread over the new world,— was the cardinal measure which dictated the
colonial policy o f the French government, from the accession o f Mazarine
to the death o f Henry. The fisheries at the mouth o f the St. Lawrence,
were used as an illustration o f the rich prey that was thus to be secured.
“ W e are planting,” might have reasoned Mazarine, “ at the foot o f the
Mississippi, and by the course o f the St. Law rence, the stakes on which
hangs the net which shall soon sweep over Am erica. Already, along the
shores of those great rivers, may be seen the buoys that mark the swoop
which it has taken. The bravest soldiers,— the most hardy pioneers,—
stand along its line, to watch it, and to keep fast its moorings. The day
is coming, when the king o f France, with one hand on its southern base,
the other at its northern limit, shall draw it over the face o f the continent,
till the English colonies are swept away in its meshes.”
In the most
inaccessible posts o f the western territories, there were stationed garrisons
who, by their discipline, intimidated the fiercest o f the tribes around them,
or bought over, through the baubles that formed the medium o f exchange,
such as could not be intimidated. In those remote countries which are
spread between the Mississippi and the Pacific,— in points the most distant
from habitation— where the broken skeleton o f a buffalo alone, or the
blazed patch on which an Indian camp has stood, betray the p.esen ce o f




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The Commercial History o f France.

mankind,— the hunter sees traces o f lofty mounds and wide fortifications,
which he can only account for, by dating them back to an era when
another race possessed the land. The French colonial establishment, like
a precocious child which exhausts its strength in the erection o f gigantic
playthings, made the valley o f the Mississippi the theatre on which its
waywardness should be displayed ; and drew together from distant quar­
ries, through roads which it required a regiment by itself to construct,
those yast blocks which now form its only monument.
The student looks in vain to discover those great cities, which were bla­
zoned out in the old French charts, as the Babylons o f the new world,
Louisburg, the cathedral city o f the church o f Rome, the destined capital
o f the French dominions in Am erica, is reduced to a scanty collection o f
fishermen’s huts ; and that spacious harbor, in which rival fleets floated
at anchor, and which was the scene o f the first great sea-fight between
France and England, is disturbed only by fishing-boats from Newfoundland,
or whalers from the N ew England states. Could a poet be found, who
could visit the graveyard o f nations, and, like Gray, draw out the elegy
o f those who were interred therein, he would find that, besides the giants
o f the old world, who arose to their full strength, who passed through the
vicissitudes o f spring, and fall, and winter, and who sank at last as much
from the decrepitude o f old age, as the violence o f enemies,— there were
others who decayed before their manhood was arrived, through the ex­
haustion o f premature exertions, or the sterility o f their transplanted soil,
L ike a plant which is carried to a foreign climate, and there raised under
the protection o f hot-house growth to an unnatural luxuriance, the French
colonies in North Am erica spread their tendrils widely over the soil, and
threw forth, in the full excitement o f their strength, their roots, till they
w ere checked by the impassable barriers o f nature. Th ey had reached'
the utmost limits o f expansion when the war broke o u t; and suddenly, the
nurse who had watched over them withdrew her care, and they were left
to battle single-handed against the violence o f their enemies.
Their
scanty resources were soon exhausted, and before long, the whole vitality
o f the system deserted its extremities, and hedged itself once more within
the base from which it sprang.
W e have no data by which to estimate the value o f the American colo­
nies. Like all others, they sucked from the parent state in their infancy,
much more than they returned. That miserable policy that induces the
home administration to make use o f its colonies as prison-houses for its
culprits, went a great way, under Louis X V ., to break down the admirable
system that had been set up by his predecessor. The usual epidemic, also,
that infects settlements in a country where gold has been discovered, pre­
vented the adventurers from employing themselves in any thing else but
mining. Could a gold diviner have arisen, who— like the dying father
who led his children to a thorough tillage o f his garden by a general allu­
sion to treasures hidden in it— could have induced the colonists to make
use o f their lust for gold for the improvement o f the prairies that belonged
to them, he might have prevented the decay that followed. The material
distinction between the settlements in Am erica and India was, that while
in Am erica the native tribes could never be made use o f for field or house
labor, in India they were speedily converted into the slaves o f the new­
comers, and were employed at large, in mining, in agriculture, and in
bodily service. W e have sketched in a former paper the history o f the




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113

splendid schemes which were laid down by Dupleix, on the Asiatic penin­
sula ; and the triumphs even still more splendid, by which they were dissi­
pated by Clive, till at last the throne o f the British empire was seated on
the spot where the cradle o f the French had stood. Had Dupleix been
possessed o f that constitutional bravery which would have enabled him to
press, like Clive, single-handed against the masses against him— to battle
with a broken regiment against the countless armies o f the native chiefs—
he might have rode safely over both the stormy waves o f his Indian cam­
paigns, and the hidden rocks upon which the treachery o f the home ad­
ministration led him. But it was his misfortune, that while his breast was
filled with ambition which could never rest till its course was fulfilled, and
with ability enough to conceive plans which could meet his most daring
expectations, he was deficient in the personal intrepidity which could make
him the fit instrument to effect them. H e required a banditti chief, who
might fill the inferior machinery o f his office, and bully the Indian princes
into their accustomed allegiance, or drive Clive, at the point o f the bayonet,
behind his trenches. Dupleix returned home in 1754, to meet the igno­
rant reproaches o f a ministry who visited upon his head the repulses which
their own imbecility had courted. Louis X V . found at the close o f his
reign, that o f those great colonial possessions which his predecessor be­
queathed to him, there remained but a few distant islands, whom it would
require the undivided attention o f his navy to keep in remembrance o f
their fealty.
There are no official statements by which we can compute the value o f
the colonial trade, at the time when its extent was greatest. The French
East India Company collected year after year an immense income, which
gave the fortunes o f princes to the merchants whom it comprised. In 1788,
when by far the greater part o f the trade had been cut o ff by war, and the
weak concessions o f the crown, the importations o f cotton goods from
Coromandel, in which alone, o f all their former possessions, the French
retained a footing, amounted to six millions o f francs. A ccording to the
treatise o f M. Page, there were employed in the trade with the American
colonies in 1788, 677 vessels, measuring 190,753 tons, carrying out in
produce or manufactures to the amount o f 76,786,000 francs; and 105
vessels, measuring 35,227 tons, carrying negroes to the amount o f 30,087,
sold for 43,835,000 francs. The total amount o f the returns direct to
France was 218,511,000 francs, in colonial commodities. But we must
remember that at the time the computation was made, those great provinces
on the continent o f Am erica which were then ripening into value, had been
torn from the French domains. The islands o f St. Domingo, Martinico,
Guadaloupe, Tobago, and Guiana, were the last possessions which remained
to Louis X V . in a hemisphere o f which at least one half, according to the
computation we are now enabled to make, was passed to him by his an­
cestor. W e have here the secret o f the great decrease o f the revenues
and com m erce o f France, at the time when N ecker was called to office.
St. Domingo itself, the most powerful o f the colonies that remained, was
taking measures for revolt.
The few islands that remained, were too
small to be the seat o f an extended trade, and too unwholesome to be the
asylum o f any but state criminals. Those vast cargoes o f manufactured
goods, which were at one time annually shipped to meet the wants o f the
colonists, had been superseded by the cheaper supplies which, as independent
states, they could obtain from other countries, or which, as the subjects o f
vol. v.—no. II.
15




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The Commercial History o f France.

Great Britain, they were forced to take from her looms. It was not so
much for the want o f sugar, o f coffee, o f tobacco, that arose from the loss
o f her colonial possessions, that France suffered ; as in the sudden and ex­
tended check that was given to her trade and her manufactures.*
It was not to be expected that a dynasty which had found far ampler
means insufficient to feed its ambition and extravagance, should have been
satisfied with an income which was little more than one half o f that to
which it had been accustomed. W e shall consider, in the first place, the
administration o f the finances under Louis X IV . and his successor, so far
as it is concerned with the subject which we have generally placed before
us ; and secondly, the character o f the expenditures in which the crow n
was involved, and which became, from their great disproportion to the
means o f defraying them, the cause both o f those daring usurpations which
were levelled by Louis X V . against the parliament and the provincial au­
thorities, and o f those broad concessions which, under the milder reign o f
his successor, served only to give a vantage ground to the revolutionary
spirit afloat. “ I am accountable to God alone,” said the king o f France be­
fore she was revolutionized, as he marched with whip and spur into the par­
liament, when it had refused to register bis edicts. It was on the theory o f the
completeness o f the royal authority, that he maintained his entire indepen­
dence over the laws o f the realm, and his entire command over its finances.
T h e collection o f the revenue before the revolution, was in part vested in
the hands o f officers appointed directly by the crown, in part farmed out to
those who could promise to perform its requisitions with the greatest ad­
vantage to the state. The taxes on consumption, including, according to
the Conversations-Lexicon, the m onopoly on salt and tobacco, the internal
customs, the excise o f the city o f Paris, and the tax on liquors in the
country, were farmed out in all cases. It is stated by the anonymous au­
thor o f the Life o f Louis X V ., that at least thirty per cent o f the original
value o f the taxes as received, was lost before they reached the royal trea­
sury ; and so great became the avarice and the success o f the farmers gen­
era], that they collected among themselves an income more than equal to
the whole o f the civil list o f the crown. N ecker concedes, in his official
statement, that the average loss incurred in the collection o f the revenue
which was in the hands o f the farmers general exceeded l f l i per cent,
while 6| per cent would cover the costs which were suffered by that
which was levied under officers o f the crown. It had been customary in
ruder periods for the king, when he wished to raise a particular sum, to
pledge to those who lent it to him certain specified sources o f revenue,
* The amount o f the produce o f the French settlement o f Saint Domingo alone, in 1780,
is estimated in the following table. It should be remembered that under the colonial sys­
tem its ports were entirely under the command o f the French government, and that they
swallowed up the whole profits o f its trade. The loss that accrued by the revolt o f that
great country from the crown, was, commercially speaking, the most serious of those which
it had met with in its foreign possessions.
163,405,500 pounds weight
76,800,583 francs.
Sugar, refined and
do
do
38,712,480 do
Coffee,
68,151,000
do
do
12,578,000 do
Cotton,
6,289,000
do
8,081,700 do
Indigo,
930,000 do
111,000 do
do
Cocoa,
150,000 do
2,067,000 do
do
do
Syrup,
34,453,000
66,000 do
do
Turtle shell,
5,500
do
do
do
.
.
285,000 do
Hides,
13,000
1,800,000 do
do
.
.
225,000 do




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115

out o f which they were to satisfy the interest o f the debt, until its princi­
pal was discharged. The creditor was able to make what he could out o f
the pledge, as he often was obliged to depend upon it as the sole source
o f his repaym ent; and the consequence was, that taxes which were then
made over, were pressed to their utmost, in order to guaranty their holder
from the contingency o f a loss. Madame du Barri was rewarded for her
complaisance by the mortgage o f some o f the most lucrative offices o f the
crown, and it may be imagined that they were not suffered to run to seed
in the hands o f the subalterns o f her palace. There were 25,000 persons,
according to Necker, who were engaged in farming the revenue, and
sucking from it as much as possibly could be taken, without destroying its
stream altogether.
It was from the dishonesty o f the collectors, therefore, as well as from the
extravagance o f the crown, that the impositions became so enormous.
There is no doubt, also, that from the inequality o f the tenures, taxes which
might otherwise have been easily encountered, became absolutely insupport­
able. The nobles being discharged from the principal impositions, and no­
bility being easily purchased by those who were rich enough to pay for it, the
burden fell in a great measure upon those who were the most unable to
bear it. T w o thirds o f the lands in the kingdom were exonerated through
the rank o f their owners, leaving only one third in the possession o f the
small proprietors, or o f such capitalists as were not ranked among the
privileged classes. The total amount o f the land taxes was 210,000,000
livres, o f which the third estate, though they owned only one third o f the
land, were made liable for at least three fourths. They were subjected
exclusively, also, to the corvees, or the obligations to construct and repair
those magnificent roads which traversed the whole o f France, and to
which they were dragged, whenever the schemes o f the government re­
quired it, to work like galley slaves, without their consent and without
remuneration. T h ey were not only made the source from which the army
was to be enlisted, but the objects upon which it was to be quartered, since
by law their houses were to be opened and their barns emptied for the
military who should be in want o f shelter or food.
It is in the gabelle, or salt tax, however, that we can find the most fit
illustration o f the oppression o f the old econom y. O f the eighty millions
o f francs that were received by the agents o f the farmers general, twenty
millions at least were expended in the support o f the collectors themselves,
o f the spies whom they employed to detect, and o f the military to punish
smuggling. The original value o f a hundred weight o f salt was l i livre,
and for such it could have been generally sold throughout the kingdom. By
the imposition o f the salt tax, its market price was raised to 62 livres.
By smuggling a pocket full o f salt, therefore, from Brittany to Maine or
Anjou, a sum equal to a day’s wages could be procured, and smuggling
became so profitable, that on an average, five hundred offenders against
the revenue laws were sent annually to the galleys. There was not an
article o f food or o f clothing, however common or however necessary, that
did not fall under the supervision o f the governm ent: after having been
loaded with taxes till it approached in value to the highest luxuries, it was
cast out again to the people who required it. “ If it is asked,” said Ma­
dame de Stael, “ why the lower classes became so cruel during the revo.
lution, no other cause need be assigned than that poverty and misery had
produced a moral corruption.”




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The Commercial History o f France.

It was through the scandalous licentiousness o f the court that the wounds
which its extravagance created, were inflamed till they became insuffer­
able. The French people showed, by the patient fortitude with which
they bore burdens still greater under the republic or the empire, that the
efforts which they could make for their national liberties, or the sacrifices
which they could offer to the ambition o f an emperor, could be met with­
out exhaustion, when the patient would have winced and rebelled against
far slighter inflictions under the dynasty o f the Bourbons. They were
willing to be spurred on to the fields o f Austria, or the wastes o f Central
Russia, to throw down their life in fulfilling the terrible course that had
been marked out by their c h ie f; but their nature revolted against the
monotonous servitude in which they were placed under the old regime.
Like show-horses in the ancient amphitheatres, they were driven round
and round the narrow ring by which the sphere o f their existence was de­
scribed, while on their backs were perched the puppets and creatures o f
the court, who showed forth for the amusement o f royalty the most gro­
tesque and the most wearisome antics. W e have heard o f violent corro­
sive acids being cast into fish-ponds, in order to display to the amusement
o f the experimenters the contortions o f the creatures on whom they were
to operate. W ith a cruelty still more barbarous, since its victims were o f
a higher grade, the later ministers o f Louis X V . exhibited, for the gratifi­
cation o f their lord, spectacles which assumed for their theatre the kingdom
itself, and which, from the number and the earnestness o f their performers,
were necessarily unrivalled. W e are told that on the recovery o f the
Dauphin from a dangerous illness, which had bid fair to cut o ff the suc­
cession to the crown, Madame Pompadour signalized her gratitude by a
display which swallowed up the whole o f the revenue which had, during
the past year, been levied through the enormous tax on salt to which we
have alluded. In the grounds o f the castle o f Belle-vue, which was the
scene o f her courtly errors, an artificial lake was constructed, which was
surrounded by a basin o f rocks which had been carried from distant moun­
tains, at an expense which was only made supportable by the fact that the
neighboring peasants were obliged to assist without pay in their transpor­
tation. A dolphin— which, as its name in French is the same with that o f
the Dauphin himself, was meant to represent him allegorically, though
we cannot but think that a more worthy emblem could have been found for
the prince royal— was planted in the midst o f the water, on a pedestal
which lifted it entirely out o f its element. W hile in that position, a number
o f monsters, all o f them built on the most mythological models, and all o f
them moved by the court pages, advanced to attack i t ; and as they were
illuminated by lamps inside o f their frames, and as those who were in them
spouted fire-works from their mouths, they presented a spectacle which
was as ludicrous to those in a distance, as it was perilous to those engaged.
But Apollo, who was sitting on a cloud at some distance, became alarmed
at the danger o f his royal favorite, and descended in a chariot, with such
a full supply o f firebrands and thunderbolts, that he consumed in a little
while, not only the monsters themselves, but all that was inside o f them.
W e do not wish to speak lightly o f a catastrophe so serious, but as from
the courtly description which is given o f the festival by the author by
whom it is recorded, it is difficult to discover to what extent the prodigality
o f human life was carried, we are willing to suppose, that in accordance
With the penal laws by which such exhibitions are governed, none but con­




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117

demned criminals were exposed to the wrath o f A pollo’s darts. It is said
that the Dauphin was by no means gratified by the compliment, and re­
fused to participate in the celebration by which it was concluded.
W e might cite, would it not be inconsistent with our design, the historian
o f Louis X V . still further, as a witness not only o f the immorality o f the
court, but o f the reckless profuseness o f its expenditures.* W e have no
intention o f enumerating the series o f unsuccessful wars, o f costly embas­
sies, o f wild extravagancies, through which the reigns o f the last o f the
Bourbons are stamped as the most oppressive, as well as the most profli­
gate, in history. That great heritage which was transmitted by Henry
IV . had been mutilated and exhausted by his successors. F or a short
period, under the consummate genius o f Richelieu, and the supple com ­
pleteness by which his leading maxims were adopted by Mazarine, the
ancient policy o f the monarchy was revived ; but the career o f Louis X IV .
was checked when his ministers were taken from him, and he fell to the
earth with a blow from whose force he never recovered. H e succeeded,
by an immense expenditure o f blood and treasure, in securing for his
grandson the disputed Spanish succession, but he found that the young
king lost his French allegiance when he mounted the Spanish throne, and
that before a great while he was himself engaged in hostilities with the
power which he had helped to create. Louis X IV . left a debt o f four thou­
sand five hundred millions livres to be liquidated by his successor, and as
* In proportion as the distress o f the people increased, the king’s extravagance expanded.
The pressure on the lower classes acted as a forcing pump on the spirits o f the court, and
raised them to a height that was positively indecent. No less than thirty thousand horses
were employed in the equipage that was to meet the young dauphiness. A multitude of
upholsterers were sent express from town to town, to ornament the villages through which
the princess should pass, and to wring from the neighboring peasantry the little means
which they possessed, for the decoration o f triumphal arches, and the arrangement of ex­
tended illuminations. The oil which had been laid up for the approaching season was
burnt up in one night’s display; and when natural flowers could not be found to decorate
the garlands for the approaching cavalcade, the kitchen gardens o f the poor were rooted up
to make good the deficiency. The flower-pot. in the fire-works in Paris, which formed but
a small part o f the display with which the dauphiness was greeted, cost four thousand louis;
and “ we know ,” says the court memoir writer, “ that a flower-pot goes off in a moment.”
“ France is in her honey-moon,” said the strangers, as the provisions which had been
laid up for the support o f a year to come, were stewed down, and concentrated into costly
jellies, to amuse their palate. The hive had been stormed, and its contents rifled, while
its inhabitants were driven out by fire and smoke, to seek in the frozen fields fresh food for
the winter. Behind that splendid vision that was looked upon by Burke at Versailles,
sixteen years before the consummation o f the revolution, there lurked distress that its gay
mask could scarcely cover. At the moment that the dauphiness was at Versailles, in the
centre o f those magnificent spectacles that signalized her marriage, there was a riot at Besancon and at Tours, which was followed by the proclamation o f martial law. In the
counties o f la Marche and the Limousin, four thousand o f the citizens perished through
starvation. There was a pamphlet published at the time, which may be likened in its
popularity to Dean Swift’s “ proposals for eating Irish children in case o f famine.” It was
entitled, “ A singular idea o f a good citizen, concerning the public festivals which are in­
tended to be exhibited at Paris, and at court, upon occasion o f the Dauphin’s nuptials.”
After enumerating the costs o f the entertainments, spectacles, fire-works, illuminations, and
balls, whose cost would exceed twenty millions o f francs, he proposed that they should be
passed over for the time, and that the same amount should be deducted from the land tax.
Had the plan been adopted, the wedding might have been less splendid, but that fearful
tragedy that followed it would have been spared.




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The Commercial History o f France.

his successor was an infant o f seven years old, it was placed Under the
nursing protection o f a regeney, who, i f by the most iniquitous scheme o f
finance on record they managed to shift a good part o f it on the shoulders
o f the people themselves, augmented in a ten-fold degree the actual poverty
o f the kingdom. T h e prudent and peaceful administration o f Cardinal
Fleury succeeded in replenishing for a time the royal coffers ; but the
improved condition in which he left the treasury, was only the signal for a
fresh war, and for fresh expenditures. In the war o f the Polish election,
by which the king endeavored to replace his father-in-law on the throne
from which he had once been driven, in the war against Austria in 1740,
and in the war in favor o f Austria in 1756, the ancient policy o f the
throne was overturned, and a system established, which, while it degraded
the character, sucked out the resources o f the state.
W e do not wonder that N ecker found himself unable to compute the
channels through which the revenue, under Louis X V ., was expended.
Making allowance for the great appropriations which were necessary to
support the wars in which France was engaged, and for the habitual ex­
penses, also, o f a court that set no bounds to its pleasures, there were
sums amounting in whole to one fourth o f the actual revenue o f the king­
dom, for which no outlet could be found. W e might go further than the
limit which was raised by the habitual prudence o f the financier, and find
in the extraordinary waste o f the collected revenue o f the state, the most
striking illustration o f the evils o f the system that produced it. It is in
P'rance, before the revolution, that w e can discover most perfectly the
working o f an absolute governm ent; and if we wish to inquire in what
way, under such an econom y, the interests o f trade would prosper, we will
find ourselves enabled, by the history o f that great country, to unravel the
problem before us. W e have no wish to underrate the character o f the
Bourbon dynasty. T o promote the grandeur o f their house was their car­
dinal o b ject; and as France was their heritage, its prosperity was in a
great measure bound up with their own. In Louis X IV . may be seen in
full development the features that distinguished his family, from the last
crusade o f his sainted predecessor, to the period when the revolution broke
o if the chain o f descent. H e breathed from his childhood the atmosphere
o f etiquette, and, pervaded by the sentiments o f all around him, it became
his highest ambition to be the master o f cerem onies in that great drawing­
room in which the sovereigns o f Europe were collected. T o become the
oracle through which the conventionalities o f courts should be decided,
was the point to which his exertions were directed, when he stepped inta
unshackled possession o f his crown. But it would be doing injustice to1
Louis X IV . to stop here. It had been his good fortune to be placed un­
der a minister from whom he could gather a code o f policy which was
exquisitely adapted to the purpose o f lifting France, through the intricacy
o f diplomatic arrangements, to the ch ief place among the European nations.
The young prince found himself, when he arrived at his majority, in a
throne that gave him not only absolute control over the largest country in
Europe, but a general supervision over the destinies o f the continent itself.
H e became fully sensible o f the loftiness o f the part he was to play.
Through the ambitious policy o f the queen mother his education had been
very much neglected ; and unacquainted, therefore, with the essential
character o f the duties he was to perform, unversed in the past history o f
his kingdom, he supposed that the maintenance o f the ancient grandeur




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119

o f the state could be achieved by the preservation o f the outward dignity
o f his rank. Had his retinue been enfeebled by the desertion o f his re­
tainers, or his income diminished by their carelessness, he would have felt
his claim to supremacy weakened ; and his pride, therefore, was enlisted
in maintaining to their full extent the prerogatives o f his station. Like a
nobleman who feels desirous, when he rides to some great state celebra­
tion, that his pannels should be unspotted by reproach and his attendants
robust and well accoutred, the young king left no exertion untried, to raise
his equipage to a pitch that should be suitable to his position. His, atten­
tion was turned, therefore, to the stables and granaries o f his kingdom,
from whence his wants were to be satisfied. T h e luxuries o f his table
could only be supplied from the natural productions o f the realm, or through
the commercial enterprise o f its merchants ; and "he felt that his princely
hospitality must close, if the artisans and the mariners o f the land should
cease to work. It would have been a difficult matter for a man o f ordi­
nary apprehension to have remained blind to the conviction that his per­
sonal grandeur must depend upon the commercial resources o f his king­
dom ; and Louis X IV . acquiesced with entire sincerity, before he had well
emerged from his minority, in the plans which his ministers had laid down
for the protection o f the industry o f the state.
The interests o f trade, however, never thrive so well as when they are
let alon e; and however successful the severe restrictions which were
thrown upon French com m erce may have been in raising, for a time, the
value o f domestic manufactures, it was soon found that the foreign demand
for wines and silks fell o ff in proportion as the importation o f foreign pro­
ductions was discouraged. N o government can, by legislation, direct the
merchant where he can sell dearly and buy cheaply, as well as his own
immediate experience o f the shifting wants o f the m arket; and Louis X IV .,
by meddling in the delicate machinery o f the com m erce o f his realm, dis­
arranged it through the means he used to put it into order. W e have heard
o f a noble philosopher who imported, at a vast expense, a company o f
beavers, whom he established on a stream o f his estate, that he might not
only discover the remote laws by which their labors were conducted, but
that he might assist them, i f necessary, by the deductions o f human
science. IF an arch had been raised upon principles not quite philoso­
phical, he would order it to be torn down, and another, on the exact model
o f the catenary curve, erected in its place. The immediate consequence
was, that the untaught artificers, after struggling for a little while against
the innovations o f their protector, deserted in despair their dykes, and
gave up all attempts to live in the manner for which nature had not adapted
them. The experience which was reaped by the speculatist we have
cited, might have been useful to the king o f France, had he applied it to
the system o f parental control which he was erecting over the commercial
interests o f his subjects. The natural course o f trade was checked and
destroyed by the false tunnels and aqueducts through which he led it.
Those vast and natural channels through which the stream had run, and
which it had carved out for itself in its first necessity, were blockaded ;
and the country was hedged in by customhouses, and swarmed by excise­
men, till the old circulation was entirely destroyed. If there was a manu­
factory for woollen goods established in Lyons, which found that the stuff?
it produced was underbid a hundred per cent by British commodities, a
representation o f the fact would be sent to the king in Paris, who lost no




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The Commercial History o f France.

opportunity o f raising a profitable revenue by acquiescing in the demands
o f the Lyons manufacturer. W e shall reserve for a future period the
general consideration o f the paralyzing influence which the system thus
established bore upon the future prosperity o f the state : it may be suffi­
cient to remark at present, that through the severe restrictions which were
laid on foreign importations, the consuming classes, in the first place,
were obliged to pay in an increased degree for whatever was gained by
the manufacturers through the increased value o f their goods in the mar­
ket ; the protected interests themselves, in the second place, were subject
to violent and ruinous fluctuations, as it became the policy o f the govern­
ment to lighten or increase the taxes on the goods which they supplanted;
the course o f commerce, in the third place, through the non-importation
o f foreign goods, was checked so far, that the demand for domestic pro­
ductions, with which those goods would have been exchanged, was stop­
ped ; while, fourthly, the countries whose staples were thus excluded from
the French market, sought to retaliate by excluding the staples o f France
from their own. The positions which we have taken may be illustrated by
a brief sketch o f the protective measures which were adopted under the
ministry o f Colbert, and o f the measures with which they w ere met. By
the tariff o f 1667, a series o f duties was laid upon English and Dutch
manufactures, so heavy as to put a stop to all importation o f them that
was not effected by smuggling. The Dutch determined to be in no way
behindhand ; and as they were only indebted to France for luxuries, while
France had obtained from them some o f the most useful articles o f con­
sumption, they succeeded, by entirely prohibiting the introduction o f wine,
brandy, and silk, in wreaking a severe revenge. A war o f eight years
length was the consequence ; at the end o f which, as the French manu­
facturers had become generally bankrupt, the laws in their favor were
mitigated by the treaty o f Nimeguen, to an extent sufficient to induce the
Dutch to take o ff part o f their duties on wines and brandies. Holland
possessed at the time one half the carrying-trade o f the world ; her de­
mands for herself and her colonies were immense ; she had been the best
customer o f France before the tariff o f 1667 ; and yet, by a single pro­
clamation, issued for the avowed purpose o f encouraging the manufactures
o f Lyons and Bordeaux, an entire embargo was laid between the two
countries, which was only moderated after a destructive war had broken
the resources o f both. But it was not the war alone that destroyed the
manufactures o f the French nation. Those great staples, which their
vineyards and their looms produced, had been much more than sufficient
for their own consumption ; and by exchanging what was o f no use to
them for the productions o f other countries for which they had need, they
enriched themselves without expense and without exhaustion. The day’s
labor o f a peasant in the south o f France, or o f the manufacturer in her
centre, was enough to clothe him in the cheap goods o f England and H ol­
land for the approaching season. W hat the French paid for English
manufactures was, in fact, to them o f no value ; they could drink but a
certain quantity o f wine during the year, or wear but a certain quantity
o f silk, and what remained would have been trodden down as chaff, had it
not found a market in the neighboring countries. But Colbert argued that
whatever went into the hands o f the English or Dutch, went out o f the
pockets o f the French themselves; and, in order to prevent a rapid im­
poverishment o f the nation, he laid such heavy duties upon whatever the




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121

English or Dutch could produce, as effectually prevented their being sold
at all. His restrictive policy, while it augmented, for a time, the reve­
nues o f the crown, and gave a temporary flush to manufactures, became,
in the long-run, most ruinous to the interests o f both. W e pass over the
damage which was suffered by com m erce itself. That, o f course* was
destroyed, except so far as occasionally a smuggler renewed i t ; because
the spirit o f com m erce is reciprocity, and when that com es to an end, the
system itself must fall. But in what way, we ask, were the manufactures
o f France affected by the heavy protections that w ere laid over them ?
T h e very means by which they were protected diminished the power o f
the consumers to buy them ; and in the same degree that the favored
articles rose in price, in that degree they decreased in consumption. A t
the era o f the revolution, those great establishments to which a sudden and
unnatural excitement had been given by the forcing measures o f Louis
X IV ., were deserted by their workmen ; while the art which placed their
looms in motion, had been forgotten by the artificers who moved them.
Like flowers that have been produced by the artificial warmth o f the hot­
bed to an unnatural luxuriance, they were unable to sustain the stimulating
soil in which they were placed, and shrank back, after a little while, into
entire inefficiency.
W e propose, at future periods, to carry out the scheme we have entered
Upon, by giving a rapid view o f the commercial condition o f France under
the administration o f N ecker ; under the revolutionary and constitutional
establishments ; under the empire ; and, finally, under the monarchy since
the restoration. W e are sensible that the plan is one o f great difficulty;
but we hope that the difficulty itself arises from the importance o f the sub­
ject. The fate o f nations, according to mythology, was hung on a golden
thread ; it might be said, that on the mercantile resources o f a country—
on its means for carrying on war and enjoying peace— depends its ultimate
prosperity. Such, certainly, has been the case with the empire whose
history we have taken up for consideration. Like a man whose mind has
outrun his physical strength, it found itself incapable, during its ancient
econom y, o f supporting, by its ordinary revenues, those immense cam ­
paigns in which it was engaged. B y ruinous stimulants,- that, while they
increased the immediate effect o f the blow, exhausted the vigor that pro­
duced i t ; by convulsive struggles, that knit up the frame for a sudden
effort, and left it prostrated by the shock ; the rulers o f France succeeded
in bringing her up to the most gigantic labors, which, could they have
been properly followed up, would have secured to her the supremacy o f
Europe. Instead o f that gradual motion in which nations alone can move
with safety,— which, like that o f the wheel and axle, compensates for its
slowness by its ultimate effect,— they forced her into violent and sudden
exertions, which lost all their virtue, based as they were on the contrary
principles o f mechanics, as soon as the blow to which they had been con ­
centrated Was struck. But there is a point at which the most pungent
stimulants will cease to excite, when the functions will refuse to perform
their office, and the system will revolt against further impositions ; it was
to such a condition that France was reduced at the accession o f Louis X V I.
Perhaps the trifling reforms (hat were attempted at the commencement o f
his reign* may have given the nation more strength to throw o ff the load
upon them. W e confess, that after a due consideration o f the state o f the
lowest classes in our own country, and o f what they appear to have been

Von. Vi-1—no. i.




16

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American Manufactures.

in the ancient world, we can discover none more wretched than the peas­
ants under the old dynasty o f France. T h ey were slaves, without that
exoneration from self-support which slavery g iv e s ; and they were free­
men, without any o f the privileges o f freedom but that o f gathering,
through the severest labor, the most scanty materials for subsistence. It
was through a revolution alone that the unequal tenures that kept the peo­
ple from an absolute ownership o f the soil— the oppressive taxes, that
threw upon them the entire support o f the state— and the extravagant
government, that doubled their burdens while it took from them the means
o f bearing them,— it was only through a revolution, in fact, that the evils
o f the old econom y— fastened as it had been on the social existence o f the
kingdom, and woven in its civil constitution— could be thoroughly eradi­
cated. I f we inquire why it was that the revolution, instead o f being ac­
complished peacefully and wisely, was hurried forward with the velocity
and madness o f a whirlwind,— licking from the earth the imperfect traces
o f prosperity it found there,— mingling in its eddies the rafters o f the peas­
ant’s hut with the architraves o f the noble’ s palace ;— we may answer, in
paraphrase o f the words o f Madame de Stael which we have already quo­
ted, that the spirit that rode on its wings had been for ages condensed into
a limit so close, that when its bonds were loosened, it rushed forth with
the elastic vigor which its sudden release had given it.

A

rt.

II.— A M E R IC A N M A N U F A C T U R E S .

It is the design o f the present article to trace a brief sketch o f the pro­
gress, and to exhibit the present condition o f the manufactures o f the
United States. The subject has grown to such magnitude as a national
interest, so far as the amount o f pecuniary value which is invested in its
enterprises is concerned, and it is so important as connected with the
large number o f its active agents, and, moreover, as it will shortly come up
before the national legislature as a broad question o f national policy, the
facts connected with its advance and present actual position should, we
think, be widely difiused and strongly fixed in the public mind. Its opera­
tions, and in consequence its influence, extend throughout the greater
portion o f the country. The sound o f manufacturing labor, with its ten
thousand arms, and in innumerable forms, is echoing in the crow ded marts
and upon the hill-sides o f most o f our older states; and it is an important
question to those before whom the policy which shall govern it w ill be pre­
sented for final judgment, what have been the causes which have marked
its progress, and what is its present state ?
In the first place, we shall consider the condition o f Am erican manu­
factures while our country continued colonies o f the British crown. It
can hardly be supposed that the feeble settlements which were scattered
at wide intervals over the greater portion o f the Atlantic states, could
have devoted much o f their time to manufacturing industry. Employed,
mainly, in laying the foundations o f a new social system in dense forests,
which, excepting at a few points where clearings had been made, were
slumbering in their primeval solitude and grandeur, it is evident that with­




American Manufactures.

123

out the resources o f wealth their time must have been, in great measure,
filled up in procuring the means o f subsistence from the soil, and in pro­
tecting themselves against the attacks o f many o f the Indian tribes, who,
it is Well known, regarded them as trespassers upon the Indian territory.
Agriculture, then, was the natural and primary pursuit which was followed
by the settlers, and at first but little attention was devoted to manufac­
tures, which must always spring up as a secondary interest, and at a time
when a basis is laid in the cultivation o f the earth. N or could it have
been expected to grow to any considerable extent, especially when the
parent country, provided with ample means and motives, had already ad­
vanced to so great perfection in that respect. But notwithstanding the
obstacles presented by the facts which we have mentioned, we find the
hardy colonists o f N ew England early engaged in the manufacture o f
coarse woollens for their own u se; and here was first exhibited that
jealousy with which Great Britain has ever regarded the progress o f
every species o f manufactures that might, in any mode, compete with her
own. In order to nip the manufacturing interest o f this country in the
bud, we find the British parliament, as early as 1699, declaring that “ no
wool, yarn, or woollen manufactures o f their Am erican plantations should
be shipped there, or ever laden in order to be transported from thence to
any place w hatever;” and twenty years afterward, in 1719, the house
o f commons enacting that “ the erecting manufactories in the colonies
tended to lessen their dependence upon Great Britain.”
The policy o f the parent government, which was afterward so signally
exhibited in those causes which ripened the Am erican revolution, was not
slow in displaying itself. Accounts were carried to the mother country
that the colonists, who at this period began to exhibit the germ o f that enter­
prise which has since been the prominent feature o f the country, were
not only carrying on trade, but also setting up manufactures detrimental
to Great Britain; and, in consequence o f these reports, an order was
issued by the house o f commons requiring the board o f trade to report
with respect to laws made, manufactures set up, or trade carried on, detri­
mental to the trade, navigation, or manufactures o f Great Britain. This
act, designed to cripple the growing power o f the infant colonies, was
faithfully executed, and a report was made by the board o f trade in 1732,
which, although probably not accurate, contains the best account o f the
condition o f American manufactures at that period. This report stated
that a law had been passed in the colony o f Massachusetts Bay to encour­
age the manufacture o f paper, which act tended to diminish the profits
made by the British importer o f that article ; that in “ N ew England,” N ew
Y ork, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Pennsylvania, woollen and linen
cloth were manufactured to some extent for domestic use, and that the
product o f those colonies being chiefly cattle and grain, with a quantity o f
sheep, the w ool would be lost were it not used for that purpose. It was
also reported that flax and hemp were produced in the colonies to a con­
siderable extent, which were manufactured into a coarse sort o f cloth, as
well as bags, traces, and halters for their horses, that were more service­
able than those that were imported from abroad; yet, from the high price
o f labor here, the manufacture o f linen could not be carried on at less than
twenty per cent, and that o f woollens than at fifty per cent less than the
cost o f the English fabrics.* The returns from the English governor o f




* Pitkin’s Statistics.

124

American Manufactures.

N ew Hampshire alleged that there were no manufactures in that province,
excepting a little linen made by its emigrants from Ireland, but that the
principal trade was in lumber and fish. Massachusetts, at that time, also
manufactured a coarse cloth from their flax and wool, but the merchants
could import the foreign fabrics at a cheaper rate than they could purchase
those which were made at home. A few hatmakers worked at their
trades in the towns o f that state, but none o f their articles were exported.
The leather o f this province was also wrought by the people ; and although
iron was worked to some extent, it was deemed inferior to that which
was imported from Great Britain, this being considered much the best, as
it was wholly used in shipping. The same report stated that all the iron
works within its bounds did not make one twentieth part o f the amount re­
quired for its consumption. N or did N ew Y ork at that time exhibit the
degree o f manufacturing enterprise which was deemed detrimental to
Great Britain— provisions, furs, whalebone, pitch, oil, and tar, constituting
the principal portion o f its trade. That o f N ew Jersey was no more for­
midable in this respect, as its traffic consisted o f necessary articles shipped
from Pennsylvania and N ew Y ork. T o these articles may be added, a lit­
tle linen and cotton cloth, brown holland, “ for women’ s wear,” a papermill that manufactured to the amount o f £ 2 0 0 yearly, in the province o f
Massachusetts Bay, besides six furnaces and nineteen forges for making
iron, that had then been constructed in N ew England. In Rhode Island
there were no manufactures returned ; and the province o f Connecticut
produced timber and boards, all sorts o f English grain, hemp, flax, sheep,
black cattle and swine, goats, horses, and tobacco. The manufactures in
this colony were inconsiderable, the greater portion o f the people being
engaged in tillage, while others w ere employed in the various handicrafts,
such as tanning and shoemaking, in building, joining, tailors and smiths’
work. A t this period the colony o f N ew Y ork was enabled to pay for the
foreign fabrics imported from Great Britain, by being permitted to exchange
their provisions, and those o f N ew Jersey, as also horses and lumber, with
the foreign sugar colonies, for money, rum, molasses, cocoa, indigo, cot­
ton, and wool. Horses and lumber were exported from Connecticut in
return for sugar, molasses, salt, and ardent spirits. In Pennsylvania
brigantines and small sloops were built, which they sold to the W est In­
dies, and “ the surveyor-general o f his majesty’ s woods” states, that in
the province o f N ew England many ships were built for the French and
Spaniards in exchange for rum, molasses, wines, and silks, which “ they
truck there by contrivance.” *
Such was the condition o f Am erican manufactures when the United
States were humble colonies o f the parent government, and such the pol­
icy o f the mother country in 1732 ; a policy which resulted in a recom ­
mendation o f the board “ to give these colonies proper encouragement for
turning their industry to such manufactures and products as might be o f
service to Great Britain, and more particularly to the production o f all
kinds o f naval stores.”
Immediately upon this event acts were passed by the British parlia­
ment, designed to prevent the progress o f the colonial manufacture ; and
from the information which had been received, that hats were made to a
considerable extent in these colonies, it was provided, by statute passed in




* See Macpherson’s Annals o f Commerce.

American Manufactures.

125

1732, that no hats should be exported ; the same act limiting the number
o f apprentices who were to be engaged in this business, and prohibiting
the exportation o f hats from one British plantation to another, as well as
the manufacture o f hats, excepting by those who had served an apprentice­
ship o f seven years, and forbidding any black or negro from making hats
at all.* The manufacture o f iron was also regarded with equal jealousy ;
and although the colonies were permitted, by a law that was enacted in
1750, to import pig and bar iron into Great Britain free o f duty, its sole
design was that they might thus be enabled to monopolize its manufacture;
and all establishments for that object erected in the colonies, were deemed
a “ common nuisance,” and were required to be abated within thirty days
after the evidence o f their existence should be adduced, under a penalty
o f £ 5 0 0 . These acts were justly deemed by the Am erican colonists
usurpations o f their rights ; for why, said they, ought not the manufac­
turers o f this country have been permitted the same privileges as the same
classes in England ? Thus matters continued until the Am erican revolu­
tion— the colonies struggling against the exactions o f the British crown ;
and it has been alleged that this systematic policy, connected with the
colonial trade, tended to ripen that event. W h en the war came, it was
reasonable to suppose, what was in fact the case, that our own country
should augment not only the manufacture o f all articles required for do­
mestic use, but also those which were found necessary for defence ; and
at the peace o f 1783, although efforts were made to extend the manufac­
tures o f the country, little appears to have been done in this respect, from
a want o f unanimity in the several states, as well as the want o f power
under the old confederation.!
Mr. Jefferson, in his “ Notes on the State o f Virginia,” alluding to the
manufactures and com m erce o f that state in 1781, remarks : “ W e never
had any interior trade o f any importance ; our exterior com m erce has
suffered very much from the beginning o f the present contest. During
this time we have manufactured, within our families, the most necessary
articles o f clothing. Those o f cotton will bear some comparison with the
same kinds o f manufacture in Europe, but those o f wool, flax, and hemp,
are very coarse, unsightly, and unpleasant; and such is our attachment
to agriculture, and such our preference for foreign manufactures, that
be it wise or unwise, our people will certainly return, as soon as they can,
to the raising raw materials, and exchanging them for finer manufactures
than they are able to execute themselves.”
In regard to its exports, he
says : “ In the year 1758, we exported seventy thousand hogsheads o f
tobacco, which was the greatest quantity ever produced in this countiy in
* Lord Brougham, in the first volume o f his “ Inquiry into the Colonial Policy o f the
European Powers,” a work published in Edinburgh in 1803, remarks : “ The hat manu­
facture o f N ew England was an object o f jealousy to the British legislature. It is absurd
to suppose that any laws could have prevented the colonists from making hats even for
the use o f the neighboring settlements, so long as it continued to be very convenient and
profitable. But in a very short time the manufacture disappeared, even in so far as it
was permitted ; and now, without any laws whatever, Great Britain supplies the United
States with this article to a much greater extent than ever she did during the existence
o f the colonial government.”

This statement is probably inaccurate; but if true, it is

well known that the fact no longer exists.
+ Pitkin’s Statistics.




American Manufactures.

120

one year. But its culture was fast declining at the commencement o f this
year, and that o f wheat taking its place, and it must continue to decline
on the return o f peace.” The succeeding table from Mr. Jefferson’s com ­
putation, indicates the annual amount o f exportation from that state during
the period in which he wrote :
A

rti cles.

Quantity.

Price in Dollars.

Amount in
Dollars.

T o b a c c o , ..................
55,000 hhds. 10001b. at 30d. perhhd. 1,650,000
at fd . per bush. 666,666§
W h e a t ,...................... 800,000 bush.
Indian corn, . . . . 600,000 bush.
at -id. per bush. 200,000
S h ip p in g ,...................
100,000
Masts, planks, scant­
ling, shingles, and
s t a v e s ,..................
66,666|
Tar, pitch, turpentine, 30,000 barrels
at l^ d. per bar.
40,000
Peltry, viz. skins o f
deer, beavers, ot­
ters, muskrats, raccoons, foxes, . . .
180 hhds. 6001b. at T5jd . per lb.
42,000
P o r k , ..........................
4,000 barrels
at lOd. per bar.
40,000
Flaxseed, hemp, cott o n , ......................
8,000
Pit coal, pig iron, . .
6,666|
P e a s , ..........................
5,000 bush.
at |d. per bush.
3 ,3 3 3 i
B e e f , ..........................
at 3-jd. per. bar.
1,000 barrels
3 ,3 3 3 i
Sturgeon, white, shad,
h e r r i n g , ...............
.
.
.
.
3,3331
Brandy from peaches
and apples, and
w h is k e y ,...............
l,6 6 6 f
H o r s e s ,.......................
l,666jt*

. . . .

.

. . . .

Upon the establishment o f the constitution new energy was infused into
the government, and the attention o f the prominent statesmen o f the coun­
try was directed to the establishment o f a fixed policy, not only in regard
to our com m erce, but the manufactures o f the nation. In July o f 1789, a
law was passed for the “ encouragement and protection o f manufactures
and although the question o f the measure o f that protection appears to
have divided the public mind, the absolute importance o f protecting our
manufactures in some mode was clearly avowed. The pressing urgency
o f the interest, and the direction o f the public mind to the subject, resulted
in the full conviction that some systematic course o f legislation should be
adopted regarding i t ; and this conviction resulted in the very able report
which was made by Alexander Hamilton, the first secretary o f the treas­
ury, which was communicated to congress in 1791. The financial talents
o f that great man,— with a mind equally profound and comprehensive,
severe, acute, and far-reaching— equally adapted to grapple with great
principles which lie at the foundation o f the political system, and looking
back to the past and forward to the future, to analyze the most minute
* See Notes on the State of Virginia, by Thomas Jefferson, p. 277.




American Manufactures.

127

point, and to detect error in any o f its details, i f error existed,— were
brought to bear upon this great subject. In that report General Hamilton
collated the principal facts connected with this interest; exhibited the
amount and kind o f the manufactures existing in the country at that
period ; showed the commercial causes which would most directly bear
upon the various sorts o f our production ; examined, weighed, and answer­
ed the objections which were then already made to the protective system
and in favor o f free trade, and showed the productive capacities and
the various products o f the country which he deemed required protection ;
and, finally, recommended such duties and bounties as w ere deemed cal­
culated to advance the prosperity o f the American manufacturer. In that
report he laid the foundation o f what has been termed the “ Am erican Sys­
tem,” by his attempt to show that the protection o f the manufacturing in­
terest would tend indirectly to advance the other great interests o f the
nation. In the course o f that report he remarked : “ But there are more
particular considerations which serve to fortify the idea that the encour­
agement o f manufactures is the interest o f all parts o f the Union. If the
northern and middle states should be the principal scenes o f such estab­
lishments, they would immediately benefit the more southern by creating
a demand for productions, some o f which they have in common with the
other states, and others o f which are either peculiar to them, or more
abundant, or o f better quality than elsewhere. These productions princi­
pally a r e : timber, flax, hemp, cotton, wool, raw silk, indigo, iron, lead,
furs, hides, skins, and coals. O f these articles, cotton and indigo are
peeuliar to the southern states, as are hitherto lead and coals. Flax and
hemp are or may be raised in greater abundance there than in the more
northern states, and the wool o f Virginia is said to be o f better quality than
that o f any other state; a circumstance rendered the more probable by the
reflection, that Virginia embraces the same latitudes with the finest wool
countries o f Europe. The climate o f the south is also better adapted to
the production o f silk.” * The influence o f this report was felt throughout
the country, proceeding as it did from so able a mind, and embodying a
mass o f statistical matter connected with the production o f the country,
which was peculiarly valuable at that period, and more satisfactory to the
people, inasmuch as it recommended some uniform and systematic course
o f policy upon the subject. Meanwhile, Mr. Samuel Slater, a manufac­
turer from England, who was the founder o f the cotton manufacture o f the
United States, had arrived in this country, and established a manufactory
in Providence, Rhode Island. T o this individual we are indebted for the
introduction into this country o f the Arkwright machinery. The manu­
facture o f coarse cloths, composed o f cotton, woollen, and flax, had pre­
viously been carried on to some extent, and in sufficient quantities, in sev­
eral districts, to supply four fifths o f the clothing o f the people. Estab­
lishments for the manufacture o f cotton and wool, were also erected in
Massachusetts and C onnecticut; and during the year 1790, the legislature
o f the former state granted aid to a number o f gentlemen who had, in
1787, founded a cotton manufactory in Beverly, o f which the principal
articles were corduroy, fustians, and jeans. In the same year cotton spin­
ning was first commenced in Pawtucket. A manufactory o f woollen was,
* See the Report on Manufactures, in the works o f Alexander Hamilton, vol. i.
pp. 221, 222.




128

American Manufactures.

about the same time, founded in Hartford, Connecticut, through the agency
o f Jeremiah Wadsworth, Esq. ; and it is an interesting fact connected
with the institution o f this factory, that George Washington, then president
o f the United States, during the January o f 1790, addressed congress in a
suit o f woollen cloth woven from its looms, and presented to him by the
.owners o f that establishment.*
Besides the articles to which we have alluded, the product o f the manufacture o f the United States, General Hamilton, in his report, specifies
skins and leather, iron, wool, flax and hemp, bricks, coarse tiles, potters’
ware, ardent spirits, malt liquors, different kinds o f paper for writing and
printing, sheathing and wrapping, press paper, and paper hangings, hats,
womens’ stuff and silk shoes, refined sugar, oils o f animals and seeds, soap,
spermaceti and tallow candles, copper and brass wares, andirons and other
domestic utensils, philosophical apparatus, tin wares, snuff, chewing and
smoking tobacco, gunpowder, and painters’ colors ; which articles w ere
manufactured in the course o f ordinary trade. Such was the germ o f the
manufactures o f this country, which would have ripened to a solid and
effective system had not the course o f our national policy been affected by
circumstances which we shall mention. The encouragement given to
Am erican manufactures, both by individuals and national legislation, did not
escape the notice o f leading statesmen abroad. In 1791, the committee
o f the Board o f Trade, in their distinguished report upon the subject o f the
W est India trade, although acknowledging the right o f this country to
establish protective duties either for the purposes o f revenue or for the
encouragement o f domestic industry, expressed their anxiety lest these
duties should be raised to an extent which, should interfere with the manu­
factures o f Great Britain ; and recommended that they should not be in­
creased to a greater amount than they then were. Indeed, they proposed
to bind the United States not to raise these duties to a higher than the ex­
isting rate ; and if that object was not attained, it was agreed to stipulate
that the duties should not exceed those which were established by com ­
mercial treaties upon British goods, introduced into Holland and France
by formal negotiations with those powers. Another proposition was, that
duties upon British goods imported into the United States should not be
raised to a greater amount than merchandise imported from any other
foreign nation.
It was the evident design o f these several propositions, not only to pro.
vide for the consumption o f British goods in the United States, but also to
secure for that empire the carriage o f foreign articles. N o effective mea­
sures appear to have been adopted by the United States upon the subject,
however, from the year 1793 to 1807, when the embargo coming on, our
colonies found themselves deprived o f many necessary articles o f manu­
facture to which they had been accustom ed; and being cut o ff from foreign
intercourse, and, in consequence, from the products o f British manufacture,
their attention was naturally turned to the protection o f this interest among
themselves. The House o f Representatives, accordingly, in 1809, not
only ordered the re-printing o f General Hamilton’s report upon manufac­
tures, but also required the then Secretary o f the Treasury, Hon. Albert
* A society was founded in 1787, in Pennsylvania, for the “ encouragement o f manu­
factures and the useful arts.”

For their plan see White’s History o f the Rise and Pro,

gress o f the Cotton Manufacture, p. 50,




American Manufactures.

129

Gallatin, to collect the prominent facts connected with the manufactures
o f the United States and to report a plan for their protection. In accord­
ance with these instructions, Mr. Gallatin, in view o f the facts which he
had obtained, estimated the total value o f Am erican manufactures at
$120,000,000, and those from cotton and wool at $4 0,00 0,00 0. This
information, although inaccurate, was communicated to the house
in April o f 1810, but on account o f the deficiency in the returns, the
marshals, with their assistants, were ordered, under the direction o f
the Secretary o f the Treasury, to collect and report all the facts con­
nected with manufactures within their several districts ; and from these
returns, which were, however, defective, the total value o f American man­
ufactures at that time was estimated by Tench Coxe at $127,694,602.
The number o f cotton factories in the United States, according to the re­
turn o f the marshals, was one hundred and sixty-eight, and but few w ool­
lens were manufactured at all, excepting in private families.*
But the war o f 1812 soon followed, by which the country was effectively
deprived o f foreign fabrics, and the necessary consequence o f this event, was
the direction o f the public mind to the subject o f domestic manufactures.
A large amount o f capital was accordingly invested in this interest, and
the number o f manufactures was increased to a great exten t; but these
establishments were erected only to meet with disaster on the return o f
peace, for in 1815, our ports having been opened to foreign goods, the
manufactures o f Great Britain poured in upon the country to such an
amount as effectually to glut the Am erican markets; and while the British
importers suffered great losses by the diminution o f the price o f their goods,
from that fact the prospects o f the Am erican manufacturer were effectu­
ally clouded. Indeed, the principles which have uniformly characterized
the policy o f Great Britain w ere clearly demonstrated in the remark made
by Lord Brougham respecting this policy upon the floor o f the British
parliament, in relation to these losses. “ It is well worth while,'” said that
gentleman, “ to incur a loss upon the first exportation, in order, by the glut, to
stifle in the cradle those rising manufactures in the United States, which the
war has fo rced into existence contrary to the natural course o f things.”
The national mind, upon the return o f peace, appears to have been
more particularly directed to the importance o f the protection o f Am eri­
can manufactures, and in 1816 an effective course o f legislation was di­
rected to that object. Its offspring was the tariff o f 1816, designed
mainly to protect the domestic production o f cotton and woollen fabrics.
By this act, the duty upon woollens, from June o f 1816 to the same month
o f the year 1819, was fixed at twenty-five per cent ad valorem, and from
the period last named at twenty per cent. It was also provided by this
act that all cotton cloths whose original cost was less than twenty-five
cents per yard, should be deemed to have cost that sum, and should pay
duties accord in g ly ; the design o f the act being to exclude the coarse cot­
ton fabrics o f the East Indies, and to protect the manufacture as well as
the production o f Am erican cotton. A permanent duty o f thirty per cent
was also laid upon various other articles, such as hats, cabinet wares,
manufactures o f wood, carriages, leather, and also upon all manufactures o f
leather and paper ; and in order to encourage the production o f domestic
* T o Mr. Pitkin’s work we arp indebted for many valuable facts connected with this
part o f the subject.
"VOL. V .---- NO, II.




17

130

American Manufactures.

sugar, a duty o f three eents per pound was laid upon all imported brown
sugar. Upon some o f these articles, however, the duty was raised in 1818,
and in 1824 there was a revision o f duties upon all woollen and cotton
goods ; which, however, was met by a countervailing act o f the parliament
o f Great Britian, which reduced the duty upon imported wool from six­
pence sterling per pound to one penny, for the purpose o f permitting the
British manufacturer to send his woollen fabrics to the United States at a
cheaper rate, and in order to prevent the successful operations o f Am eri­
can industry in this respect. In consequence o f these measures the
Am erican manufacturers applied to congress for relief, and the result was
the celebrated tariff o f 1828, which increased these duties to a considerable
extent, prescribing the duties upon all woollens which did not exceed fifty
cents at forty-five per cent ad valorem, and the duty upon other articles
in the same proportion.
Such was the policy o f the country in reference to the production o f
Am erican manufactures until the year 1831. At this period it was pro­
posed to reorganize the revenue system, inasmuch as the national debt was
nearly extinguished, and for that object two separate conventions were held
for the purpose o f remodelling the financial policy o f the nation in this re­
spect: the one, the free-trade convention which was held at Philadelphia, and
composed o f gentlemen o f intelligence, maintained the expediency o f reducing
all the duties upon imported products to a low and equal rate; and the tariff
convention, composed o f men o f equal character, supported the policy o f reduc­
ing the duties only upon those articles which did not interfere with our domes­
tic products— articles which had not been and could not be produced in the
country. A t the meetings o f these several conventions, the principles gov­
erning the interests involved were weighed, discussed, and set forth in their
several addresses made to the people, and the petitions to congress, by both
parties. Upon theirseveral suggestions followed the acts o f congress o f the
fourteenth o f July, 1832, modifying the preceding tariff laws. During the
succeeding year arose the sectional discussion that wellnigh rent the
Union asunder, when the people o f the country beheld the state o f South
Carolina in a posture o f alleged rebellion against the laws o f the Union.
Before the prior act had taking effect, however, the tariff law o f 1832 was
modified by what was denominated “ The Compromise Bill,” which is un­
derstood to have been framed by the admirable statesmanship o f the Hon.
Henry Clay, who, by this measure, doubtless saved the country from those
overt acts on the part o f South Carolina, claiming itself to be a sovereign
state, which would probably have amounted to treason by the constitution.
This last tariff law, enacted during the winter o f 1833, extended its provi­
sions down to the thirtieth o f June, 1842. It provided that all the duties
which exceeded twenty per cent upon the value, should be reduced twenty
per cent annually, until the thirtieth o f June, 1842. The same act de­
clares what articles shall be admitted free o f duty after the thirtieth o f
June, 1 8 4 2 ; attempts to limit the power o f future legislatures in regard to
the amount o f the imposition o f duties on imports to a sum not exceeding
twenty per cent ad valorem, and also declares that only those duties should
be laid after the thirtieth o f June, 1842, as may be required for the pur­
pose o f raising such revenue as may be necessary to an economical ad­
ministration o f the government. Such then is the present state o f the
tariff law.
Having sketched a brief history o f the manufacturing policy o f the




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131

country, we now propose to enter upon a rapid view o f the opinions enter­
tained upon that subject, from time to time, by different sections o f the
republic. On the establishment o f the first tariff law in 1816, it is well
known that N ew England voted with the south, and in opposition to the
western states, as well as N ew York, N ew Jersey, and Pennsylvania, upon
the question o f the protection which was to be afforded to the interest o f the
cotton manufacturer ; and the bill for reduction was ultimately carried by
N ew England votes, together with those o f the southern portion o f the
country. A s regards the alleged original support o f the protective system
by the south, we have upon record the explanation o f the southern policy
upon that subject, from Mr. John C. Calhoun, o f South Carolina, one o f its
most eloquent and able orators. His remarks we subjoin, in order that
both sides o f the question may be heard; for it is our design to enter into
no party argument, but only to trace the political history o f manufactures,
and, as accessory thereto, to give the views o f leading statesmen upon this
important national interest. “ There still remains another misrepresenta­
tion o f the conduct o f the state,” said Mr. Calhoun, “ which has been
made with the view o f exciting odium. I allude to the charge that South
Carolina supported the tariff o f 1816, and is, therefore, responsible for the
protective system. T o determine the truth o f this charge, it becomes ne­
cessary to ascertain the-real character o f that law, whether it was a tariff
for revenue or protection; which presents the inquiry, what was the condi­
tion o f the country at that period ? The late war with Great Britain had
just terminated, which, with the restrictive system that preceded it, had
diverted a large amount o f industry from commerce to manufactures, par­
ticularly to the cotton and woollen branches. There was a debt at the
same time o f one hundred and thirty millions o f dollars hanging over the
country, and the heavy war duties were still in existence. Under these
circumstances the question was presented, to what point the duties ought to
be reduced. That question involved another— at what time the debt
ought to be paid ?— which was a question o f policy involving, in its consider­
ation, all the circumstances connected with the then condition o f the
country. A m ong the most prominent arguments in favor o f an early dis­
charge o f the debt was, that the high duties which it would require to ef­
fect it, would have, at the same time, the effect o f sustaining the infant
manufactures which had been forced up under the circumstances to which
I have adverted. This view o f the subject had a decided influence in de­
termining in favor o f an early payment o f the debt. The sinking fund
was accordingly raised from seven to ten millions o f dollars, with the pro­
vision to apply the surplus which might remain in the treasury as a contin­
gent appropriation to that fund, and the duties were graduated to meet this
increased expenditure. It was thus that the policy and justice o f protect­
ing the large amount o f capital and industry, which had been diverted by
the measures o f the government into new channels, as I have stated, was
combined with the fiscal action o f the government, and which, while it
secured a prompt payment o f the debt, prevented the immense losses to
the manufacturers which would have followed a sudden and great reduc­
tion. Still revenue was the main object, and protection but the incidental.
The bill to reduce the duties was reported by the committee o f ways and
means, and not o f manufactures, and it proposed a heavy reduction on the
then existing rate o f duties. But what o f itself, without other evidence,
was decisive as to the character o f the bill, is the fact that it fixed a much




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American Manufactures.

higher rate o f duties on the unprotected than the protected articles. I
will enumerate a few leading articles only. W oollen and cotton above the
value o f twenty-five cents on the square yard, though they were the lead­
ing objects o f protection, were subject to a permanent duty o f only twenty
per cent. Iron, another leading article among the protected, had a pro­
tection o f not more than nine per cent, as fixed by the act, and o f but fif­
teen as reported in the bill. These rates were all below the average du­
ties as fixed in the act, including the protected, the unprotected, and even
the free articles. I have entered into some calculation in order to
ascertain the average rate o f duties under the act. There is some un­
certainty in the data, but I feel assured that it is not less than thirty per
cent ad valorem, showing an excess o f the average duties above that im­
posed on the protected articles enumerated o f more than ten per cent, and
thus clearly establishing the character o f the measure, that it was for reve­
nue and not protection.” *
Even during the year 1824, the votes o f N ew England stood fifteen for
and twenty-three against the act, while those o f the states o f N ew Y ork,
Pennsylvania, N ew Jersey, Kentucky, and Ohio, were in favor o f the mea­
sure— seventy-eight standing for and nine against it. Upon the bill which
was introduced into the house during that year, Mr. W ebster, acting as the
organ o f a portion o f N ew England, clearly expressed his views, which,
com ing as they did from one o f the most powerful minds o f any
age, certainly deserve respectful consideration. Upon that question this
distinguished statesman, although he did not in fact oppose the tariff sys­
tem as a system, was, nevertheless, averse to the measure o f protection
viewed by that bill. F or example, he was opposed to a very high duty
upon imported wool, and, indeed, he appears to have been informed by his
constituents that such duty would, in the end, injure the domestic producer
o f that article, because, as was claimed, a certain quantity o f wool, cheaper
than could be furnished here, was required for the operations o f our wool­
len manufactories, and would thus tend to diminish its consumption. He
was opposed to an increased duty upon iron, because the serfs o f Russia
and Sweden could manufacture it for the wages o f seven cents per day, and
to an increased duty upon hemp, because it was calculated to injure the
shipping interest. Indeed, his opposition to those features o f the bill,
which seemed, in their consequences, likely to injure the commercial in­
terests o f the nation, was eloquently and openly avowed. In regard to
the cotton manufacture, he stated in that debate, “ A s to the manufactures
o f cotton, it is agreed, I believe, that they are generally successful. It is
understood that the.present existing duty operates pretty much as a pro­
hibition over those descriptions o f fabrics to which it applies. The pro­
posed alteration would probably enable the Am erican manufacturer to
commence competition with higher priced fabrics, and so would, perhaps,
an augmentation less than is here proposed. I consider the cotton manu­
factures not only to have reached, but to have passed the point o f com pe­
tition. I regard their success as certain, and their growth as rapid as the
most impatient could well expect. If, however, a provision o f the nature
o f that recommended here, should be found necessary to commence new
* See the speech o f Hon. John C. Calhoun in the senate, Feb. 15th, 1833, on the bill
reported by the committee on the judiciary, relative to the proceedings o f South Caro­
lina.




American Manufactures.

133

operations in the same line o f manufacture, I should cheerfully agree to
it if it were not at the cost o f sacrificing other great interests o f the coun­
try. I need hardly say that whatever promotes the cotton and woollen
manufactures, promotes most important interests o f m y constituents.
Th ey have a great stake in the success o f those establishments, and, as far
as those manufactures are concerned, would be as much benefited by the
provisions o f this bill as any part o f the community. It is obvious, too, I
should think, that for some considerable time manufactures o f this sort, to
whatever magnitude they may rise, will be principally established in those
parts o f the country where population is most dense, capital most abundant,
and where the most successful beginnings have been already made. But
if these be thought to be advantages, they are greatly counterbalanced by
important advantages enjoyed by other portions o f the country. I cannot
but regard the situation o f the west as highly favorable to human happi­
ness. It offers, in the abundance o f its new and fertile lands, such assu­
rances o f permanent prosperity and respectability to the industrious, it
enables them to lay such sure foundations for a competent provision for
their families, it makes such a nation o f freeholders, that it need not envy
the most happy and prosperous o f the manufacturing communities. W e
may talk as we will o f well-fed and well-clothed day-laborers or journey­
men ; they are not after all to be compared, either for happiness or re­
spectability, with him who sleeps under his own r oof and cultivates his
own fee-simple inheritance.” *
The fundamental principle o f the argument o f Mr. W ebster in that de­
bate was, that protection should be afforded only to those articles which
we might produce at nearly the same cost as they could be furnished from
abroad. “ The true inquiry is,” said he, “ can we produce the article in
a useful state at the same cost, or at any reasonable approximation towards
the same cost at which we can import it ?” ■)■ In the debate upon that sub­
ject in 1824, the same system o f policy appears to have been advocated
by Mr. W ebster, and, in 1833, he maintained the constitutionality o f the
tariff laws against the most powerful champion o f the south, Mr. John C.Calhoun. From the causes which we have mentioned, the various manu­
facturing interests o f the country have gradually grown to their present
state, sometimes impeded by temporary checks, but generally main­
taining their proper equilibrium, so that now they may be considered as
having attained a solid and permanent foundation. N or has the produc­
tion o f cotton and woollen fabrics alone been nurtured into vigor. The
various species o f manufactured production, as connected with the trades,
have kept pace with the larger interests, so that we have not only in great
measure supplied ourselves, but in some species furnished a surplus for
exportation.
It would be impracticable to go into a particular description o f the amount
o f the various manufactured articles which are produced in the U. States,
from the want o f accurate returns o f their production. W e accordingly pass
over at present a consideration o f the manufacture o f cottons and woollens,
and proceed to ageneral view o f those articles which are produced from other'
sources than manufacturing establishments. And first, we turn to the manu­
facture o f iron. It is well known that immense beds o f this mineral, as well
* See Webster’s Speeches and Forensic Arguments, Vol. I., p. 294.




t Ibid.

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American Manufactures.

as those o f lead, are beginning to be laid open throughout our western
states, and as early as 1810, the total manufactures o f iron in the country
was estimated at $14,364,520 in value. Indeed, when we look at the
vast quantity o f machinery that is made in Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, and
many o f our eastern states, besides the very large amount o f hardware
that is even now manufactured in the country, as also implements o f house­
hold comfort, we must be convinced that this production is an important
and lucrative branch o f enterprise. T o these may be added the manufac­
ture o f leather, a sufficient portion o f which is wrought for the domestic
consumption o f the country. N ew Y ork and Pennsylvania carry on this
business to a great extent, and it is well known that the great bulk o f the
inhabitants o f Lynn, in Massachusetts, are principally engaged in the man­
ufacture o f shoes. The manufacture o f trunks, harness, boots, and sad­
dlery is carried on in almost every village o f the country o f any consider­
able size. A ccording to the authority o f Mr. Pitkin, the total amount o f
this manufacture in the United States cannot be less than from forty to
forty-five millions o f dollars. The manufacture o f hats has also long
been an object o f American enterprise ; and when we consider the num­
ber o f these articles which is required at home for domestic consumption,
it is a source o f honest pride that we have long, not only supplied our do­
mestic markets with hats o f our own production, but furnished a surplus for
exportation. The manufacture o f fur hats is carried on to a considerable
extent in Albany, besides that o f straw-hats in Massachusetts. It was esti­
mated by Mr. Pitkin, that in Massachusetts the value o f hats, caps, and
straw bonnets o f all kinds, amounted, in 1832, to fifteen millions o f dollars.
The manufacture o f cabinet ware, in its various forms, is, it is well
known, carried on to a great extent in the country, and produces not only
a sufficient quantity for our own supply, but in 1833 yielded a surplus for
exportation that amounted to $200,635. The necessary article o f salt is
also made in great abundance in the states o f Massachusetts, N ew Y ork,
Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Ohio.
Sugar has been made formerly in
Louisiana to the amount o f from twenty-five to thirty thousand hogsheads
per annum, and molasses to the amount o f one million two hundred and
fifty thousand gallon s; although the amount returned in 1831 from that
state was, o f sugar seventy-five thousand hogsheads, and o f molasses three
millions six hundred and fifty thousand gallons. The business o f refining
sugar has recently become an important object o f enterprise, and this busi­
ness is carried on to a considerable extent in the country. It is well as­
certained that the sugar o f Louisiana is equally valuable for refining with
that o f the W est Indies. A n establishment for this purpose has been erected
in N ew Orleans, and a considerable number o f sugar refineries have been
erected throughout different parts o f the country. The useful and beautiful
article o f glass is, it is probably well known, made to a considerable extent
in our country ; the principal points for the manufacture o f which are Pitts­
burgh, Boston, N ew York, and W heeling in Virginia, Maryland, Browns­
ville in Ohio, Massachusetts, N ew Hampshire, Vermont, Connecticut, and
in the District o f Columbia. T h e manufactures o f the United States have
extended not only to the making o f flint glass, but crown window-glass,
cylinder window-glass, glass bottles, vials, apothecaries’ ware, demijohns,
carboys, & c., and the total amount o f our domestic manufacture o f this arti­
cle was recently estimated at three millions o f dollars. The production o f
spirituous liquors forms no inconsiderable a portion o f the manufactures o f




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135

the country, and notwithstanding the laudable exertions o f the temperance
societies, a large amount is now produced, not only from molasses, but the
different kinds o f grain. Besides the several species o f manufacture which
we have enumerated, may be mentioned the production o f a new fabric j
we mean that o f silk. A s early as 1760, the white mulberry tree was in­
troduced into Mansfield, in the state o f C onnecticut; but little appears to
have been accomplished in this interest until the close o f the Am erican
revolution, and in 1783 a bounty o f ten shillings was granted for every
hundred white mulberry trees, and a bounty o f three pence for every ounce
o f raw silk. This bounty, together with others which succeeded, was emi­
nently calculated to stimulate the enterprise o f the silk manufacturers, so
that the amount o f raw silk annually made was recently estimated at
about seven thousand pounds, which were valued at thirty thousand dol­
lars. The recent attention o f the people to this subject throughout the
country is calculated to increase the manufacture o f this article to a much
greater amount. Various chemical compounds sold by the druggists are
also made in large quantities ; an application o f chemistry to the useful
arts which is attended with very valuable practical results. Copperas, to the
amount o f many millions o f pounds, is also here produced. The manufac­
ture o f lead has been carried on also to a considerable extent, the mines o f
the western portion o f our country having produced from 1823 to 1832,
fifty-five millions nine hundred and three thousand eight hundred and eightyeight pounds, to which a large addition will be made from the new mines
o f W isconsin and Iowa, which recent developments have opened to the
light. White lead, red, and sugar o f lead, are also made to a considerable
extent. Soap and spermaceti candles ; paper, which has always received
protection from the government, not only by the imposition o f duties upon
the imports, but also by the free importation o f the rags o f which it is made;
tobacco, that is annually produced in this country to several millions o f dol­
lars. Cables and cordage, gold and silver jew elry and plated ware, as well
as ware o f brass, copper, tin, pewter, and britannia buttons and combs, porce­
lain, and carriages o f different sorts, various articles made from flax and
hemp, which are used in shipping and other purposes, are also yielded. W e
have thus merely alluded to these products o f American industry for the
purpose o f showing the numerous objects to which the activity o f our
country has been directed, an enterprise which is destined to be advanced
to more important results as the population o f the republic increases, and
augmented stimulants are provided for domestic production, by more ex­
tended markets, both at home and abroad. Most o f these articles consti­
tute the greater part o f the materials o f domestic trade, and fill our shops and
warehouses. There is no plainer evidence o f the progress o f the country
than in the contrast o f the amount o f these articles now daily yielded with
that o f former times. And it is a source o f satisfaction that their manufac­
ture is constantly increasing. Throughout the whole length and breadth o f
the settled portion o f the republic, how many thousand workshops are ring­
ing with the sound o f the hammer I How many forges are pouring forth their
columns o f smoke towards the heavens, and what multitudes o f men in the
various trades are moulding the raw materials, provided by nature, into new
forms o f utility and taste, thus augmenting human comfort and swelliug the
sum o f national wealth! O f the amount o f this productive labor, we can form
some estimate by computing the value o f the consumption o f our country,




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American Manufactures.

and the proportion which is furnished to this consumption by our domestic
production.
Besides the articles to which we have alluded, various others are yield­
ed in the country, and among those which we would specify, are manu­
factures o f umbrellas, brushes, brass nails, and cotton and woollen cards,
all o f which are supposed to amount in value to about three hundred and
fifty millions o f dollars per annum, and which load the shelves o f our shops.
W e have thus seen the manufactures o f the United States forced into
existence by the early exigences o f the country when we were cut o ff from
foreign supplies, and actually strengthening under the fostering hand o f the
government, so that they have now gained a fixed and permanent foothold
upon the soil. W e now proceed to a consideration o f that part o f the
policy which, as a system, is probably designed to be the subject o f more
ardent discussion than any other o f our national interests, because it is more
important in its character, being more extensive in its influence, and involves
larger consequences than the individual industry which is connected with
the trades. The solid and vigorous enterprise o f the people o f our north­
ern states, and that o f a portion o f the west and south, have planted the ba­
sis o f the cotton manufacture upon the soil, encountering obstacles in the
attempt that would seem calculated to dishearten any but themselves. W e
have seen the south at one time in favor o f the system, and at another op­
posing it, and it becomes interesting to know something o f its present state.
W e have no means at hand o f ascertaining the precise condition o f the
woollen manufacture, but it is ascertained that this has advanced to con ­
siderable importance in our northern states. In those portions o f our ter­
ritory where the rugged character o f the soil seems to furnish but scanty
motive for agricultural labor, and where an abundance o f water-power ap­
pears to have provided ample means for this species o f industry, manufac­
tories have sprung up to an extent that would hardly seem credible to one
whose attention had not been directed expressly to the fact. Numerous
villages have silently extended themselves in the interior o f N ew England,
whose existence was scarcely known to those upon the border; and it is
only by the cutting o f a railroad through them, in order to furnish an outlet
to their products, that the public have had an opportunity to witness their
actual condition. The searching glance o f Am erican enterprise has sought
out every fall where a head o f water could be obtained for the purpose o f
placing upon it a factory ; and even the southern and western states appear
to be emulating the example which has been set by those o f the north: indeed
we cannot fail to be impressed with the amazing growth o f this branch o f
enterprise, when we learn that, according to an authentic computation, the
amount o f capital invested in the cotton manufacture o f our country is
forty-five millions o f dollars,— aboutone fourth o f that which is employed in
the cotton manufacture o f Great Britain.*
In regard to the policy o f encouraging the manufacturing system o f this
country by national legislation, the fundamental doctrine laid down by
General Hamilton, in his report, appears to be founded in solid reason,— a
doctrine which maintained that “ every nation ought to endeavor to possess
within itself all the essentials o f national supply; these comprise the means
o f subsistence, habitation, clothing, and defence. The possession o f these,”
* See “ The Cotton Manufacture o f Great Britain and America contrasted,” by Jamea
Montgomery, page 161.




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137

he remarked, “ is necessary to the protection o f the body politic, to the
safety as well as to the welfare o f society : the want o f either is the want
o f an important organ o f political life and m otion; and in the various crises
which await a state, it must severely feel the effects o f any such deficiency.
The extreme embarrassments o f the United States during the late war (the
war o f the revolution) from the incapacity o f supplying ourselves, are still
matters o f keen recollection. A future war might be expected again to
exemplify the mischiefs and dangers o f a situation to which that incapacity
is still in too great a degree applicable, unless by timely and vigorous ex­
ertions, T o effect this change as fast as shall be prudent, merits all the at­
tention and all the zeal o f our public cou n cils: ’tis the next great work to
be accomplished.” * This view appears to have been fortified by all our
national experience. General Hamilton had himself been a prominent a c­
tor in a contest which clearly demonstrated the position. He had seen a
country invaded by a foreign army, destitute, in a great measure, o f the
means which might have supplied their necessary wants ; and a soldiery, in
many instances, driven on to forced marches beneath wintry skies without the
necessary clothing which ordinary comfort would seem to have required to
protect them in the service o f their country. The war o f 1812 exhibited
the same scene, and after the peace it was found necessary to direct the
public mind with more vigor to the protection o f manufacturing industry, a
policy which has been continued to the present time.
It is understood that the south and southwest are opposed to the imposi­
tion o f duties upon foreign manufactured fabrics, because they say that the
diminution o f importations would have a tendency to contract the market
for their cotton abroad, and that, since their staple furnishes the great bulk
o f the freights which are exported, they have a right to control the pro­
tective policy o f the Country. But how stands the matter ? The imposi­
tion o f duties upon foreign fabrics, is the levy o f a tax upon the consumer
o f the article protected; and how large a proportion o f these consumers
is furnished by the population o f the south ? Certainly a very inconsider­
able portion o f the consumption o f the nation is provided by that part o f
the country ! The raising o f cotton by the south is an enterprise dictated
by their own interest, and the shipping it to foreign parts is governed by
the same motives. If duties are to be laid upon foreign fabrics, the largest
proportion o f the consumers, or those upon whom the tax is levied, should
Control the policy. W e profess to be opposed as much as anybody to a
narrow, exclusive, sectional legislation. Let broad-minded statesmen have
in their eye the good o f the whole country, and they will establish this in­
terest upon the right basis. Let them keep in view the welfare, not only
o f the factory owner, but the mechanic— the good o f the northern weaver,
as well as the southern planter, and the western wheat-grower-^-and their
ends will be good. Let them legislate for the just gains o f the employers,
who, in most cases, have acquired their capital by their own industry, and
for the interests o f the great mass o f the operatives also. If it is found
that it is necessary for the economical administration o f the government
that duties should be augmented, let these duties be discriminating, hav­
ing clearly in view the prosperity o f the whole country.
If a tax is to be levied, the great bulk o f the consumers, the people,
must pay it, and let it be imposed in such mode and measure as will result

* See the Report of General Hamilton on Manufactures.
VOL.

V.— NO.

XI.




18

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American Manufactures.

in their benefit. It would seem to be the proper policy o f the country, i f
we are to nurture the system o f manufactures by national legislation as a
branch o f national enterprise, to discover, in the first place, how far the
interest o f the nation makes it necessary that this system should be pro­
tected. If there are any evils which have been found growing out o f the
system by the employment o f operatives who are too young to engage in
such labors, if their too constant occupation in these establishments leaves
but little time for intellectual and moral cultivation, or i f by full investiga­
tion it should be discovered that such labor is calculated to produce ill
health to the workmen who- are engaged in them, consequences which we
are informed have often flowed from the manufacturing system as it has
been conducted in England, we should in the commencement o f our career
guard ourselves against these consequences. If the manufacturing system
receives aid from the government, it will doubtless yield to those rules pre­
scribed by the several state legislatures for its regulation. The most im­
portant o f these rules would seem to be such enactments as should prohibit
the employment o f all operatives under a certain age, a proper provision
for their education, a proper regulation o f the hours o f labor, and such a
ventilation o f the factories as to prevent the mephitic influences which may
possibly spring from the confined air o f those institutions. Such a policy
would be o f no detriment to the cotton manufacturer, while it would most
effectually tend to the advantage o f that large class which- comprises our
factory population.
The policy o f protection is founded in this :— that it is desirable that all
nations should possess in themselves the means o f comfort without depen­
dence upon foreign markets. This independence may be partially secured
by such an imposition o f taxes on the article necessary to be protected, as
will furnish encouragement to the producer.
The abstract policy o f
free trade cannot, we think, be considered with any practical advan­
tage as a national question, because we have no power o f controlling for­
eign legislation. It is very evident that the western portion o f our
country is by nature more favorable for the raising o f agricultural products,
such as wheat and corn, than any other part o f the globe. But if the at­
tention o f our own people is directed exclusively to the raising o f wheat,
what would be its value if foreign ports should be barred against us, as
Great Britain now is in effect by the existence o f the corn laws. The for­
eign policy which we have mentioned, and the necessity that is found to the
depending upon ourselves in case o f exigency, has induced the establish­
ment o f the protective policy, in order that encouragement may be thus a f­
forded to various kinds o f manufacturing industry. The numerous trades,
and every species o f productive labor, will be benefited by that legislation
which excludes the competition o f foreign labor, whether manufacturing or
otherwise. But whatever may be the differences o f opinion which may
hereafter divide the country upon the subject o f the protective policy, the
manufacturing system has become so deeply rooted among us, that it must
in the nature o f things be permanent. It has, indeed, been estimated by
an experienced manufacturer, that the amount o f capital invested in the
cotton manufacture alone, throughout the Union, cannot be less at the pres­
ent time than forty-five millions o f dollars. O f this amount the state o f
Massachusetts alone, four years ago, employed $14,369,719 o f this capi­
tal. New Y ork, with its vast agricultural and commercial resources, ap­
pears to be but little behind her sister state o f Massachusetts.




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139

Lowell, the offspring o f the manufacturing system, now containing a
population o f about twenty thousand,* has derived its prosperity from this
branch o f enterprise, and the system is here more thoroughly organized
than in any other part o f the country ; the factories producing a greater
amount o f cloth and yarn from each spindle and loom than is furnished by
any other factory upon the g lo b e : and our surprise at its amazing prosper­
ity will be increased, when we learn that only about twenty years since the
tract which now embraces this great city o f spindles was occupied only by
a few farmers, who gained their subsistence by cultivating this unfruitful
spot in taking fish in the rivers o f Concord and Merrimack.
That the cotton manufacture is gradually extending through the country
under favorable auspices, there can be but little doubt. The principal wa­
terfalls o f Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut, are suc­
cessfully improved by its wonderful a g en cy ; and in N ew Jersey, Pennsyl­
vania, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and some o f the principal
towns upon the Ohio, it has made considerable progress. It is believed
that the interest will be permanently fixed as the population o f the country
advances, not only in the north and east, but the southern states and the
remote west, which is now burdened with all the resources which give
wealth and stability to nations.f W e are informed that several cotton
factories are in existence in Tennessee, which are operated by slave labor,
no white man being in the mill but the superintendent ;• and the water­
power in a part o f that section o f the territory is so abundant, that it is be­
lieved that the interest o f manufactures can be prosecuted successfully,

* A late number o f the Lowell Journal published a sketch o f that city, its manufacturing
establishments, schools, morals, religion, & c., drawn up by Eliphalet Case, Esq., from
which we derive the following:
“ The town o f Lowell was incorporated March, 1826. On the spot now occupied by the
city, the population, at the time the first purchases were made for manufacturing purposes,
did not exceed 200 persons. In 1828, it reached 3,532; in 1830, it was 6,477; in 1833, it
was 12,363; in 1836, it was 17,633; and by the census o f 1840, it was 20,981. It is now
only twenty years since the project o f using the Wat ; o f the Pawtucket Falls originatod
with several enterprising gentlemen o f Boston and vicinity. The increase o f population
has, therefore, exceeded a thousand a year, for twenty years.
The city charter was obtained in 1836. The city is situated at the confluence o f the
Merrimack and Concord rivers, on the west side o f the Merrimack, above and below the
famous Pawtucket Falls, and on both sides o f the Concord, between which and the Falls,
a distance o f about a mile, the canals and mills are all located, extending back from the
first-named river about three fourths o f a mile. Lowell is connected with Boston by the
Middlesex canal and the Boston and Lowell railroad. The distance is twenty-six miles.
The road is the best built o f any in the United States. It is constructed with iron rails, resting
on granite sleepers laid on stones imbedded in the earth, and has double tracks. The city
is connected with Andover and Haverhill, in this state, and Exeter, N. H ., by a railroad
that connects with the Boston and Lowell, ten miles below. It is connected with Nashua,
N. H ., by the Nashua and Lowell railroad, fifteen miles in length. Numerous lines o f
stages also connect it with every other important section o f the surrounding country. It is
bounded as follows, viz: 1,068 rods on Merrimack river, 426 on Tewksbury, 248 on Con­
cord river, and 1,122 rods on the old town o f Chelmsford, o f which it originally formed a
part. It contains 3,200 acres, including half the waters o f the rivers, the distance which
they bound it.”
f The progress o f population in the new states o f the west has tended in good measure to
extend the interest o f manufactures into that quarter.




140

American Manufactures.

although perhaps the climate o f that region may in some measure impede
its present prosperity; indeed, while we are writing, we learn by the news­
papers that a cotton factory has just gone into operation within the remotest
southern boundaries o f Florida. It is understood that the principal manu­
facturing establishments o f our northern states are engaged in the produc­
tion o f goods for home consumption, but considerable quantities have been
exported to India and South Am erica, where it is understood that Am erican
staples have hitherto competed successfully with those o f British produc­
tion. If Mr. W ebster, as early as 1824, could say with truth that even at
that time the manufactures o f the country had been established upon a ba­
sis beyond competition, how much more safely may the remark now be
be made, when prosperous manufacturing villages dot the country from
Maine to Tennessee and the banks o f the Ohio, and are beginning to
spring up even in the extreme south !
A nd what is the condition o f these institutions in reference to the modes
o f life o f the operatives engaged in them ?— for that condition becomes a
part o f the question when the interest is brought up before the country as
a matter o f national legislation. W e have had, indeed, distressing pictures
painted for us by Miss Martineau and Edward Lytton Bulwer, o f the condition o f these establishments abroad. And, in truth, amid the overgrown
population o f the United Kingdom, and that subdivision o f labor, by which
the same course o f pursuit is entailed from generation to generation, we
might well expect scenes o f distress which are revolting to human nature,
and opposed to the spirit and structure o f a republican government. W e
have had evidence o f the existence o f children in English factories, who
w ere scarcely disrobed o f their swaddling clothes, urged on by long-continued toil to premature age, before the bloom o f youth should have faded
from their cheeks ; o f Spitalsfield weavers— those dwarfish, withered,
crooked apologies for humanity— with the light o f intellect faded from their
eyes by the incessant labors to which they are exposed, and the want o f
the ordinary means o f education. And this evidence has been adduced in
abundance upon the floor o f the English house o f commons. Opposed to
this we have had counter-statements, going to show that the condition o f
the English factory operatives is as happy as that o f any other class o f
the English population. The state o f the infant portion o f the factory
population in that empire has awakened the interest o f some o f the most
benevolent o f the'British statesmen ; and it certainly is one o f the noblest
passages o f the career o f Sir Robert Peel, that in 1819, he succeeded in
obtaining the passage o f an act by which no child, under nine years o f age,
should be allowed in a cotton factory, nor under sixteen be subject to more
than twelve hours o f labor during the day ; a course o f policy which
brought upon him unmerited reproach. N or was the late Mr. Saddler far
behind his noble compeer in the same cause, who fully laid open the hor­
rors which were perpetrated in the English cotton and woollen factories ;
and being a member o f the legislature, proposed not only that every
species o f manufacture should be subject to the same law, but at a
more recent period proposed that the hours o f labor should be limited to
ten.
But the causes which bear so unfavorably upon the factory operatives
o f Great Britain, we think, can never obtain any permanent foothold in
our own country. In the first place, the character o f the government is
entirely distinct, being based upon a broad foundation o f republicanism.




American Manufactures.

141

The people in this country are peculiarly jealous o f all those measures o f
policy whose tendency is in any way to debase the more active classes ;
and it is well known that they watch with lynx-eyed vigilance all those in­
terests which abroad have induced in any measure such a result. It is
also well known that it is in the power o f the majority at all times to dis­
countenance measures which lead to the consequences that we have de­
scribed. The principles o f our holy religion are too deeply implanted in
the soil, to further that course o f policy which might lead either to vice or
ignorance ; and it is well known that in no other part o f the globe are
moral principles more widely diffused than in that particular section o f the
republic where the manufacturing system the most extensively prevails.
The husbands, the fathers, and the brothers o f those who constitute the
active agents o f this system, are themselves voters, and some o f them even
the legislators o f the country. W e have, moreover, so much faith in the
conscientious integrity o f the factory owners themselves— many o f them
true-hearted men, as we know them to be— as to believe that they would
never be willing to foster any course o f legislation which should have a
tendency, in the remotest degree, to endanger the intelligence or the
morals o f their fellow -citizens; and equal confidence in the people o f the
country, who we believe will never countenance any form o f national
abuse. N or do we believe that the condition o f the factory operatives o f
the United States is such as to warrant any fears respecting their present
state. In the interior o f N ew England, we all know, that many o f them
are employed near their own homes, and within the range o f the oversight
o f their friends ; and so far as morals are concerned, it is believed that the
factory establishments afford as much purity in this respect as is found in
other branches o f occupation. A s regards the health o f the active agents
o f the cotton establishments, evidence has been from time to time adduced
upon that subject even here ; and it would seem that the advantages o f
the operatives in this respect are as great as are furnished by most other
kinds o f active employment. W e learn from a work which has been
recently issued, that the health o f six females out o f ten is better than before
being employed in the mills, and that o f the males, one half derive the
same advantage. N or is factory labor pursued here as in England— a
continuous business for life. The young men and women o f the country,
in those places where the factory system prevails, employ their industry in
these establishments, not as a main object o f pursuit, but as a stepping-stone
to a future settlement, or to other occupations. W hen they have, by dint
o f labor, procured for themselves a small sum, it not unfrequently happens
that they marry and engage in other pursuits, or emigrate to the broad
and rich fields o f the west, where the soil, like a kind mother, opens its
arms to receive them, and where they settle down permanent freeholders,
perhaps the future legislators o f the country.
It may be well here to enter into a brief view o f the domestic arrange­
ments o f our cotton manufacturing establishments, so far as the operatives
employed in them are concerned. And, first, respecting the ages o f the
children. From the table to which we have referred, it appears that in
1831, there were only four thousand six hundred and ninety-one children
employed in these establishments at that time who were under the age o f
twelve years. O f these Maine had none, N ew Hampshire sixty, Vermont
nineteen, Rhode Island the largest number, namely, three thousand four
hundred and seventy-two, Connecticut four hundred and thirty-nine, New




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American Manufactures.

Y ork four hundred and eighty-four, and N ew Jersey but two hundred and
seventeen ; certainly a small number, when it is considered that at that
time there were eighteen thousand five hundred and ninety males employ­
ed in all the factories, and thirty-eight thousand nine hundred and twentyseven females.
A s regards the hours o f labor—-taking Low ell as a test— it appears, that
work is commenced in the morning, from the first o f September to the first
o f May, at daylight, or as soon as the operatives can see, and is discontin­
ued during these eight months at half past seven in the evening. From
M ay to the first o f September, five o ’clock in the morning is the time for
the commencement o f the work, and it is stopped in the evening at seven
o ’clock. Half-past twelve is the dinner hour during the year, forty-five
minutes being allowed for that purpose during the summer months, and
thirty during the other eight. The following table from an experienced
manufacturer, Mr. Montgomery, gives the average hours o f labor during
the year,
A verage hours o f work p er day throughout the year.
January,
February,
March, .
April,
.
May,
,
June,
,

.
.
.
.
.

,
.
.
.
.
,

.
.
,
.
,
,

Hours.
11
12
11
13
12
12

Min.

24
—-

52
31
45
45

July,
.
August,. .
September,
October,
November,
Decem ber,

,

,
.
.

.

.

.

,

.
,
.
,

.
.

,

Hours.
12
12
12
12
11
11

Min.

45
45
23

10
56
24

This statement may, perhaps, apply to most o f the manufacturing estab­
lishments in the eastern portion o f the country, although the hours may
vary somewhat in the middle and southern districts. The four holidays,
fast, independence day, thanksgiving, and Christmas, besides the sabbath,
o f course, are devoted to rest, religious duties, and amusement. It may
be mentioned also, that the average wages o f females at Low ell is two
dollars a week, besides the!: board, and that o f the men is about eighty
cents per day, besides their board.*
* The following is a particular account o f the manufactories o f Lowell, obtained from the
source to which we have referred in a former note :
“ The great corporations o f the city are eleyen in number. The capital invested in them
amounts to $10,600,000. The proprietors o f the locks and canals on Merrimack river may
be considered as the original owners o f all the water-power o f the Merrimack at this place,
and the original purchasers o f all the most valuable adjoining lands. This company was
incorporated in 1792, for the purpose o f making a canal and locks around the Pawtucket
falls. Its capital stock is $600,000. The charter was purchased by the present company
on the eve of commencing the manufacturing operations in this place that have resulted in
such unparalleled success. The dam across the Merrimack, and the various canals in the
city, by which its waters are conveyed to the mills, were made by it. W ith two excep­
tions it built all the mills, boarding-houses, and machinery o f the other corporations. It
has two shops, smithy and foundry, and gives constant employment to five hundred men,
and when building mills and boarding-houses for new corporations, to twelve hundred,
Its principal building is called ‘ The Machine Shop.’ It turns out manufactured articles to
the amount o f about $250,000 per annum. The stock in this corporation has been, if it is
not now, probably the best in the world. Besides selling a vast amount o f land, on which
the principal part o f the city now stands, at prices varying from one eighth o f a dollar to
one dollar per square foot, which was purchased at one or two hundred dollars the acre,
the profit on all the mills and boarding-houses it has built op good contracts tor the othet




American Manufactures.

143

W e have thus traced.a brief view o f the rise and progress o f the manu­
facturing interest o f the United States— an interest which has kept even
pace with the progress o f the country in its other mercantile enterprises,
and that has now becom e fixed upon the soil. The offspring, in great
measure, o f necessity, it has sought and obtained direct legislation from
the government in its favor. The period is within the remembrance o f
some o f our older citizens, when the customary dress o f the people was
homespun, and a suit o f broadcloth was deemed a luxury— a silk dress
being considered an indulgence which required a public reprimand. The
progress o f the country in this respect is clearly demonstrated, not only
by the general use o f imported and costly cloths among the great body o f
our citizens, but also in the vast amount o f domestic consumption from the
looms o f our own manufacturing establishments. The question o f the fur­
ther protection o f our manufacturing interests, resolves itself into a matter
o f expediency and econom y. W ould such protection be o f solid benefit
to the community, and is it required by our present condition ? Further­
more, is it a branch o f economical policy which should be fostered ? These
are interrogatories which now divide the people ; and they will receive a
final discussion upon the expiration o f the present tariff law. It is admit­
ted, on all hands, that duties are required for the maintenance o f the reve­
nue ; but the more important'question is, are those duties required for
protection ? The system o f manufactures, as we before hinted, may be
considered, in great part, the offspring o f the governm ent; and all must
admit, that such a policy should be pursued as will tend to the best in­
corporations, and the profits on the immense manufactures o f its shops, consisting princi­
pally o f full sets o f machinery for cotton and woollen mills, locomotive engines, & c., it re­
serves and receives an annual rent for the water-power disposed of for each mill.
“ The capital stock o f the remaining ten great corporations is, o f course, $10,000,000.
Besides these establishments, there are the Lowell Bleachery; the extensive Powder
Works o f O. M. Whipple, E sq .; the Flannel M ills; the Whitney Mills, where blankets of
the very best quality and finish are m ade; a Batting M ill; Card and W hip Factory of
White & C o .; an extensive Bobbin Factory o f the Messrs. Douglass; Planing Machine of
Brooks <fc Pickering; extensive Carriage and Harness Manufactory o f Day, Converse <fc
W hittredge; Sash and Door Factory o f J. H. W rand; employing altogether a capital of
about $400,000, and 400 operatives. The whole number o f males employed in all the
manufacturing establishments in the city is about 2,500, and o f females 7,000. Very few
children are employed. It is provided by the laws o f the commonwealth, that all youths
employed in the mills, under fourteen years o f age, shall attend the schools three months
out o f twelve every year. The average wages o f females is two dollars per week, clear of
board; and o f males, common hands, eighty cents per day, clear of board. All are paid
monthly. The total amount o f average monthly wages, out o f which board bill must be
paid, is about $170,000, making a yearly aggregate, paid to operatives, by all the corpora­
tions, o f over $2,000,000.
The weekly product o f the mills is 1,265,560 yards o f cotton cloth, o f which 79,000 are
o f the coarsest kind, called negro cloth. The rest is mostly common, coarse, and fine
sheetings, shirtings, drillings, and cotton flannels. A large portion of the finer goods is
manufactured into calicoes at the Merrimack print works, and a small portion of the coarser
fabric is printed at the Hamilton print works. 1,800 yards o f broadcloth, and 6,000 yards
o f cassimere are produced per week, by the Middlesex Company; and 2,500 yards of car­
peting, and 150 rugs, measuring one yard and three fourths each, by the Lowell Company,
making a weekly aggregate o f 1,265,560, and a yearly o f 65,809,120 yards. Thus, it will
be seen, that this city manufactures a fraction over four and a half yards o f cloth per year,
for every man, woman, and child in the United States, allowing the population to be fifteen




144

American Manufactures ,

terests o f all. It has been our design not to enter into any discussion, or
to engage in exparte demonstrations, but to set forth, in a clear and com
densed form, the facts connected with the rise, progress, and present state
o f the manufacturing interest. A s one o f the most important branches o f
our national enterprise, it deserves to be understood thoroughly, and
maturely considered by the people, and such a course o f legislation should
be pursued as will tend to the prosperity o f all.
W e cannot close this paper without adverting to the mighty revolution
which has been effected during the present age by the agency o f ma­
chinery, N ot only has the individual condition o f the great bulk o f men
become changed by its recent introduction among us, but the enterprises
o f states seem to be undergoing a change through the influences which it
appears to be extending. Doubtless its agency will be instrumental in work­
ing out a greater amount o f good to the great body o f the people, in in­
creasing their productive power, and in spreading abroad those comforts
and that intelligence which are the peculiar features o f our own age. But
at the same time, its direct tendency is to abolish, in considerable meas­
ure, the sentiment o f taste which has thrown a pure coloring over
ages past. If Edmund Burke, that distinguished patriot and statesman,
could declare, in his own time, that the age o f chivalry had departed, with
how much greater truth can the remark be made in our own day, when
machinery has almost supplanted the ordinary forces formerly used by
men, and converted the country into a great workshop. Our tournaments
are the annual fairs which are held in the principal marts o f the nation j
millions. 270,000 yards o f cloth are dyed and printed per week. The consumption of cot­
ton per week, in all the mills, is 1,025 bales, or 412,000 pounds. The yearly consumption
o f wool is, in the Middlesex Mills, 600,000, and in the Carpet 439,536 pounds—making to­
gether 1,039,536 pounds. The Middlesex Company consumes, per annum, 3,000,000 teasels.
All the companies consume, per annum, 11,660 tons o f anthracite coals, 3,410 cords of wood,
500,000 bushels o f charcoal, 65,289 gallons o f oil, 600,000 pounds o f starch, and 3,000 barrels
of flour for starch.
“ The average time o f working in the mills per day, is about twelve hours and a quarter,
The female operatives remain in the employ o f the companies, on an average, a fraction
over three years. Their average ages probably range from fifteen to twenty-four. Very
few are under fifteen, and not many over twenty-four. The expense o f a female employed
in the mills, exclusive o f board, need not exceed $40 per annum, even when she dresses
elegantly on sabbaths and holidays, and well every day. She may therefore save, in three
years, $186, enough to purchase a small farm in the western country, or to decently furnish
a young mechanic’s or farmer’s house in New England. It is a very important fact, that
most o f the girls employed in the mills take good care o f their earnings. The cashier of
the Savings’ Bank informs me, that o f $386,000 deposited in that institution, $250,000 be­
long to the operatives, mostly females, employed in the factories. Some young females
come here from the surrounding country, work a few years, and employ their earnings to
aid their fathers to pay small debts: some to procure the means of completing a genteel
education at some one o f our numerous New England academies. The majority, however,
save their money to furnish the houses o f their future husbands. It is supposed that their
chances o f marrying are increased, rather than diminished, by their residence and employ­
ment in the city. Not a few are betrothed before they enter the mills; and while the
young men, to whom they were to be wedded, are laboring here or elsewhere for the
means to purchase a farm and build a house, they labor for the means to furnish it, and in
most cases successfully too.*
* For a full and complete tabular statement o f the Lowell Manufactures in January, 1840, see Merchants’
Magazine, vol. iii. p. 92 .




British Import Duties.

145

and he who bears o ff the victor’s prize, is the man who exhibits the finest
yard o f broadcloth, or the best cattle. Men now combine mainly to ad­
vance mere utilitarian projects, having reference to the mere base and
physical nature o f man, without, we think, devoting sufficient attention to
the pure in taste, which is believed to be allied to the pure in morals. But
we rejoice that the weapons o f modern political society are great principles
o f truth and right— not the mere brute power o f physical force. The
spinning-wheel o f our ancestors is discarded, and the spacious factory,
with its confused clattering, has taken its place. The old-fashioned pillion
has been forgotten, and our citizens ride to their neighbors upon the swift
wings o f the railroad. The small shallop, which formerly transacted most
o f the domestic carrying trade, has yielded to the steamboat, which now
vexes every sea by machinery. Machinery divests the cotton plant o f its
seed, transports it to the factory, weaves it into cloth, and then distributes
it to the respective markets in all quarters o f the globe. The duty which
is binding upon our own government, we think, is, to direct these modern
agents in such channels, that they may confer upon the people the great­
est happiness and comfort, and establish permanently, in the condition o f
all classes and all interests, the principles o f the Constitution.

A rt. III.— B R IT IS H IM P O R T D U T IE S .
ABSTRACT OF THE REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS
ON IMPORT DUTIES, AND THE EVIDENCE OF JOHN M'GREGOR, ESQ.

O n the 5th o f May, 1840, it was “ ordered by the British parliament
that a select committee should be appointed to inquire into the several
duties levied on imports in the United Kingdom ; and how far those duties
were for protection to similar articles the produce or manufacture o f that
country, or o f the British possessions abroad ; or whether the duties were
for purposes o f revenue alone.”
The committee appointed consisted o f
fifteen members, who remained in session one month, and examined
twenty-seven witnesses, and subsequently published a very elaborate re­
port, containing a vast amount o f evidence o f a valuable character, which
cannot be attentively perused without producing a strong conviction that
important changes should urgentl}"- be required in their revenue legislation.
The committee maintained that the tariff o f the United Kingdom pre­
sents neither congruity nor unity o f purpose— that no general principles
seem to have been applied, and that it often aims at incompatible ends.
The duties are sometimes meant to be both productive o f revenue and for
protective objects, which are frequently inconsistent with each oth er:
hence they sometimes operate to the complete exclusion o f foreign pro­
duce, and in so far no revenue can, o f course, be received ; and some­
times, when the duty is inordinately high, the amount o f revenue becomes,
in consequence, trifling. Th ey do not make the receipt o f revenue the
main consideration, but allow that primary object o f fiscal regulations to
be thwarted by an attempt to protect a great variety o f particular interests,
at the expense o f the revenue and o f the com m ercial intercourse with other
countries. The committee were strongly impressed that the effect o f pro-

vot,. v.—

NO. II.




19

146

British Import Duties.

hibitory duties, while they are, o f course, wholly unproductive to the
revenue, is to impose an indirect tax on the consumer, often equal to the
whole difference o f price between the British article and the foreign arti­
cle, which the prohibition excludes. On the article o f food alone, it is
averred, according to the testimony laid before the committee, that the
amount taken from the consumer exceeds the amount o f all other taxes
which are levied by the government. And the witnesses concur in the
opinion, that the sacrifices o f the community are not confined to the loss
o f revenue, but that they are accompanied by injurious effects upon wages
and capital : they diminish greatly the productive powers o f the country,
and limit their active trading relations.
Somewhat similar is the action o f high and protective duties. These
impose upon the consumer a tax equal to the amount o f the duties levied
upon the foreign article, whilst it also increases the price o f all the com ­
peting home-produced articles to the same amount as the duty ; but that
increased price goes, not to the treasury, but to the protected manufac­
turer. It is obvious that high protective duties check importation, and
consequently are unproductive to the revenue ; and experience shows that
the profit to the trader, the benefit to the consumer, and the fiscal interests
o f the country, are all sacrificed when heavy import duties impede the
interchange o f commodities with other nations.
The inquiries o f the committee naturally led them to investigate the
effects o f the protective system on manufacture and labor. They found,
on the part o f those connected with some o f the most important o f their
manufactures, a conviction, a growing conviction, that the protective sys­
tem is not, on the whole, beneficial to the protected manufactures them­
selves. Several witnesses, who were manufacturers, expressed the utmost
willingness to surrender any protection they had from the tariffs, and dis­
claimed any benefit resulting from that protection.
The committee gathered from the evidence laid before them, that while
the prosperity o f their own manufactures is not to be traced to benefits
derived from the exclusion o f foreign rival manufactures, so neither is the
competition o f continental manufacturers to be traced to a protective sys­
tem. They were informed that the most vigorous and successful o f the
manufactures on the continent had grown, not out o f peculiar favor shown
to them by legislation, but from those natural and spontaneous advantages
wich are associated with labor and capital in certain localities, and which
cannot be transferred elsewhere at the mandate o f the legislature, or at
the will o f the manufacturer. The committee had reason to believe, that
the most prosperous fabrics are those which flourish without the aid o f
special favors. It was stated, that the legislation o f Great Britain, when­
ever it is hostile to the introduction o f foreign commodities, is invariably
urged by the foreign states that produce such commodities, as a ground
and a sanction for laws being passed by them hostile to the introduction
o f products o f British industry.
W ith reference to the influence o f the protective system upon wages,
and on the condition o f the laborer, the committee were convinced that
the pressure o f foreign competition is heaviest on those articles, in the pro­
duction o f which the rate o f wages is low est; so it is obvious, in a coun­
try exporting so largely as England does, that other advantages may more
than compensate for an apparent advantage in the money-price o f labor.
The countries in which the rate o f wages is lowest are not always those




British Import Duties.

147

which manufacture most successfully ; and the best service that could be
rendered to the industrious classes o f the community, would be to extend
the field o f labor, and o f demand for labor, by an extension o f com m erce ;
and that the supplanting the present system o f protection and prohibition
by a moderate tariff", would encourage and multiply, most beneficially for
the state and for the people, their commercial transactions.
The committee further recommend, that as speedily as possible the
whole system o f differential duties, and o f all restrictions, should be re­
considered, and that a change therein be effected, in such a manner that
existing interests may suffer as little as possible in the transition to a more
liberal and equitable state o f things. The committee have been persuaded
that the difficulties o f modifying the discriminating duties which favor the
introduction o f British colonial articles, would be very much abated if the
colonies were themselves allowed the benefits o f free trade with all the
world.
’ •
Although the committee were not able to embrace all the several
branches which com e within the scope o f their instructions, yet. they
thought themselves warranted in reporting their strong conviction o f the
necessity o f an immediate change in the import duties o f the kingdom :
.and should parliament sanction their views, by establishing imposts on a
small number o f the articles most productive, the amount o f each impost
being carefully considered with a view to the greatest consumption o f the
article, and thereby produce the greatest receipt to the customs, they are
persuaded that no loss would occur to the revenue, but, on the contrary, a
.considerable augmentation might be confidently anticipated.
T h e simplification they recommend, would not only facilitate the trans­
actions o f com m erce, and thereby benefit the revenue, but would, at the
same time, greatly diminish the cost o f collection, remove multitudinous
sources o f complaint and vexation, and give an example to the world at
large, which, emanating from a community distinguished above all others
for its capital, its enterprise, its intelligence, and the extent o f its trading
relations, could not but produce the happiest effects, and consolidate the
great interests o f peace and commerce, by associating them intimately and
permanently with the prosperity o f the whole family o f nations.
In accordance with these general principles the committee elicited, in
the course o f their inquiries, the following important evidence, which has
made a deep impression on the British nation, and has produced an almost
universal conviction that their commercial relations demand prompt and
important changes.
Mr. M ‘ Gregor, one o f the joint secretaries o f the Board o f Trade, af­
firmed, that the whole amount o f the revenues received for the protection
o f British manufactures in the year 1839, was £4 43 ,3 55 , with the excep.
lion o f the amount received on cotton and woollen goods, the duties o f
which he did not consider as protective, inasmuch as neither the manufac­
turers o f the one or the other require any protection ; on the contrary,
several manufacturers themselves had avowed to the Board o f Trade, that
they wanted no protection whatever, while others, immediately after the
peace, declared that unless they changed their system they could not suc­
ceed ; that is, they must manufacture in large quantities, and instead o f
going upon the old system o f large profits, they must go upon the principle
o f small profits and great sales. He mentioned, as a curious fact, that
some branches o f manufacture which are protected— linens and silks, for




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British Import Duties.

example— have been more frequently in a greater state o f distress and mis­
ery than any others.
The whole amount o f cotton manufactures exported from Great Britain
in the year 1839, he stated to be £24,552,129, and that o f woollen goods
£6 ,679 ,2 87 . T h e amount o f import duties on cotton manufactures re­
ceived the same year, was £ 6 ,5 8 4 , and the amount o f duty received on
woollens £2 5,11 3.
The revenue duty on cotton manufactures at 10 per cent, and that on
woollen at 15 per cent, he regarded as no protection. The expense o f
transport, if foreign manufacturers produced them on the spot so much
cheaper than British goods, would be equal nearly to 10 and 15 per cent.
Every duty, if paid, he considered protective, that exceeds the cost o f
transporting the goods, produced at the same price, from the country
where they are manufactured to the country where they are sold. The
fact o f the duty being 10 per cent, and the revenue derived on cotton
manufactures being only £ 6 ,5 8 4 , were conclusive evidence to him, with
perhaps a few exceptions in regard to Germany, that those goods were
produced or sold in England as cheap as in other countries, and that they
required no protection. The British manufacturers had hitherto produced
those articles cheaper than the chief manufacturers abroad ; but latterly
they had found, in the Mediterranean, that the woollen cloths o f the south
o f France had been produced cheaper than theirs; coarse fabrics from
the south o f France met them in the foreign market, and had driven their
cloths out o f the markets o f Italy and Egypt to some extent. He was not
prepared to say, however, that the present duty will not very soon become
a protection, inasmuch as the manufacturers in the south o f France, in
places in the neighborhood o f Aix-la-Chapelie, and in Westphalia, and also
in Saxony, possibly in Moravia, may produce woollens at a cost much less
than those o f Great Britain, as may be equal not only to the expense o f
transport, but also to the 15 per cent on the import. Although the amount
o f the exports o f British woollens, particularly to the German states, had
not diminished since the establishment o f the Prussian tariff over the whole
o f those countries, yet he found, in all parts o f Germany, that Americans,
and other purchasers for South A m erica and Cuba, came to the fairs o f
Leipsic and Berlin, and also Vienna, to purchase woollens and cottons,
who had before received their entire supplies from Great Britain. It was
his belief that the consumption o f British woven manufactures had de­
creased in the states o f G erm an y; but very extraordinary facilities have
been afforded under the Prussian system for the transport o f goods. H e
thought that the consumption o f British woollen and cotton goods had
diminished to the extent o f one half in all the Rhenish states. But the
general declared value o f British and Irish produce and manufactures ex­
ported from the United Kingdom to Prussia, Germany, and Holland, dur­
ing the years from 1833 to 1838, both inclusive, was as follows :
Prussia.

1833
1834
1835
1836
1837
1838

...................£ 1 4 4 ,1 7 9
...............
136,423
...............
188,273
...............
160,722
...............
131,536
...............
155,223




Germany.

Holland.

£ 4 ,355 ,5 48
4,547,166
4,602,966
4,463,729
4,898,016
4,988,900

£ 2 ,181 ,8 93
2,470,267
2,648,402
2,509,622
3,040,029
3,549,429

Total.

£6 ,681,620
7,153,856
7,439,641
7,134,073
8,069,581
8,693,552

British Import Duties,

149

The consequence has been, since the year 1833, that a much greater
quantity o f British manufactures have been sold to be sent through and
out o f the states under the Germanic Union, into other countries, from the
facility which has been extended by the Prussian government in respect to
the inland warehousing. A ll importers o f respectability, residing within
the confederation, are allowed to bring their goods to their own ware­
houses. In the towns where fairs are held, they are weighed when they
are put in ; and at the end o f six months the goods remaining are re­
weighed. On being first weighed, the duty is charged to the merchant
in the customhouse books ; they receive credit at the end o f six months
for all that has been sold for transit, and for what remains on hand, paying
up the difference o f duty for what has been sold for consumption ; for the
goods then remaining on hand the duty is charged against them for another
six months ; and the facility thus created by the Prussian government has
been found to be very convenient to the importers, for they generally re­
ceive the money for the goods they sell before they pay the duties.
H e cited some instances o f German woollen and cotton goods that were
imported to Great Britain to be bonded for exportation ; but he considered
it contrary to law to put English marks upon them. H e stated that he
had various specimens o f British marks and cards that were printed for
the sales at Frankfort, and that they had been sent out to Am erica, & c .,
in packages, not in the same cases with the goods, but in another box, to
be put upon the goods after their arrival.
Mr. M ‘ Gregor presented the committee a synopsis o f twenty enumerated articles on which the duty has been laid to protect their manufactures,
and not for the purposes o f revenue.* T h ey were incidentally selected,
with the view o f showing the very small amount o f duty that they receive
altogether upon manufactures. The amount o f revenue in the year 1839,
on the twenty articles above referred to, was £4 02 ,5 75 , and the amount
received for the unenumerated articles was £ 4 0 ,3 8 0 . He did not think
the limited number o f articles he had selected a sufficient test o f the
amount o f protection : for, in taking an article on which the duty has un­
doubtedly been laid as a protective one— on silk manufactures, for exam­
ple— he found, notwithstanding the high duty, that the legal imports yield­
ed £247,361 nett revenue— more than one half o f the whole amount o f
duty yielded by all other manufactures imported ; which shows, that while
they receive a great revenue on silk goods, silk manufactures are manu­
factured so much cheaper in other countries, as to be able to bear a duty
o f from 30 to 40 per cent in Great Britain.
N or does the amount o f
revenue collected upon any article afford a test, in all cases, o f the extent
o f protection. It would be very small if the articles were produced, as
nearly as possible, at the same price as they could be produced in another
country— that is, with the difference o f the protecting duty ; but when we
com e to the silk manufacture, which yields a revenue o f £2 4 7 ,0 0 0 a year,and when it is considered that the contraband trade in that article is car­
ried on to a great extent, and that i f upon all the silk introduced into
Great Britain the duty was paid, the treasury would receive probably m ore
* Mr. M ‘ Gregor, in the course o f his examination, also laid before the committee a re­
vised tariff, the importance o f which has induced us to give it a place in a subsequent
part of this number. It will not only be useful in showing the existing rate o f duties in
Great Britain, but will exemplify his views as given in his evidence.— E d




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British Import Duties.

than £4 00 ,0 00 , it is evident that the silk introduced, after paying the cost
o f transport, and paying the duty o f from 30 to 40 per cent, must be nianu*
factured much cheaper, otherwise it would not yield a profit by being
imported into that, country.
Mr. M 'G regor stated that he had had communication with the head o f
customs in France, and with others, who assured him that cases and boxes
o f gloves had been sent to Boulogne and Dieppe for the express purpose o f
being smuggled into England, which was countenanced by the French cus­
tomhouse officers at those ports, who assisted frequently in getting the
goods off. H e further stated that the charge for smuggling was nine per
cent upon certain qualities o f silk and fine g lov es; but for ten and twelve
per cent, one can get all but the heavy goods insured into England. He
expressed it as his opinion, that the present high duties imposed by the Brit­
ish tariff promotes and encourages smuggling, and, consequently, interferes
with the revenue, without saving at all the labor o f the coun try; and he
regarded it as a truism, which experience has proved in every country in
Europe, that the moment the duty is higher than the premium for smug­
gling it ceases to be protective. The rate o f revenue duty that he would
recommend is ten per cent, the same as the premium for smuggling, which
he always considered a pretty fair test o f the duty being too high. H e put all
duties above ten to fifteen per cent as protective duties, except upon articles
upon which heavy duties are laid on account o f not having the same article
in the country. The duty on brandy he considered in two senses ; in the
first place, protective— as protecting British spirits; and in the next, as
protecting W est India spirits, rum, & c. H e also considered it a revenue
duty.
In the negotiations that Mr. M:Gregor had had in Austria, France, and
the German and Italian states, as a commissioner o f the government for
the arrangement o f commercial affairs, he stated that the simplest tariff
that he found in those countries, both in regard to the number o f articles
and the simplification o f the duties, is that o f the Germanic Union o f cus­
toms. The number o f rates o f duties in the Prussian tariff amount to
about 43, while that o f the British tariff is 1,150. The basis o f the Prus­
sian tariff was calculated to be an ad valorem duty o f ten per cent upon
every article, with the exception o f those used in manufacture ; raw ma­
terials o f every description being admitted entirely free, o t upon a nominal
duty equal to what the French call droit de balance, or a duty sufficient to
defray the expenses o f entry and keeping accounts, and also to ascertain
the quantity o f articles imported ; but the duties upon manufactures being
by weight, they vary from two per cent, ad valorem, to as high as eighty
per cent in some instances, on articles o f very coarse manufacture. The
original intention was to make the basis o f duties ten per c e n t; but when
the question o f levying the duty for all the states o f the Union came to be
settled, levying the duty by weight was preferred, as albthe states had but
one common customhouse, and as each state received out o f the aggregate
a proportion o f that revenue according to its aetual population. F or ex­
ample, out o f every hundred dollars or florins raised, Prussia alone received
5 5 ; o f the remaining 45, the other states received the proportion due
them according to their population. Prussia and Saxony, and some other
states, feared that in those states bordering on France and Switzerland, if
the duty were made an ad valorem duty it would lead to corruption on the
part o f the employes on the frontier, in letting in goods at prices lower than




British Import Duties.

151

the real valu es; and they finally decided that upon all articles liable to be
smuggled, the duty should be levied by w eigh t; and the consequence has
been, that upon coarse goods o f low value, the duty has averaged as high
as about eighty per cent.
Under the Prussian tariff, the general belief was that the new tariff had
been adopted for the first time by the whole population o f the Union,
amounting to about 27,000,000 o f people : but previously to the Germanic
Union, with regard to the customs, there had been for a long time in Prus­
sia a higher tariff o f duties upon woollen cloths, and some other articles,
than the tariff o f 1839. And inother states, as Bavaria, with a population o f
nearly 5,000,000, and Wurtemburg, with a population o f 1,700,000, Hesse
Electorate, with a population o f 700,000, and the Duchy o f Hesse, with a
population o f 800,000,— all these, with Prussia, having a population o f
23,700,000, had duties nearly as high, and in some instances higher than
the tariff o f 1839. In other states, having in all the remaining population
o f 3,300,000, the duties were less ; in the Duchy o f Baden and Nassau they
were still less ; and in the free town o f Frankfort there were no duties at
all except town dues. In Saxony, with a population o f more than a mil­
lion and a half, the import duties were very trifling ; and it is a valuable
fact in commercial legislation, that in Saxony, a country by no means natu­
rally rich, yet there, without any protection whatever, manufactures o f
every description have thriven more than in any other part o f the conti­
nent o f Europe.
Switzerland is cited as a country where there are no protective duties
whatever; and the state o f their manufactures is such that their cotton
goods come into competition with the English, and meet them with very
great advantage in their East India markets ; and they are sent to the Uni­
ted States and to the Brazils in very large quantities. On the contrary,
the government o f most countries, excepting those o f Saxony, Switzerland,
and Holland, have been led away by the visionary splendor o f being able
to supply themselves within their own countries with every thing they re­
quire. It commenced in France, under Colbert, and it was imitated by
other monarchs ; but it has turned out that those countries in which those
protections have been completely established, have not at all thriven in
consequence o f those protections; and where they have occasionally thriven,
they have done so in defiance o f them.
W hen Mr. M 'G regor was at Vienna in 1836, he was informed by
Prince Metternich o f the great difficulty they had to struggle against the
protective system, and since the formation o f the Germanic Union o f cus­
toms, the manufacturers o f Bohemia had stated in their petitions that they
had some hopes o f being able to compete with the fair trader, but that they
could never compete with the contraband.
In 1814, when the people o f Germany were compelled to-becom e agri­
culturists instead o f being engaged as soldiers, in the course o f two or
three years they produced a great superabundance o f agricultural products,
and not being able to find a market for that produce either in England or
in France, in both o f which the high duties shut out that produce, the ex­
cess o f labor formerly employed in war and afterward in agriculture went
into the manufactures o f Westphalia and Silesia. The argument they
made use o f to Mr. M ‘ Gregor upon every occasion, both in Prussia, Sax­
ony, and in the Rhenish states, and particularly at the two congresses held
at Munich, and at Dresden, was this,— “ Y ou compelled us to become




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British Import Duties.

manufacturers; we have not mines o f gold and silver, and you would not take
what we had to sell you. If you had taken what we had to give, we should
have continued to produce it, because we would have found a market for i t ;
but as you would not take it, necessity compelled our people to look out
for other occupation, and they were intelligent enough to turn their atten­
tion exclusively to manufactures. The German grazier now exchanges
his cattle and his beef for fabrics with the home manufacturer, and the
corn-dealer and the miller provide bread for the manufacturer, and lake
his goods and use them in return.”
This was the common saying in
Prussia, where every man is intelligent, and where every man thinks, and
where as soon as he sees an effect he immediately inquires into the cause.
T h ey have an abundance o f all that is necessary to maintain life within
themselves; and their industry being directed to manufactures, they are
more independent o f other countries than those countries are which have
not an abundance o f food, and wood for fuel and for their buildings. The
artisan in the cotton manufacture can subsist himself with equal com fort
in Germany at half the expense at which an English artisan can support
him self; in Westphalia and the neighborhood o f Frankfort, and in Bava­
ria and Austria, at less than half.
In reference to the real prices o f labor, they are stated to be much lower
in England than in Saxony and on the continent generally, with the ex.
ception o f maritime labor, inasmuch as the provisioning o f ships is much
dearer in England. If ship-owners on the continent even gave the same
wages as they do in England, which they do not, they could carry on their
shipping more econom ically, because the provision which is found by the
ship-owner for his crew forms an essential part o f the wages. Again, if
a Hollander, or if a Prussian were compelled to victual his family on
shore at the prices paid in England, his wages then would not be to him­
self more than one half what the same wages are in Prussia; but as he
maintains his family in Prussia, the low wages he gets enables him, by the
cheapness o f provisions in that country, to live as well as an English sailor
will who maintains his family in England. The provisioning o f a ship is,
in every sense o f the word, a part o f the wages, and wages is what the
British ship-owners have greatly to compete against. One o f the great
advantages that the Am erican ships, and also those o f Hamburgh, have
over the British ship, is the cheapness o f provisioning them.
After a laborious investigation in almost every country in Europe, Mr.
M 'G regor came to the conclusion that England— with all her natural advan­
tages o f position, which no other country possesses in the same degree,
and the intelligence and industry o f her artisans, together with capital,
machinery, and other elements, such as coal and iron, and the superiority
o f her harbors for exportation, and many other internal advantages as to
carriage and intercourse— should have nothing but fiscal taxation, that is,
duties for revenue only, have no protection at all ; but only equalize upon
equitable principles the system o f taxing the population for revenue, and
they may then meet the people o f all other nations with their manufactures
in every country in the world, and in most articles undersell them.
W ith regard to th.e duties which have been imposed to protect colonial
produce, they were considered so high by Mr. M 'Gregor, that they amounted,
in fact, to prohibition. The articles under restriction in the colonies, in
order to protect the sale in Great Britain, he stated to be wood, timber, and
salt provisions o f every description; and in truth every article o f provision




British Impart Duliesi

153

lie thought more or less taxed or prohibited. H e considered that the an­
nual loss to the revenue from the protective duty on the article o f sugar
alone, to be £3 ,000 ,0 00 , and expressed his belief that it is the cause o f the
exorbitant price which sugar bears in Great Britain. He estimates the
consumption o f sugar throughout the kingdom to be three quarters o f an
ounce to each individual a day. The calculations made when he was at
Paris and Vienna were, that each individual who took coffee or tea twice
a day consumed two ounces and a half, which is more than double the
quantity consumed in Great Britain. This is exclusive o f all that would
be required, and that to a great extent, in the preserving o f fruits, and in
various other ways, such as domestic wines, pastry, and many other pre­
parations into which sugar enters.
Mr. M 'G regor’s reasons for anticipating so large an addition to the reve­
nue under his proposed duties, are obvious. The duty on Muscovado sugar
from the British possessions is 2%d. per lb. ; the duty on foreign Muscovado
64d. per lb. W hen sugar rises above 'Id. per lb., he asserts that the labor­
ing classes seldom can use any, and with the diminished use o f sugar
there is a corresponding decrease o f tea and coffee ; on the contrary, an
increased consumption o f sugar would cause an increased consumption o f
other articles contributing to the revenue, as tea and coffee, while simulta­
neous reductions in the duty on those articles would not only increase their
consumption, but extend their use, as has lately been manifested among
the middling and poorer classes, as a substitute for spirituous liquors.
A considerable and influential body o f the citizens o f Great Britain ob­
ject to the admission o f Brazilian produce at lower duties than at present,
because it is cultivated by slave labor. On this point Mr. M 'G regor ob­
served, that by the treaty existing between the two countries, which ex­
pires in 1844, it is stipulated that all British produce and manufactures
shall be admitted for consumption in Brazil at a duty, the maximum o f
which is not to exceed 15 per cent; that the British have no stipulation
whatever as to receiving Brazilian produce, except as to its paying no
other or higher duties than that o f the most favored nations ; and that the
Brazilians are anxious to break up the treaty, and, on breaking it up, to
give the British notice that they will prohibit all their manufactures entirely
if they do not receive their sugars. H e stated that the extent o f British
manufactures that are annually sent to the Brazils amount to about
£5,000,000, and that the markets o f that country are the best they have
for cotton goods, and, unless it be the United States, for all manufactures*
He expressed it as his opinion that by the rejection o f British manufactures
from that country, the condition o f the artisans o f Glasgow, Manches­
ter, and Birmingham, would be worse than the slaves o f B ra zil; for, said
he, “ the slaves, however deplorable their condition otherwise, are always
provided with substantial food, sufficient clothing and lodgin g: our operas
fives have no security as to any maintenance, except for the poor rates,
which form one o f our greatest general taxes, and which is chiefly caused
by our protective duties.”
On the subject o f supplying the general markets with free-labor sugar,Mr. M‘ Gregor entertained a belief that such an attempt would cause an
increased demand for slave-labor sugar* “ On common commercial prin­
ciples,” continued he, “ where a portion o f what is consumed is withdrawn, i f
you could get the same article elsewhere, you would go in search o f it, where
purchasable at any profit; but I believe you would increase the consump­
tion. v.— n o . i i .
20




154

British Import Duties.

tion o f free-labor sugar by purchasing all sugars in the cheapest markets.
All restriction on buying and selling is a despotic interference with indus­
trious and enterprising liberty. Therefore, if we attempt to discourage
slave-labor sugar by allowing only the importation o f free-labor sugar, we
should be liable to have our efforts thwarted by that principle. All inter­
ference with the general freedom o f trade is to be apprehended, and it has
always affected not only the morals but the prosperity o f those countries.
E ven i f we draw a distinction between free-labor and slave-labor sugar, it
will never su cceed; no com m erce can flourish as it should i f we choke up
its natural channels.”
On the subject o f colonial coffee, it was stated by Mr. M‘ Gregor, that
the effect o f the high differential duty on coffee has been the legal evasion
o f the law, in principle, as to the way o f bringing coffee to Great Britain.
Cargoes o f coffee have been sent from the United Kingdom, and from ports
o f the continent o f Europe, to be landed at the Cape o f Good Hope, which
is considered to be within the limits o f the East India Company’s charter,
and brought back to the United Kingdom for the purpose o f supplying the
necessary consumption there. From the 26th o f April, 1838, to the 24th
o f March, 1840, it appears by the returns that eighty-one cargoes, import­
ing more than 21,000,000 pounds o f foreign coffee, had arrived in the
United Kingdom from the Cape o f Good Hope ; the duty being on that
mode o f carrying coffee nine pence a pound ; that is, less than if imported
direct from foreign countries. The duty, if imported from the country o f
the growth o f the principal part o f the coflee, would amount to £ 1 ,7 5 0 ,0 0 0 ;
the duty saved by the indirect importation would be £7 50 ,0 00 , supposing
all to be entered for consumption. The expense o f sending coffee to the
Cape o f Good Hope is about one penny, and consequently it arrives in
Great Britain at about five pence less duty than if it came direct from the
countries o f its grow th ; but if these duties were reduced to an equitable fiscal
principle, the article would be cheaper, and the consumption o f coffee in
that country would no doubt increase to a very great extent, and save a
nominal loss to the revenue o f about £ 2 5 0 ,0 0 0 . The refusal on the part
o f England to take coffee from the Brazils, undoubtedly limits very much
the introduction o f British manufactures into that country. In proportion
to the exclusion o f British manufactures from Brazil, is the increased de­
mand for the manufactures o f Germany, Austria, France, and Switzerland.
Mr. M 'G regor was o f the opinion that the differential duty upon foreign
and colonial timber is exceedingly injurious to the manufacturing interests,
and indirectly to British navigation, inasmuch as they are prevented from
supplying in return those foreign nations with their manufactures, which
they would take in about the same proportion as they took their timber, or
their other productions which they may have to export to Great Britain.
It was also his opinion that by lowering the duties on foreign and colonial
timber, or equalizing them, the revenue derived from them would be in­
creased— which,in 1839, w a s £ l , 603,194— to £ 2 ,5 0 0 ,0 0 0 ; that all classes
would be benefited, timber being so extensively required in all kinds o f
buildings down to the poor man’s cottage, and for so many implements
and countless other uses. If the duty were to be levied ad, valorem, even
at the same rate, he thought it would in amount be higher, from its greater
value, on foreign timber. It was his belief that (he change would not be
prejudicial to the colonies, if the useless restrictions with which they are
shackled were taken away, and all British customhouses were removed




BrilLili Import Duties.

155

from them. He stated that he had resided in all the British North Am eri­
can colonies, and it was his opinion that i f the restraints upon the trade
o f those possessions were removed, they would not be long required to
continue any protective duty w hatever; but while the colonial restrictions
are continued, they will be obliged to continue some o f those protections.
H e also considered that removing those restrictions would be no disad­
vantage whatever to the mercantile navy, inasmuch as if the mercantile
navy be increased the British navy will be increased also. A s the British
nation has, by their legislation, caused merchants and others to embark in
undertakings with their capital, which it would be unjust to destroy by other
legislation, except upon equitable principles, he would remunerate them
for their losses. F or example, the province o f N ew Brunswick alone,
from existing circumstances, from the labor and industry o f the country
having been directed so much more to saw-mills and timber-cutting than
to agriculture, would experience inconvenience and loss which ought to
be guarded against, on the principle o f equity, for some tim e: but none o f
the other colonies would, to any serious extent, experience injury. Some
individual houses would suffer, but it would be econom y to the nation ; and
it would only be justice to remunerate them for their losses, provided they
effected a change which would give them at least an additional million o f
revenue, with far greater advantages to their manufacturers, shipbuilders,
and to their whole population.
Mr. M 'G regor felt confident that the colonists themselves would not
only be in favor o f those restrictions being withdrawn, but would consider
it as one o f the greatest boons that the home government could extend to
them. A s far back as 1834 the people o f the Canadas expressed the
opinion distinctly :— “ Remove these restrictions and prohibitions,” said
they, “ and you may legislate as you think wise and fit in regard to the
timber duties.”
The prohibitions and duties which have been imposed to protect British
agriculture and grazing, Mr. M ‘ G regor considered to have a two-fold
effect— the one exclusive, in regard to bread and salted provisions, except
when the prices rise to what may be called great scarcity p rices; and
the other, to keep up the prices generally o f the same articles in England.
In so doing, they impose upon all the consumers o f the United Kingdom
the greatest tax to which they are subjected ; and whatever adds to the
cost o f living, takes from the wealth o f the country. T he higher the tax
upon food and articles o f necessary consumption, the less must be the
means o f the people o f paying their revenue tax. One great extra taxa­
tion occasioned by the price o f food is that o f throwing people out o f
employment, preventing them from earning any thing, and by leaving
no resources but the poor rates for their maintenance. It diminishes
the fund for the employment o f labor. Although it seems a contra­
diction ; but still it is a fact borne out by inquiry, that whenever the price
o f food is high in England, it is found that there are a greater number o f
the laboring people unemployed ; and not only that, but the wages o f those
employed, in consequence o f so many being thrown out o f employment, is
less than when food is plentiful. The abundance o f employment is gene­
rally observed to be greatest where food is cheap, which has invariably
been the case in France and throughout the Austrian dominions. It has
been the result o f producing econom y in production, and enabling the
public to consume the article cheaper, that the wealth o f the country is in­




150

British Import Duties.

creased, as well as an increased demand for la b or; and with reference tar
cheap food, it is one o f the greatest principles o f public and domestic consideration in countries where the people have been always most employed.
Belgium and Holland are cited as familiar examples.
Mr. M ‘ Gregor contended that the protective duties o f the United King­
dom produce great fluctuations in the demand for labor, and consequently,
the distress which occurs among the working classes from time to time.
“ Those fluctuations,” said he, “ have been principally the consequence o f
short crop s; and from there not being a steady demand in England for the
agricultural produce o f other countries, other countries have not been pre­
pared at all times to supply u s ; because, in consequence o f our system
o f averages and fixed duties, a degree o f uncertainty has always prevailed
on the continent relative to the British market. The consequent shortness
o f supply, causing high prices for bread and other articles o f food, dimin­
ishes the means o f purchasing and paying for other articles for home con ­
sumption, while the increased price o f food, at the same time, diminishes
employment in manufacturing labor for exportation to other coun tries;
and the demand for labor is also decreased by the diminished quantity for
home consumption, leaving a great surplus to be exported, and which
surplus supplies the place o f the manufactures that were previously
produced when the prices o f provisions were low. The steady mode­
rate price o f food, the dependent steady demand for labor, the equally
dependent demand for manufactures, and the increased or decreased ap­
plication for parish relief, by those employed, or thrown out o f employment,
being made in fact by our legislation, not on any measure o f certainty,
but on the changes o f the wind, or the rise and fall o f the barometer.”
If there was a fixed duty on corn, however objectionable that duty might
be, it was his belief that there would be something like certainty as to the
trade in that article between foreign countries and England. In that case
the trade would be like most other trades not placed under variable and
uncertain restrictions ; it would lead to a more natural exchange o f com ­
modities between England and other countries, and a large amount o f rev­
enue would be collected thereby ; for it is evident that the greatest reve­
nue that can be collected is from those articles which are most consumed,
and certainly o f c o m the people would consume the most. I f there was
a low fixed duty on corn and other provisions, it would relieve the people
from taxes levied on other articles, and bring wines and other luxuries
more within their rea ch ; and not only that, continued he, “ but I am con­
vinced that, with the present corn laws, it will be impossible to maintain
the present rents o f land, inasmuch as i f the present corn laws are con­
tinued, the inevitable consequence will be that persons o f capital in this
country, and men o f ingenuity, will do what the landlords cannot d o ; that
is, they will remove with their capital and their industry to other coun­
tries, whereas the lands cannot be rem oved; and if you remove the man­
ufacturing industry from the neighborhood o f agricultural lands, you re­
duce the rents o f those lands, as has taken place under similar circum ­
stances in every country in the world. In the neighborhood o f many
commercial towns, Liverpool and Manchester for example, lands which
pay a rent o f from £ 3 to £ 6 per acre, would scarcely be considered fit
for any sort o f cultivation in places distant from the seats o f trade and
industry. These lands would becom e what they were formerly, only fit
for rabbit warrens. In various parts o f Germany the rents are not one-




157

General Average.

tenth part what they were one hundred years ago, occasioned entirely by
the removal o f the manufactures; for example, in the neighborhood o f
Ausbury, which was once a flourishing imperial city, the rents at that
period were im m ense; the landlords were, during the prosperity o f trade
and manufactures, led to build some o f the finest palaces in Europe :
those palaces are now deserted, or turned into post-houses, or inns, or
barracks, or hospitals ; nobody is living in them o f the name or family o f
those who constructed them. The same may be said o f every town where
manufactures once flourished, and which bad laws and bad government
have been instrumental in destroying. Desolation has been the conse­
quence o f the withdrawal o f that flourishing industry, and the same is to
be found in every other country in every period o f the history o f mankind,
under similar circumstances.”

A rt. IV .— G E N E R A L A V E R A G E .*
ITS APPLICATION TO LIGHTERAGE AND FREIGHT.

A v e s s e l , on a voyage from Europe to N ew Y ork, was stranded sixty
or seventy miles from New Y ork. T h e underwriters sent an agent to
preserve the cargo in the first place, and if practicable, also the ship—
though there was very slight expectation o f saving her, as there had been
no instance o f getting off a ship that had been stranded on the same coast.
A greater part o f the cargo was landed ; but a small part, consisting o f iron
and a few packages o f goods, could not be got out, there being a great
deal o f water in the hold. The cargo thus landed, was brought on to the
port o f destination by other conveyance.
The vessel, by help o f empty casks and lightwood to buoy her up, was
got off, and was towed to N ew Y ork by a steamboat.
On these facts the following questions are proposed :
1. A re the expenses o f getting o ff the vessel with the small quantity o f
the cargo left on board, general average ?
2. A re the charges o f bringing the cargo from the place o f stranding to
the port o f destination general average, or are they to be paid by freight ?
1. The expenses o f floating the ship is doubtless to be adjusted by an
average on the ship and the part o f the cargo remaining on board at the
time o f floating her, and which could not before be got at to be landed.
Upon the same principle, the expense o f landing the rest o f the cargo
would have been adjusted as an average on the ship and cargo, if it had
been landed for the purpose o f lightening the ship and floating her. But
as it was landed for the purpose o f saving the cargo itself merely, and not
that o f floating the ship, 1 do not see that the ship is liable for any part o f
that expense, since the proceedings for floating the ship appear to have
been subsequent, and entirely independent o f the discharging o f the cargo.
But the expense o f getting o ff the vessel certainly cannot be a general
average upon the whole cargo saved. In the case o f H eyliger vs. N . Y .

* Furnished for publication in the Merchants’ Magazine, by Z ebedee
President of the Mutual Safety Insurance Company.




C ook,

Jr. Esq.,

158

General Average.

Firem en’s Insurance C o., 11 Johnson’s Rep. 85, the expense o f saving
the cargo and materials o f the wrecked ship were adjusted in general
average. In that case the court say, “ the expense o f conveyance in
another vessel or boat, strictly so considered, ought to fall on the ship,
owner, and not on the shipper o f the goods.” They distinguished between
the expense o f saving the property, that is, rescuing it from the situation
in which it was liable to be destroyed, and the transportation o f the cargo
from the place o f the wreck to the port o f destination. A s far as labor
and expense are bestowed indiscriminately for the benefit o f different in­
terests, those interests contribute proportionally, and whether this is called
general or particular average will make no difference in the amount o f the
loss on each interest. But the moment the vessel and cargo become
separated— and what is done for saving either has no effect in regard to
saving the other— the principle o f general average ceases. This is the
doctrine o f the case above cited. The transportation o f the cargo is held
to be a charge upon freight— that is, if the freight exceeds the expense ;
for it cannot be supposed that the shipowner will pay a greater amount
than the freight for the purpose o f earning freight. H e must hire another
ship, if it is reasonable that he should ; but it is not reasonable that he
should be required to hire another ship at an expense greater than the
whole amount o f freight. Suppose vessels to go sixty or seventy miles
from N ew Y ork to take out the cargo o f a w recked vessel and bring it on
to N ew Y ork, and the cargo is taken directly from the wrecked vessel on
board o f the lighters ; this mixes up the expense o f saving and that o f f o r ­
warding the cargo. It is not easy to say what expense is incurred for
salvage, and what for transportation. But suppose the cargo to be fished
out o f the wreck, landed and stored in a safe place, and that it is then reshipped and forwarded, the expense o f salvage and that o f transportation
are distinct. Here the shipowner has a right, if he so elects, to re-ship
the cargo and forward it, and entitle himself to freight. The case admits
o f an easy and plain adjustment upon this principle. But in the case first
supposed, as it is not obvious what was the expense o f salvage, and what
that o f transportation, there is not the same facility in making the adjust­
ment ; still this can make no difference in the principle by which the case
is governed. Though it is a matter o f some difficulty to distinguish the
expense o f salvage from that o f transportation, yet this is a difficulty o f
settling the facts, and not one o f determining the principles applicable to
the case. W hen it is once determined what expense belongs to each de­
scription, the case is determined ; and in such case, i f the forwarding o f
the goods is impracticable, or if the expense o f the forwarding exceeds
the whole freight for the voyage, so that the owner elects not to forward
them for the sake o f earning freight, the question becomes one o f total or
partial loss on the cargo.
I think, then, that the expense o f getting o ff the vessel is not a subject
o f contribution by the part o f the cargo landed before the vessel was
floated. The shipper o f those goods had no interest whatever in the float­
ing o f the vessel. And the fact o f the vessel’s afterward proceeding to
the port o f destination was entirely indifferent to him ; so long as she did
not take his goods, it was immaterial to him what port she next made, or
whether she made any. This shows conclusively that he is not liable to
contribute to the subsequent expense o f floating the vessel.
The only question in this respect is, whether the vessel, i f she is event­




A Question on Average.

159

ually saved, and the freight, if it be eventually earned by transhipping
the goods, shall contribute towards the expense o f landing the cargo taken
out o f the vessel as she lay stranded ; for if it was taken out for the three­
fold purpose o f lightening the vessel that she might be floated, o f saving
the goods, and o f eventually earning freight, then all three interests must
contribute to this expense as far as those objects are attained— that is, to
the extent o f the amount and in the proportion o f the ship, freight, and
cargo saved. But if the cargo is taken out m erely for the purpose o f
saving it, without any reference to getting o ff the vessel, the latter is not
liable to contribute for that expense, even though incidentally the floating
o f the vessel may be thereby facilitated. But if it be matter o f doubt
whether the discharging the cargo was for the double purpose o f saving
both that and the ship, the more obvious construction seems to be, that it
was for the double purpose, if that be the actual result. This doubt can­
not, however, be applicable to the subsequent expense o f floating the ves­
sel, and navigating her to the port o f destination. There is no room for
the supposition that the cargo can be benefited by that expense.
2. A re the charges o f bringing the cargo from the place o f stranding to
the port o f destination general average, or are they to be paid by freight ?
These questions have been already answered.
After the cargo is
landed and forwarded by other conveyance to the port o f destination, the
shipper cannot possibly be benefited by the floating o f the ship, and the
navigating her to the same or any other p ort; and this shows conclusively
that he is not liable to contribute any part o f the expenses incurred for
those purposes.
A s to the expense o f transporting the cargo being defrayed out o f
freight, this must depend on the fact whether it is done to earn freight—
that is, on its being more or less than fre ig h t; for if it be more, it is ab­
surd to suppose that the owner o f the vessel incurs this greater expense
for the purpose o f entitling himself to a less amount, viz, freight. In such
a state o f the facts, the question is one o f total or partial loss o f the cargo ;
for in consequence o f a peril insured against, the cargo has been brought
into a situation whereby the voyage insured is defeated as to the cargo, or
the shipper, in order to accomplish the voyage as to his goods, is subjected
to an expense o f transportation greater than the stipulated freight. The
underwriters must either pay this extra expense, or pay a total loss on the
goods, which could be avoided only by incurring such extra expense.
The underwriter on the goods has stipulated that the ship shall not be
prevented by the perils insured against from transporting the goods to the
port o f destination ; the ship has been thus prevented from transporting
them to that p o r t ; they must, therefore, either pay a total loss, or pay at
least the extra expense incurred to avert it.
w . p.

A rt. V .— A Q U E S T IO N O N A V E R A G E .
I t sometimes happens that a vessel at sea loses her rudder, or parts a
stay, or some other o f her standing rigging, by which she is in danger o f
losing her masts, or she springs a dangerous leak, when it becomes neces­
sary to apply certain articles, that were put on board for other purposes,
to a temporary repair o f these accidental dam ages; and a question arises




160

A Question on Average,

ns to the manner in which such a use o f them is to be compensated for—>
whether they are to be considered and treated as a partial loss, or made
the subject o f a general contribution.
In the opinion o f writers on insurance, “ no authorities are requisite to
show that this is a subject o f general contribution
yet there are some
who affect to doubt the correctness o f these views, and contend, that as
the damage was casual, its repairs should be adjusted as a partial loss.
A merely superficial view o f the case might very naturally lead to such
a conclusion, while a deliberate examination would doubtless tend to an
opposite and more reasonable and just result.
It is not the magnitude o f the sacrifice, but its quality, that determines
the principle o f a contribution. A voluntary sacrifice o f any thing belong­
ing to a vessel, whether it be o f her appurtenances, or o f the goods o f her
lading, when made for the general safety, is in law and in practice admit­
ted to constitute an undoubted claim for general contribution ; and in
most, if not all cases, a voluntary sacrifice, in whatever form it occurs, is
preceded by, or is intended to avert, a further accidental dam age; and
whether the sacrifice so made be for prevention or remedy, it is equally
the subject o f general average contribution.
T o the practical insurer it would seem to be unnecessary to cite author­
ities in support o f the right o f the owner o f a vessel to claim indemnity for
a sacrifice deliberately made with a view to the preservation o f the interests
at risk, whether the sacrifice be that o f a jettison, the cutting away o f
masts, the slipping from, or cutting away o f a cable, or the cutting up o f
spars, or any other appurtenances, for an extraordinary purpose, or their
application to any use other than their original one, for means o f preserva­
tion, or in mitigation o f an impending peril.
W e had supposed, until recently, that the principle was universally ad,
mitted by practical insurers, as it is by elementary writers ; and we believe
that the exceptions are only to be found among those who have not given
to the subject that consideration, and applied that liberal rule o f construc­
tion, that is requisite to a just and proper disposal o f the question; for
whether they are willing to allow that the extraordinary applications o f
the articles constitute a claim for contribution, or otherwise, they cannot
deny that the cutting up o f spars, or o f cables and hawsers, by which
means they are rendered useless for their original purposes, is a sacrifice,
to all intents and purposes, o f just so much in value as it would cost to
replace them, and just as much a sacrifice as would be a jettison o f pro­
perty o f equal value.
The requisites necessary to make a valid claim for restitution are as
follow. W hen it is demanded, the ship must be in actual distress ; the
thing intended to be destroyed must be expressly selected for that pur­
pose ; the sacrifice must be made premeditatedly and deliberately; and the
end in view must be no other than that o f the general preservation. A b ­
stractedly considered, the mind and agency o f man must be employed ;
the act must be preceded by foresight, and attended by volition. W hen
recompense is claimed, it must be clearly shown that services have been
performed out o f the ordinary course o f the voyage, and which had no
partial advantage in prospect, but were absolutely intended for the general
benefit. Stevens on A v ., Part I. ch. i. sec. 1.
And the same authority is referred to to show, that “ s a i l s , h o p e s , and
o t h e r m a t e r i a l s , c u t and u s e d at sea for the purpose o f stopping a le a k ,




A Question on Average.

161

o r to rig jury-masts, or for any other purpose, where the general safety
appears to require the sacrifice,” constitute an undoubted claim for general
contribution.
N ow it is not contended that the mind and agency o f man were employ­
ed in producing the injury, for that was accidental; but it cannot be denied
that they were instrumental in its reparation, and were exerted to preserve
the property that had become jeoparded by the casualty, and the means
devised for this purpose necessarily involved a sacrifice o f something o f
more or less value, and that sacrifice was a voluntary act, and as such
constitutes a claim for recompense by a general average contribution ;
and in these views we are sustained by the concurrent testimony o f all
elementary writers upon the subject o f insurance, either directly or indi­
rectly, as well as by the practice o f insurers in the common and ordinary
application o f the principles o f general average.
The cutting away o f a mast, or the cutting or slipping o f a cable, or the
jettison o f the cargo, are either preceded by an accidental damage, or done
to prevent or ameliorate it.
Thus a vessel may be thrown on her
beam-ends by a sudden squall, when to enable her to resume her upright
position, it may be necessary to cut away her masts ; or being at anchor,
she may be struck adrift, and in danger o f being precipitated upon a reef
or shoal, when the cable is cut, or slipped, to facilitate her getting under
way to avoid the impending peril ; or she springs a leak, and jettison o f
the cargo is resorted to, or a sail is used to fother her to stanch the leak.
All these measures are superinduced by or are the consequence o f a cas­
ualty ; but we never yet knew it to be maintained, that because these
several or individual sacrifices were thus preceded, they were to be borne
by the owners or insurers o f the vessel in the nature o f a particular aver­
age or partial lo s s ; but on the contrary, that it is universally admitted
that they constitute an undoubted claim for general average contribution.
W herein, then, we would inquire, consists the difference in the quality
o f such sacrifices, from that o f cutting up spars, cables, or hawsers, for a
temporary repair at sea, when but for such an application o f them, the
vessel and cargo, and the crew, being in great jeopardy, would probably
be lost ? T o say nothing o f a liberal, we will merely ask for a reasonable
construction o f the case, and whether, upon a deliberate and dispassionate
view o f it, or a critical examination, it can be perceived why one should
be accounted a sacrifice, and the other not ? W h y the throwing overboard,
in a season o f peril, the materials, or applying them to an extraordinary
purpose for the general safety, can change the principle o f indemnity 1
The application o f the appurtenances o f a vessel as has been suggested,
is, as we conceive, clearly a voluntary sacrifice ; they are diverted from
the original and ordinary use for which they were designed ; they cannot
be restored to their original form ; spars or cables, once severed, cannot
be reunited for any practical uses afterward: why, then, i f they are thus
appropriated with a view to preserve the vessel and cargo, should not
these interests be held to contribute for the means thus devoted to their
preservation ?
If such an extraordinary use or application o f the materials o f a vessel,
as we have here referred to, is not a voluntary sacrifice, and meant to
minister to the preservation o f all the interests exposed to a common dan­
ger ; and if such an application o f them does not constitute an essential
ingredient in general average, o f which jettison is the foundation, or as it

von. v. —

NO, II.




21

162

Culture o f Silk in the United States.

is termed, “ the most ancient and legitimate source o f average contribu­
tion,” we are at a loss to perceive the distinction that is attempted to be
made between such a sacrifice, and that o f voluntary cutting away the
masts, or cutting or slipping o f a cable, when all the interests are jeopard­
ed by extraordinary sea perils, and the act is performed with a view to
their preservation.

A rt. V I.— C U L T U R E O F S IL K IN T H E U N IT E D S T A T E S .
To the Editor o f the Merchants’ M agazine :

T he following remarks* were made at the last annual fair o f the Am er­
ican Institute. In compliance with the request o f T . B. W akeman, Esq.,
the corresponding secretary o f that institution, I enclose them for publication
in your Magazine. T h e culture o f silk, although o f the greatest import­
ance to the welfare and commercial prosperity o f the country, has lost
much o f its interest, from the fact o f its having been already thoroughly
agitated, and unfortunately treated by some ill-disposed persons with ridi­
cule, if not contempt.
The experience o f more than half a century has effectually convinced
every person conversant with the culture o f silk, that our soil, our climate,
our pure and dry atmosphere, and our silvery waters, are evidently adapted
to the production o f silk. It is proved almost with a mathematical preci­
sion that we could, in a short time, not only dispense with silk o f foreign
origin, but even supply the European markets with this highly valued arti­
cle, o f our own production. The ever-increasing importation o f every
kind o f foreign silk into the United States, and the unfavorable balance o f
our com m erce with foreign nations, imperiously require some efficient
measures to increase our agricultural products, and to diminish the ruin­
ous drain upon our resources.
The production o f silk is unquestionably destined to fill the dangerous
deficits left in our domestic and public econom y by our unlimited specula­
tions, and by our extravagant luxuries.
The culture o f silk is the principal source o f the riches o f every coun­
try where it is properly and diligently pursued. The Lombard Venetian
kingdom, ha ving a territorial extent o f about one half o f the state o f New
Y ork, with a population a little above four millions, exported in 1833,
6,132,950 pounds unmanufactured silk. The United States, having a soil
and climate eminently adapted to the culture o f silk, imported in a single
year twenty-three millions o f dollars o f manufactured silk ; and this, whilst
our people were laboring under the consequences o f a tremendous crisis
just past, and threatened with a more destructive one ; whilst our finances
and public treasury were in the most embarrassing difficulties.
It is, however, to be lamented that at the very moment when some en­
terprising and philanthropic men were trying their utmost exertions to
give an impulse in this country to the culture and manufacture o f silk, the
* Mr. Tinelli, the author o f these remarks, is a native o f Italy, where he was long
engaged in this branch o f industry.

He is now an adopted citizen o f the United States,

and is devoting his time and experience to the same object.




Culture o f Silk in the United Stales.

163

evil spirit o f monopoly and speculation, which is often in the way o f all
enterprises o f public utility, came to throw new obstacles in the accom ­
plishment o f patriotic views. Men, who never had the slightest idea o f
producing silk, taking advantage o f a momentary excitement which existed
among the farmers and the promoters o f the culture o f silk, undertook to
monopolize the com m erce o f mulberry trees. The extravagant and al­
most ridiculous speculations which took place in that article, became pro­
verbial. That business ended where it ought to end— disappointments and
failures were the consequences o f a feverish thirst o f sordid g a in ; and
what is more to be lamented, the delusions and disappointments o f some
speculators in trees have spread discouragement and dissatisfaction among
many persons who positively intended to make the culture o f silk one o f
the principal branches o f husbandry, and an object o f agricultural pursuit.
But as the good sense o f the public generally succeeds in deriving some
good from evil, that very extravagant speculation in mulberry trees pro­
duced good effects respecting the culture o f silk. Many persons, who
had planted in large quantities the favorite M orus Muliicaulis, having
been disappointed in their expectations, and not finding a market for their
trees, they thought to make them useful by applying their production to
their proper real destination— the feeding o f silk-worms. Cocoons to an
immense amount have been produced* this very season in many states, and
especially in Pennsylvania, N ew Jersey, New Y ork, Massachusetts, and
Connecticut; and a great many more would have been produced if co­
coons could find a ready market— if silk filatories were established at dif­
ferent parts o f each state, where the farmers could readily sell their
cocoons.
However, some o f those experiments have not been crowned with satis­
factory suecess. The art o f rearing silk-worms and reeling silk, embrac­
ing many details and much information, perfection cannot be obtained but
by repeated experiments and a continued practice. E very error is a step
towards the truth. And the numerous specimens o f cocoons and silk now
exhibiting at your fair will carry conviction to every mind, that a gigantic
progress has already been made in the seropedic art, and that the produc­
tion o f silk is not a chimera, but an ascertained fact in the United States.
The causes o f those failures, and o f the disappointments with which the
patriotic attempts o f many silk-growers have been attended, are to be
found especially in the want o f practical knowledge in regard to the choice
o f the quality o f their silk-worms, their management, and the cure o f their
distempers. A capital point in the art o f rearing silk-worms, is a good
choice o f the eggs and good management in their hatching. Some farm­
ers have purchased the silk-worm’s eggs at distant p la ces; in advanced
season they brought them home agglomerated in small boxes or bottles,
where the privation o f air, and a fermentating process, caused a complete
destruction o f the vital principle o f the insects, or rendered imperfect and
very precarious their hatching. Eggs, when taken from distant places,
ought to be transported in a cold season, and before March, and kept at
home in a cool and dry place, from which they must be taken and exposed
gradually to a higher temperature, when the time for their hatching ap­
proaches. The bad construction o f the rooms where the worms have
been raised— the want o f a constant ventilation— the use o f wet or
spoiled leaves o f mulberry trees, and the fermentation produced by the
agglomerated remnants o f the food, have, in many instances, generated




164

Culture o f Silk in the United States.

distempers among the silk insects, and destroyed the fruits o f long exer­
tions and labor. It is to be hoped that experience and perseverance will
guide our farmers to better results in their future experiments. But let
us now examine the question whether the art o f raising silk-worms and
spinning silk, will indubitably be a source o f advantage and profit to such
persons as engage in the business. T o those men who are always ready
to display their opposition whenever a new object o f enterprise is present­
ed to their view, we must answer by asserting facts, the truth o f which
can be daily defined.
The average crop o f foliage yielded by an acre o f trees in hedge rows,
will be at least fifteen thousand pounds for the first year, and twice as
much for the ensuing years. The largest quantity o f leaves consumed in
the feeding o f the worms hatched from one ounce o f eggs, is one thou­
sand five hundred pounds, and the smallest quantity o f cocoons produced
will be at least eighty pounds, that is to say, eight hundred pounds o f
cocoons at least will be produced by an acre o f land. Calculating the
cocoons to be sold at the lowest rate, that is to say, at thirty cents a
pound, we shall have a product o f two hundred and forty dollars per acre
o f land, taking the minimum as a standard in all my calculations. If the
operation should be undertaken on a larger scale, then, o f course, some
deduction must be made for additional barns or buildings, and for hiring
a larger number o f hands during the six weeks o f operation. I am aware
that my estimate is far below what other patrons o f the culture o f silk
have exhibited in their statements, which are certainly more brilliant and
more seducing ; but I must observe, that in this respect any exaggeration,
any disappointment, would operate against our views rather than in our favor.
Another objection, and even with some shadow o f truth, is made against
the profitableness o f reeling cocoons into silk. The want o f practice in
spinning cocoons among our countrywomen, and the high wages paid for
every kind o f work in this country, will certainly prevent the production
o f silk from becoming a profitable undertaking. W e cannot compete, (thus
say our opponents,) in this art, with countries where labor is at a very low
rate, where the wages are 75 per cent below that o f our working classes.
I beg leave to observe, that in the production o f unmanufactured silk,
the largest capital is constituted by the value o f the raw material, and the
expenses for labor are very trifling. A s I have always insisted upon the
necessity o f establishing large filatories, and as I always thought that reel­
ing silk would prove profitable, when undertaken on an extensive scale,
I will suppose a filature o f 50 reels, having 50 female spinners and 50 girls
to turn the hasps. 50 women, according to the present price o f labor, will
cost, board and lodging included, 16 dollars a month, making
$800
500
Fifty g i r l s , .....................................................
$1,300
T w o m e n , ............................................................................................................. 40
Three women to pick c o c o o n s , ................................................................ 48
One superintendent,.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
50
W ood or coal for 50 furnaces, at 8 cents per day for each furnace
a m o n t h , .............................................................................................112
S u n d r i e s , ................................................................................................
20




$1,570

Culture o f Silk in the United States.

105

The average o f silk produced by 50 skilful women per day, will
be at least 70 pounds, or 1960 pounds per month, which quan­
tity, calculated at only $5 a pound, will give a gross proceed o f $9,800
1,570
Charges d e d u c t e d , ..................................................... Nett proceeds,
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
$8,230
I will suppose that a whole bushel o f cocoons will produce a pound
o f silk, if the cocoons are o f good quality, and I calculate the
cocoons at the fair price o f $ 3 per bushel, for 1960 pounds o f
silk, or 1960 bushels o f cocoons, at the rate o f $ 3 per bushel, 5,880
There will be a nett profit o f $2,350
every month on a filature o f only 50 reels.
You must observe, also, that the great advantage peculiar to this coun­
try, highly favored by nature over Italy and France, o f producing two and
three crops o f cocoons in one year, and the abundance o f wood and coal,
and the facility o f building houses at a moderate expense, will at any time
enable us to sustain advantageously competition with silk o f foreign production, if the same protection were afforded to that branch o f industry
as is granted by our tariff to the manufacture o f cloth, muslin, and other
articles.
But it is almost in vain to attempt the introduction o f a new species o f
industry, a new art or manufacture, without governmental aid. Our con­
stitution happily imparts to our government the right as well as the duty
to protect the arts and industry o f its citizens, and expressly ordains that
“ congress shall have power to regulate com m erce.”
The existence o f
that power implies an imperative duty to make use o f it. A cting on this
wise principle, our laws protect the author’s copyright, protect the A m er­
ican tonnage, in behalf o f the shipbuilder. A tax is imposed upon
almost every imported article, even o f the most common use and neces­
sity. Standing insulated and alone, by a most strange anomaly, silk
goods, the luxury o f the wealthiest part o f our population, are not com ­
prised in our customhouse laws. Thus the activity, enterprise, and
costly efforts o f those o f our agriculturists and manufacturers, whose
activity, zeal, and industry are devoted to the culture o f silk, in order
thereby to form a new national staple, are sacrificed by the overpowering
competition o f foreign fabrics introduced free o f duties.
May, therefore, our people, may our legislators, be duly impressed with
the truth, that a duty imposed upon all foreign silks imported into the
United States, effects a diminution o f the importation o f foreign silk ; that
such a diminution amounts to an increase o f the production o f our domestic silk, and that such an increase o f our production will gradually free
our country from every indebtedness to foreign nations, and complete the
sacred work o f our independence.
l. t.




166

Protection vs. Free Trade.

A rt. V II.— P R O T E C T IO N

vs.

FREE TRADE.

To the Editor o f the Merchants’ M agazine :

Sir :— Having already been repeatedly favored by you with an oppor­
tunity to defend the great principle o f Protection to Industry, in your
work, I feel that it would be an unworthy return for your kindness to claim
a dozen more pages wherein to answer my “ Free Trade” opponent’s last
article, and continue the discussion. I will not so tax your liberality, nor
the good-nature o f your readers. Indeed, sir, I am very well content to
leave the general argument where I have already placed it. I f the en­
lightened public, on a calm comparison o f what I have written with the
counter essays o f my opponent, decide against me, I submit. I have
merely presented, as concisely as I may, the considerations which have
induced a large majority o f the most eminent statesmen the world has
known, to give their best energies to the cause o f protection. I f such
men as Pitt, Napoleon, Canning, Hamilton, Webster, Clay, H . Niles, & c.,
have groped through life in utter ignorance o f the first principles o f political
econom y, the blindness o f so bumble an individual as m yself cannot ex­
cite astonishment. Without desiring to press the discussion further, I will
now barely note one or two mistakes in my opponent’ s last article.
1. He commences with the broad assertion, that “ governments are
quite as likely to extend their ‘ fostering, protecting aid’ to a branch o f in­
dustry for which the country is not at all adapted, as to one for which it
has a natural capacity.” N ow it would have been just as easy to assert
that governments are as likely to hang saints as felons— to punish up­
rightness as forgery. And it would have been easy not only to assert
this, but to adduce facts, after his fashion, in support o f it. Have not mul­
titudes o f great villains lived honored and law-protected ? And were not
Christ, Socrates, and others o f the wisest and best, condemned by law, and
executed according to law ? The inference is direct,— Aw ay with all
la w s! they punish 1the innocent quite as often as the guilty !’ But the
man who can seriously assert that our government is ‘ as likely to protect
a branch o f industry to which the country is not at all adapted’ as any
other, is certainly beyond the reach o f my powers o f argumentation.
W hether France is so idiotic as he supposes, in protecting the manufac­
ture o f beet-sugar, is o f course a matter o f opinion. It seems a pity her
Say, Arago, Chaptal, Guizot, & c., could not listen to one hour’s lecturing
o f my opponent, and thereby save their country six millions per annum on
its sugar alone ! But when it is considered how difficult to obtain, and
how costly when obtained, was the sugar consumed in France in 1811,
when such blockheads as Bonaparte and his counsellors undertook to pro­
tect and foster the home manufacture o f that article, I must think their ig­
norance o f political econom y deserving o f some compassion !
2. I shall try to answer all m y opponent says against countervailing
duties by a single question,— Is he opposed to the Navigation A ct 1 Great
Britian and other nations say to us, “ W e allow goods imported in our own
vessels a deduction o f five, ten, or twenty percen tfrom our regular duties.
W e do this from no ill will to you, but to encourage our own marine.”
N ow , how shall we treat this ? A ccording to the doctrines o f Protection
or those o f Free Trade ? One thing is certain. Without countervailing
the discrimination, our shipping must be driven from all share in the car-




Protection vs. Free Trade-

107

lying trade with the discriminating nations; so, without a dissenting voice, w e
have countervailed. W hat would my opponent have us do in the premises ?
I have tried to learn already, but without success.
3. My opponent cannot escape my illustration o f the truth, that nominally low may often be actually high prices, by his poor perversion about
“ cider and turkeys at Londonderry.”
M y illustration was necessarily
drawn on so small a scale that every one could see it, but the principle
covered the whole ground. The same influences that raised the price o f
“ cider and turkeys’ " at Londonderry, raised that also o f flour at Rochester,
and pork at Cincinnati. I do not believe there is a producing interest, or a
county in the Union, what would not be directly vastly benefited by our
manufacturing at home the cloths, hardware, & c ., we now import from
England.
4. I do not contend that a free trade between different nations is one
“ equally taxed,” as my opponent gratuitously asserts, but one equally un
taxed. Strictly, free trade implies the absence o f all imposts ; but I
am an advocate o f fa ir trade— a trade mutually advantageous and just
to both parties— or none. My Oregon illustration was intended to show
that a trade really free would not always benefit an infant settlement or a
country just emerging from barbarism. I will not go over the ground—
which seems to me unshaken by my opponent— but I ask a moment’s at­
tention to his manifest unfairness. My illustration supposed that the new
Oregon settlement could not sell its bulky products in any way but by
bringing them across to St. Louis— in other words, not at all.
Under
such circumstances, I maintained that it would be policy in that country to
impose a protecting tariff, and manufacture for herself. And my oppo­
nent professes to answer this by saying, “ barter your mountains o f grain
and beef which you cannot consume, for those articles which you pressingly
need.”
In this strain he amplifies triumphantly. Is this discussion ?
O f course I have said nothing in opposition to credit, either individual
or international. I am in favor o f the former, and not averse to the lat­
ter under circumstances which render it desirable. But running up a
heavy balance, year after year, with a foreign nation, by buying o f that
nation articles which we could easier produce than pay for, and for which
she will take scarcely any o f our products in return, is utterly inconsistent
with my ideas both o f proper credit and o f fair trade. My opponent
cannot see how the manufacturers o f a protected country can ruin those
o f an unprotected one, except by lowering the price o f their mutual products.
I think he must be the only reader o f my illustration by the case o f France
and England who did not see this. The protected manufacturers have a
steady, stable, reliable home market, securing them a certain and uniform
business and profit. T h ey throw their surplus and refuse stock into the
market o f their free trade neighbors, causing a sudden depression.
They sell, for instance, all their surplus razors thus at cost and charges—
say five dollars a dozen— and thereby glut the market. The rival free
trade manufacturers now find their sales forestalled— they cannot sell at
all. Th ey are ruined and fail, and next year the protected fabricators
have both markets to themselves, and can get six dollars a dozen for all
they can produce. Free trade has produced fluctuation, temporary de­
pression, and the ruin o f its devotees ; while the average cost o f razors is
left as high as, perhaps higher than, ever. In fact, my opponent, though
“ weary o f answering positions which seem so manifestly erroneous,” evi­




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Mercantile Law Department.

dently feels the force o f this illustration, and urges that “ the moderate!
duty required for the support o f the government would prove a sufficient
protection.”
I submit that this is giving up the free trade ground, which
implies that all duties are an injury to the public interests and an obstacle
to national prosperity— to be endured, if at all, only as a lesser evil than
direct taxation.
Respectfully,
a . e.

MERCANTILE LAW DEPARTMENT.
RECENT

DECISIONS

IN

THE

UNITED

STATES

COURTS.*

INTERESTING- MERCANTILE LAW CASE.

United Slates Circuit Court.— In Equity— before Judges Thompson and Betts.—
April term, 1841. The United States vs. William Couch, survivor, &c. and
another.— The prayer o f the bill demanded an account in respect to effects and
moneys alleged to have belonged to the late firm o f Castro and Henriquez, and
that the right o f the plaintiff thereto, in preference to others, might be decreed,
and the amount applied on outstanding judgments and customhouse bonds in
favor o f the United States against Castro and Henriquez. The bill presented
this state o f facts; that Castro and Henriquez, prior to April, 1823, had been
in partnership, carrying on the distilling business in this city; and in connec­
tion with that business, imported merchandise, and became indebted to the
United States on customhouse bonds to a large amount. On the 20th April*
1823, the firm stopped payment, then being indebted to the United States on
duty bonds for over $74,000. Henriquez was at that time in Europe. The
business o f the concern was managed by Castro, who also had a full power o f
attorney from Henriquez. On the day o f their failure, or the day follow­
ing, Castro made an assignment o f the property o f the firm and that o f himself*
to Lewis A. Brunell, and immediately departed from New York, without the
knowledge o f his creditors. On the same day, proceedings were taken under
the state act against Castro and Henriquez as absconding or absent debtors*
by the defendant Couch, (and his then partner Stebbins,) and others o f their
creditors.
A few days thereafter, Castro returned to the city, and his assignment to
Brunell being supposed imperfect or insufficient in law, he resumed and can­
celled it, and executed another, prepared under the advice o f counsel, in which
he assigned all the partnership estate, and all his individual estate, to Brunell*
for the payment o f the debts o f the partnership, giving preference to the debts
due the United States.
That prior to the failure, the firm had consigned to Stebbins and Couch
large quantities o f distilled spirits for sale, some o f which had been sold on
credit, and some remained unsold on the day of their failure, but has been
since sold and the proceeds realized, which are now held by the defendant
Couch, (survivorof Stebbins and Couch.) That after the assignment, Brunell, the
assignee, placed like property, belonging to Castro and Henriquez, in the hands
o f Stebbins and Couch, the avails o f which defendant has received and yet
retains; and also, that Brunell carried on the distillery o f Castro and Henri­
quez, with their stock assigned him, and consigned the liquors to Stebbins and
Couch for sale, and that the proceeds o f such sale are retained by the defen­
dant
The bill also avers that judgments have been recovered by the United States
* Reported expressly for the Merchants’ Magazine.




Mercantile Law Department.

169

On the customhouse bonds, and executions thereon have been returned unsat­

isfied, to the amount o f $24,000, which Brunell is unable to satisfy; and it
charges that the United States are entitled to have such proceeds (realized by
Stebbins and Couch) applied to the satisfaction of the balance.
The bill was filed, April, 1832— Couch filed his answer, January, 1833. The
cause was brought to hearing, Dec., 1840.
The cause was argued by Messrs. Butler and Paine for the United States,
and by Mr. D. Lord, jr. for the defendant.
The court remarked, that there might be a serious difficulty in the present
posture o f the case, in giving the plaintiff the relief sought, if the merits were
beyond all question on that side. The action rests upon the authority of
the United States vs. Howland, (4 Wheat. 108,) and in its institution conform­
ed to that precedent; but has since varied from it by discharging the assignee
from the suit.
That the original debtors, (Castro and Henriquez,) or their assignee, seemed
to be indispensable parties to a bill o f this description, not only for the purpose
o f discharging the debtor from his liabilities to those from whom he received
the funds, and to authorize the institution o f a new cestui que trust in their place;
but also, because an accounting is called for, and the equity o f the United States
can only intercept what is due the party directly responsible to them, on a just
amount taken between such party and his debtor. The assignee ought there­
fore to have been retained a party to the taking of such account, to enable the
court to decree definitively upon the rights of all interested in the subject matter.
This formal difficulty might be obviated, if the case as now disclosed estab­
lished any right in the United States upon the merits,— unless the staleness o f
the claim and the extraordinary delays in prosecuting it should be regarded as
outweighing any equity on the part o f the United States, to amend the pro­
ceedings.
The unvaried construction o f the 65th section o f the act o f March 2, 1799,
settles this point, that the priority therein given the United States, to be paid
out o f the estate o f an insolvent debtor, takes effect only when the insolvency
is established by an assignment o f all his property, either by his own act, or
by act of law, and when such assignment is carried into execution by the as­
signee. (4 Wheat. 108. 1 Peters’ R. 386. 10 Peters’ R. 597. 12 Peters’ R. 102.
3 Cranch, 73. 8 Cranch, 431. 1 Paine’s R. 183. ib. 629.) The evidence on the
part of the plaintiff is very faint upon this head, and it is in no respect aided
by the answer. There is ground for implication that Brunell took control o f
the partnership effects as assignee, yet the evidence equally comports with his
having acted merely as factor or agent, and it is not a little remarkable, that
no trace o f the assignment among his papers, or proof o f his claim under ifi
could be produced, if that was the only foundation o f his powers in respect to
the estate and interests o f Castro and Henriquez.
But independent o f all question upon the effect o f this evidence, the assign­
ment fails to establish the insolvency o f the partners, because the individual
property o f Henriquez was not included in it.
As the insolvency o f one partner, or the insufficiency o f their joint means to
pay the partnership debts, does not necessarily prove the insolvency o f the
other partner, it is clear that the assignment made by Castro does not secure
an entire preference or priority to the United States. The rights o f the credi­
tors of Henriquez, at least, are not displaced by it. (8 Peters’ R. 271.) This is
independent of the doubt that might be raised as to the sufficiency o f Castro’s
assignment o f even partnership effects, to supply proof o f the insolvency o f the
firm. (4 Wash. C. R. 235.)
The court further observed, that as it appeared from the answer and proofs,
the attachment sued out o f the state court was carried no further than the
arrest o f partnership property, and was discontinued within a few days with­
out the appointment o f trustees, or any order of assignment. This initiatory ar­
rest o f property, and holding it in custody o f the law to abide the decision o f
the proper forum, whether it shall pass to assignees, is not the proof o f insolvol.

v .—

no.

n.




22

170

Mercantile Law Department.

vency contemplated by the act of congress. For although it is declared that
cases of insolvency mentioned therein, shall be deemed to extend to cases in
which the estate and effects o f an absconding, concealed, or absent debtor shall
have been attached by process o f law, (act March 2, 1789, sec. 65,) yet
manifestly the term attached must be understood as having relation to the ulti­
mate disposition o f the property, and not its simple seizure ; because that is
often divested immediately for the want o f due grounds for the procedure ; but
more especially, because the priority o f the United States arises and is enforced,
not that the property o f their debtor has been taken from his possession, but
for the reason that it is invested in some other party (assignee or executor)
who has power to distribute and dispose of it. (12 Peters’ R. 136, 137. 1 Peters’
R. 386.)
The sheriff becomes no such party by serving a process o f attachment. He
could not be made amenable to the United States, either by means of his pos­
session o f the property, or because he had surrendered it to the owner, or trans­
ferred it to the assignees.
When the property is placed, by means o f the attachment, in a situation to
be distributed, the priority of the United States comes into existence, and then
only, for the act renders the assignee paying any debt previous to those due to
the United States answerable in his own person and estate for such debts,
(sec. 65,) and this liability necessarily imports that the party charged with it,
had full dominion over the estate and effects of the insolvent, because he is re­
garded as having committed a devastavit, or misapplied funds by paying them
out in disregard o f legal priorities, and not as a debtor to the .United States, or
subject to their action merely by having the estate in his possession.
The court accordingly ruled, that neither the assignment made by Castro,
nor the attachment levied on the property o f the firm,, proved the insolvency of
Castro and Henriquez so as to enable the United States to sustain this action.
It was therefore ordered that the bill be dismissed.
f r a u d u l e n t e n t r y o f g oods .

United States Circuit Court.— In Equity— before Judges Thompson and Betts.
April term, 1841. The United States vs. Samuel R. Wood, and George R. Ives.
On the 23d October, 1839, the United States recovered judgment against the
defendant W ood for $12,469 14. The foundation o f the judgment was, that
W ood had fraudulently entered goods at the customhouse at this port at prices
below their actual cost abroad, and had thus evaded the payment of the duties
due on their importation. John W ood, from whom the goods were purchased
in England by the defendant, became bankrupt, and his assignees employed the
other defendant, Ives, to collect or secure the debt owing by Samuel R. W ood
to John W ood, and arising chiefly out of sales o f the goods so imported.
On the 30th o f May, 1838, Ives obtained o f Samuel R W ood an assignment
o f a large amount of property to cover that debt.
On the next day Ives executed to S. R. W ood a certificate or stipulation, to
the effect that “ the following securities are to be applied to the amount due by
said S. R. W ood to John W ood in the first place, and to his other creditors and
the expenses attending the collection and securing the same, and the balance I
agree to reconvey and redeliver to him,” and then followed a description o f the
property and securities assigned.
On the 28th of April, 1840, the United States filed a bill in equity against the
defendants upon these facts, and claimed priority o f payment out o f the property
so assigned. The answer denied that the assignment was o f the entire estate
o f W ood, or that it was made because o f his insolvency, and averred, that it
was a partial assignment intended to secure a specific debt only. By arrange­
ment between the parties, Ives was examined as a witness on the part of the
United.States, and detailed the circumstances leading to and attending the as­
signment; but stated that the assignment at the time was not understood to
embrace all of Samuel R W ood’s property; his household furniture, repre­
sented to be worth several thousand dollars, was not included, &c.




Mercantile Law Department.

171

The cause was argued for the United States by Mr. Hoffman, Dist. Attorney,and Mr. Butler, and for the defendants by Mr. Foote.
The Court observed, That if the debt due the United States is entitled to
the preference secured by the impost act of 1799, sec. 65, to bonds given-for the
payment of duties, yet such priority was conferred only in case of insolvency
proved by the assignment of all the debtor’s property. The language o f the
act plainly looks to this condition, and no adjudication o f the U. States courts
or state courts has given it a greater extent. (3 Cranch, 73. 1 Peters’ R. 386.
1 Paige R. 139. 1 Paine, 629.) The United States must establish by clear
proofs their right to come in as creditors o f the first degree. When the assign­
ment purports to convey all the debtor’s estate, that may be sufficient evidence
per se, but this assignment not being of that character, the plaintiff must sup­
ply the proof aliunde. If the receipt or stipulation o f Ives to W ood may im­
port that the whole of W ood’s estate was conveyed, still it is susceptible o f
explanation by parol proof, and the testimony o f Ives shows that it was de­
signed as an acknowledgment only of the amount of property transferred, and
the conditions upon which it was received. This testimony, corroborative of
the answer, is full to the fact that the assignment was o f parcels of W ood’s
estate only, and for the specific object of securing the debt which Ives repre­
sented. The United States accordingly lay no foundation for their claim of
priority, if such right may be considered to exist even where no bond has been
taken or credit given.
But the evidence, as it now stands, exhibits Ives as a general trustee o f
W ood’s creditors for the surplus in his bands. The plaintiff as such creditor,
would be entitled to enforce the trust in this form of action. (4 Wheat. R. 108,
and note 118.) The bill can, therefore, be retained for that object, and the suit
be prosecuted to the appropriate decree. (Order accordingly.)
TARIFF DUTIES,

Circuit Court of the United States.— April term, 1841.—-Before Judge Thomp­
son. United States vs. T w o cases woollens. Lindsey, claimant.
By the Court:— This was a writ o f error to the District Court, upon a
judgment acquitting the goods. The information charged the goods with hav­
ing been invoiced at less than their actual cost at the place o f exportation. On
the trial, evidence was given of their actual purchase at the invoice price ; but
this was contested by evidence on the part o f the United States. The claimant
then showed the current market value at the time and place o f exportation.
The United States Attorney insisted that if the jury were not satisfied o f the
actual purchase on the terms set up by the claimant, they should find against
the claimant, and could not look at the actual general market value. The
judge, however, charged that they might look to the actual market value. And
this is the error complained of.
The actual cost was no doubt in issue. There was no question as to the
admissibility o f evidence of the actual market value. The question was as to
the mode in which the jury should consider i t ; and upon this, the decision o f
the district judge was correct. The evidence was relevant to the issue : unless
the actual seller can always be produced, it may be impossible to give proof o f
actual cost: it may be impossible to produce the witnesses actually present at
the sale. The market price is the surest test o f the fairness and honesty of the
transaction, and o f the question whether the price in the invoice was probably
the price really paid. It would be a very harsh rule to lay down, that no other
evidence would suffice but that o f actual purchase. Judgment affirmed.
MARINE INSURANCE.

Superior Court, (New York,) before the full bench.— May 29, 1841.— Heath
vs. American Insurance Company.
Chief Justice :— This was an action on a policy dated July, 1837, on the
schooner Milly Francis, effected in the name of S. Kissam, on behalf o f the
plaintiff, as trustee. On the 7th July, 1837, Haughton & Booth, o f Edenton,




172

Mercantile Law Department.

had assigned the vessel to the plaintiff as a trustee for their creditors. The
vessel was lost in August o f the same year.
The defence was, that there was a prior insurance, and thereby, under the
clause as to avoiding the policy in case o f prior insurances, the defendants
were exonerated from this policy. It appeared that Haughton, Boardman, & No­
ble, o f N. York, the correspondents in business o f Haughton & Booth o f Edenton,
had, on their order, effected a time policy in December, 1836, for a year, on the same
vessel, loss payable to the New York house, which was unexpired at the effect­
ing o f the policy in suit. The house Haughton, Boardman, & Noble, were
creditors to a large amount, accruing in the course of business o f Haughton &.
Booth. The house of Haughton, Boardman, & Noble, assigned their claim on
Haughton & Booth to Kelso, for the benefit o f their creditors: and Noble, one
o f the firm, sent the policy o f December to Kelso, with other papers. In the
assignment by Haughton & Booth to the plaintiff, the vessel was transferred,
and the policy held by the New York house was also comprised in the terms
o f the assignment. The plaintiff fearing that his right to recover out o f the
policy first made might be contested, wrote to Kissam, who effected the policy,
to state the matter to the insurers, and to apprize them that the former policy
would not be enforced against them by him or the Edenton house. The de­
fendants after this effected the policy now in suit.
The plaintiff under the circumstances had the right to make this insurance,
either independently on his own interest as assignee for the creditors he repre­
sented, or as superseding the prior policy. The owners of the vessel had a
right to convey that to whom they pleased, and this would defeat the prior
policy; for the one claiming a loss under a policy, must show himself owner at
the time o f loss. How could their agents defeat this right, or the right to make
a subsequent insurance on the property transferred 1 The transfer was made
while the vessel was yet in safety ; the only right o f the New York house was
by way o f lien on the policy. Before any loss, all claims under the policy were
merely inchoate, and the rights o f the agents could not prevent the transfer of
the vessel. The plaintiff here has certainly an insurable interest, and if either
o f the policies is to fail, it must be in this case the first policy.
But in another view o f the case: Here both the policies were by the same
insurance company : the insurers in the second policy had full notice o f the first.
It was at all events intended that the second policy should be effective, unless
the plaintiff could have the benefit o f the first. That is retained and delivered
over to a party in adverse interest, although in form assigned to the plaintiff.
The plaintiff then clearly had a right to give the notice that he intended to
claim under the second policy, and to proceed on it : if he was entitled to the
first policy, still this election would protect the defendants, on paying the second.
Whether or not the first policy could also be recovered on for the benefit o f the
New York house, is not a question necessarily involved in this decision. There
was certainly an insurable interest in the plaintiff— there was a lien in favor
o f the N ew York house on the first policy, which might or might not take ef­
fect: in case it did, then the question would present itself, whether, although
both policies covered the same vessel for the same voyage, and were founded
on the same original ownership, there was not yet distinct and separate deriv­
ative interests, each insurable.
It is also a question arising, but not necessary to be here decided, how far
this clause as to prior insurances is to apply where both the insurances are in
the same office, and the insurers apprized of the whole circumstances.
Judgment for the plaintiffs.




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THE BOOK TRADE,
1.— A Treatise on the Theory and Practice of Landscape Gardening, adapted to
North America; with a view to the improvement of country residences; comprising
Historical Notices, and general principles of the art— Directions fo r laying out
rounds and arranging plantations— Description and cultivation of hardy trees—
decorative accompaniments to the house and grounds— The formation of pieces
of artificial water, flower gardens, cJ-c.— With remarks on Rural Architecture.
Illustrated by Engravings. By A. J. D owning . New York and London :
W iley & Putnam.—Boston : C. C. Little & Co. 8vo. pp. 451. 1841.
For some years past a lively interest has been manifested in this country in
rural improvements, and the evidences o f our growing wealth and prosperity
have become apparent by the increased number o f cottages and villas in the
vicinity o f our larger towns, and along the banks or shores o f our noble rivers
and other waters,— throughout our rich valleys, and wherever nature seems
to invite us by her pleasing and varied charms. Yet, in general, a want o f
professional skill in rural architecture, or landscape gardening, has been equally
manifest wherever we turn our eyes; which has either been caused by a defi­
ciency o f a proper knowledge o f the subject, or from a desire to imitate foreign
works, which are not at all adapted to our soil and climate, or our social and
political condition.
It is with these views that the author o f the present volume has endeavored
to supply the desideratum which has been so long needed ; and, as far as we
are able to judge, he has been successful in his undertaking. It appears to
have been his object to trace out such principles, and to suggest such practical
methods o f embellishing our rural residences, on a scale commensurate to the
views and means o f our proprietors, as are best adapted to this country and
the peculiar wants o f its population.
The performance o f the work reflects the highest credit on the enterprising
and intelligent author, as well as on the skill o f those by whom the work was
executed.

?

2.— A Treatise on the Law of Sales of Personal Property. By F kancis H illiard ,
author o f “ An Abridgment of the American Law o f Real Property.” New
York : Halstead & Voorhies. 1841. 8vo. pp. 365.
As a sound legal writer, Mr. Hilliard is already well known to his brethren
o f the American bar, and the work before us cannot fail to add considerably to
the reputation he had previously acquired, o f being an able and well-read law­
yer. The general principles o f law, by which sales o f personal property are
regulated and controlled, our author has systematized and elucidated with
much clearness and precision ; while the minutest requisites necessary to con­
stitute a legal sale, or which invalidate it, are well explained and clearly illus­
trated. A treatise o f this kind, we are informed, has been long wanted by the
legal profession; for although the law relating to sales o f real property has
been elaborately treated of, and fully considered and laid down by numerous
jurists o f great ability and vast legal learning, yet the works which have ap­
peared on the law o f sales o f personal chattels, have been meager and unsatis­
factory. The one before us is, we think, o f a different character; nor need its
usefulness be confined to the lawyer alone. To the merchant it would be
almost invaluable ; for although we are far from advising him to attempt such
an acquisition o f the law, as would fit him to understand and pass through its
innumerable mazes and complications, yet a knowledge o f so much o f its prin­
ciples as would enable him thoroughly to understand his rights, in relation to
the sale and transfer o f goods— transactions which with him are continually
occurring— would enable him to avoid and extricate himself from many o f the
difficulties and misfortunes into which men engaged in trade so frequently
fall.




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The Book Trade.

3.— Life of Petrarch. By T homas C ampbell , Esq., author o f “ The Pleasures
o f Hope,” &c. Complete in one volume ; 8vo. pp. 444. Philadelphia:
Carey & Hart 1841.
The author, it appears, in writing the life o f this great Italian poet, employ­
ed, as a text-book, the celebrated work o f the Abbe de Sade, who showed an
admirable sagacity in discovering, w e may almost say, the chronology o f Pe­
trarch’s life— his ecclesiastical preferments, his descendants, his relations and
friends, his political and literary life. De Sade’s work is, in fact, a deep and
large reservoir o f information respecting the manners and customs o f Petrarch’s
a g e; and he has given, as it were, a new life to Laura, by bringing forward
documents relating to that interesting woman, from the archives o f his own
family, which he shows to coincide with passages in his writings. Petrarch,
as is not generally known beyond his poetry, was a great man. His zeal, his
knowledge in recovering the wrecked treasures o f the classics, and his Hercu­
lean labors in transcribing them, were heroic. He was the first who substi­
tuted any thing like an approach to a classical style in Latin, instead o f the
barbarous jargon which had prevailed throughout Italy for centuries. The
fastidious scholars of latter times have condemned his imperfect endeavors at
purity ; yet it is confessed by competent modern scholars, that passages o f
pure Latin eloquence are frequent in his writings. Nor was he a mere lookerback upon antiquity : passages might be quoted from his works that show a
liberality o f spirit far in advance o f his age. He derided astrology at a period
when skepticism on that subject was deemed as bad as atheism. He studied
geography assiduously, and promoted the knowledge o f it, as may be seen in
the course o f his biography.
The volume is beautifully printed and neatly bound.
4.— The French Revolution. B y T homas C aelyl e . Second American (from
the second London) edition. 3 vols. in 2. New Y ork: William Kerr &
Co. 1841.
The style o f this book is perfectly monstrous : such a “ bituminous alarumfire,” “ smoke-atmosphere,” “ fire-maehlstrom,” “ theatrical thunder-barrel”
style— to use his own phrases^was never before written. Original as it is,
w e trust it may find few imitations : it is as painful a study (and you cannot
read it at leisure) as to watch the chain-lightning. But we cannot help ad­
miring the profound knowledge and wonderful instinct— the ever-abounding
mirthfulness and rich thought— the racy originality and dramatic descriptions
characterizing this work, and never surpassed by any writer o f history. Car­
lyle gives us a picture-gallery complete, needing no “ illustrations” more than
these “ word paintings.” He brings before the reader the actors themselves ;
w e mingle in the mob at the taking o f the Bastile— in the rabble rout journey­
ing to Versailles— in the sanguinary crowd, crying for the head o f that weak
and ill-fated king. The tale seems o f yesterday; the historian a breathless
narrator just escaped from the thickest o f the fight, supposing in his hearers a
minute familiarity with the principal actors in the fearful tragedy— portraying
with but a stroke or two, yet like those famous etchings in the “ Song o f the
Bell,” in a way that must be felt, and cannot be forgotten.
5.— A Treatise on the Elements of Algebra. By the Rev. B. B kidge, B. D. F.
R. S. Fellow of St. Peter’s College, Cambridge; and late Prof, o f Math, in
the East India College, Herts. 2d American, revised and corrected from
the 7th London Edition. Philadelphia: Thomas, Cowperthwait & Co.
12mo. pp. 224. 1841.
In this work the hitherto abstract and difficult science o f Algebra is simpli­
fied and illustrated, so as to be attainable by those who have not the aid of a
teacher- The author is clear in his explanations, and systematic in his arrange­
ment, and has succeeded in rendering a comparatively abstruse branch of
.science afl agreeable and interesting exercise, both to the pupil and the teacher.




The Book Trade.

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6. — Collections of the New

York Historical Society.
Second Series, vol. I.
N ew York : Printed for the Society. 1841. 8vo. pp. 486.
This volume is principally occupied with the annals o f the Dutch colonies,
“ by whom the arts of civilization were originally planted on the banks o f the
Hudson.” The commonwealth which has sprung up within the limits o f their
ancient jurisdiction, now embraces within its boundaries nearly one sixth o f the
whole population of the United States, and rivals in extent and population some
o f the monarchies o f the old world. Beginning with the first glimpses o f a
discovery o f our seacoast, Mr. Folsom, o f the publishing committee, has
brought together the earliest notices o f Hudson’s memorable voyage, that dis­
closed the existence of the noble river that bears the navigator’s name. The
materials o f history here presented, exhibit the primitive settlements on Man­
hattan Island and near Albany— the gradual spread of population into the in­
terior— the perils and hardships, and the difficulties and embarrassments with
which the early colonists had to contend. The labor o f preparing the present
work devolved entirely upon Mr. Folsom, the librarian, and he has, in our
judgment, performed his task in a very satisfactory manner. The labor ne­
cessarily bestowed upon a careful revision o f the various translations, and in
collating them with the original works, cost the compiler more time and at­
tention than will be apparent to the reader. The collections of historical so­
cieties have heretofore been printed and done up in a very cheap and slovenly
style. W e are pleased to note an evident improvement in this particular.
The volume before us is, on the whole, a very creditable specimen o f the typo­
graphic art.
7. — The Life of Thomas Paine, author of “ Common Sense,” “ Rights of Man,”
“ Age of Reason,” <Syc. dye., with critical and explanatory observations on his
writings, and an Appendix containing his letters to Washington, suppressed in
his works at present published in this country. By G. V ale , Editor o f the
Beacon. New York : published by the author, pp. 221. 1841.
It has been said that a biographer should be a sincere admirer o f the man
whose character, conduct, and principles he attempts to delineate. As far as
this goes to make up the qualifications o f Mr. Paine’s biographer, there can be
no doubt that Mr. Vail was abundantly qualified to do him justice ; for he has
lost no opportunity to eulogize his politics, his morals, his religion, and even
his gross and abusive attack on Washington. The work is, o f course, antiChristian throughout; and the author speaks o f the followers o f the cross as
“ the pious but duped disciples o f Jesus.” As a literary production it has an
average merit, and will, on the whole, do but little towards rescuing the name
o f Paine from that infamy to which the almost unanimous judgment o f man­
kind has consigned it. The book is not, however, devoid of interest, and con­
tains a very full and yet condensed account o f the narrative o f Mr. Paine’s life.
8.— Chronicles of the Pilgrims. By A lexander Y oung. Little & Brown.
1841. pp. 500.
Mr. Young has done a great service, and made a contribution o f permanent
value to our historical literature. He has discovered and sent forth honorably
the original narratives o f the settlement at Plymouth— its motives, struggles,
perils, and triumphs. Governor Bradford’s lost history, and portions o f other
documents thought to have perished a century ago,’ are now in our hands.
W e have to-day the living witnesses of our forefathers’ faith in Providence,
invincible resolve, heroic endurance, sublime courage, and apostolic virtue.
The first twenty-five years o f our history stands before us in the monument
erected by their own hands, but now freshened and rescued from supposed
ruin and future peril by a true son. W e are rejoiced to see how triumphant
is their self-vindication— that there is not a word of theirs we could wish un­
said, not an act we could wish forgotten, not a line we could desire blotted
out— that theirs is that “ memory of the just which is blessed.”
y. w. h .




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The Booh Trade.

9. — Selections from M. Bouilly’ s Encouragement fo r Youth, with an English
Translation facing each page. Prepared and designedfor learners of the French.
Language. By J. A. F rontin , A. M., Prof, o f the French Language and
Literature. New Y ork : J. A. Frontin. 16mo. pp. 140. 1841.
M. Bouilly was the contemporary and friend o f the persons described in
these sketches, and is universally acknowledged to have portrayed their char­
acters with truth and fidelity. The touching simplicity o f the sentiments em­
bodied in this little volume, will convey through an enticing medium a salutary
moral influence.
The object o f the translator in preparing a work with the French and Eng­
lish in juxtaposition, has been not only to excite in the American youth a taste
for literature in general, but also to assist them in acquiring, in the most agree­
able manner, a knowledge and perfection o f the French language. The work
evidently deserves general encouragment, and no doubt will find it.
10. — Lectures on Spiritual Christianity. By I saac T aylor , author o f “ Natural
History o f Enthusiasm,” &c. New Y ork: D. Appleton & Co. 1841. 12mo.
This is the last effort o f a somewhat original and very liberal thinker o f the
English Church. It is written more naturally, though less forcibly, than any
other o f his books. Mr. Taylor in these lectures attempts to define a spiritual
Christianity, as to its externals, its peculiar truths, its morals, and its influ­
ences ; sometimes with great success, but as a whole, much to our disappoint­
ment. The moral internal argument for the truth o f the New Testament writers,
in the' first lecture, is excellent But the lecturer continually halts upon the
threshold o f a good conclusion, and sometimes indulges the most savage sever­
ity to heretics and opponents. W e like not his mind— nor his cold, unimagi­
native mode o f thought— nor the tendency o f his writings : but there are yet
things in them which every scholar ought to study, and every Christian lay to
heart.
11. Tales of the Kings of England; Stories of Camps and Battle-fields, Wars and
Victories, from the old historians : with numerous engravings on wood, by Butler.
New York : Wiley and Putnam. 16mo. pp. 234. 1841.
These tales, written for the amusement and instruction o f children, are evi­
dently designed to create a relish for the study o f history. The dislike, so fre­
quently evinced by the young for this naturally pleasant and profitable branch
o f literature, may, w e think, be attributed to the very general practice o f giving
them abridgments, mere outlines o f history, in which there is nothing to arrest
the attention o f a child. Young minds require something more amusing, more
interesting, than a bare detail o f occurrences, or the dates o f the years in which
kings reigned or died. They want something more strong, and the compiler
o f this neat little volume has, we think, selected such incidents from the history
o f England, as are calculated to convey instruction to his young readers, and
at the same time afford them as much interest and delight as the fairy stories
o f their infancy. It is a reprint o f an English edition, and Butler’s copies o f the
cuts that “ adorn” the book are very good imitations of the English.
12. Sermons to Children. By F. W . P. G reenwood, D. D., minister o f King’s
Chapel, Boston. Boston: James Munroe & Co. 12mo. pp. 128. 1841.
The well-known intellectual character o f the author o f these Sermons, is a
sufficient voucher for their merit. The points o f conduct advocated, are set
forth in a familiar and affectionate style, and should be fondly cherished by the
large class o f children to which they are addressed.
13. — Early Friendships. By Mrs. C opley . New Y ork : D. Appleton & Co.
12mo. pp. 174. 1841.
This little volume forms another o f the admirable series o f “ Tales for the
People and their Children.” It will bear a favorable comparison with the ex.
eellent narratives o f Mary Howitt, which have preceded it in the same series.




Commercial Regulations.

177

COMMERCIAL REGULATIONS.
TREATY

OF

COM MERCE

AND

N A V IG A T IO N

B E T W E E N T H E U N ITED STA TE S AND T H E KING- OF H AN O VER.

The following treaty o f commerce and navigation, between the United States o f A m e­
rica and his majesty the King o f Hanover, was concluded and signed by their plenipo­
tentiaries at Berlin, on the 20th day o f May, 1840; which treaty, being in the English
and French language, is as follow s:—
The United States o f America and his majesty the King o f Hanover, equally animated
by the desire o f extending, as far as possible, the commercial relations between and the
exchange o f the productions o f their respective states, have agreed, with this view, to
conclude a treaty o f commerce and navigation.
For this purpose, the President o f the United States o f America has furnished with full
powers, Henry Wheaton, their envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary near his
majesty the King o f Prussia; and his majesty the King o f Hanover has furnished with
the like full powers, Le Sieur Auguste de Berger, his envoy extraordinary and minister
plenipotentiary near his majesty the King o f Prussia, lieutenant-general, knight grandcross o f the order o f Guelph, the red eagle o f Prussia, the order o f merit o f Oldenburg,
& c .; who, after exchanging their said full powers, found in good and due form, have
concluded and signed, subject to ratification, the following articles
A r t . I.— There shall be between the territories o f the high contracting parties a reci­
procal liberty o f commerce and navigation.
The inhabitants o f their respective states shall mutually have liberty to enter, with or
without their ships and cargoes, the ports, places, waters, and rivers o f the territories o f
each party, wherever foreign commerce is permitted.
They shall be permitted to sojourn and reside in all parts whatsoever o f said territories,
in order to attend to their affairs, and also to hire and occupy houses and warehouses, for
the purposes o f their com m erce; provided they submit to the laws, as well general as
special, relative to the right o f residing and trading.
While they conform to the laws and regulations in force, they shall be at liberty to
manage themselves their own business in all the territories subject to the jurisdiction of
each party, in respect to the consignment and sale o f their goods, by wholesale or retail,
as with respect to the loading, unloading, and sending off their ships, or to employ such
agents and brokers as they may deem proper, they being, in all these cases, to be treated
as the citizens or subjects o f the country in which they reside, it being nevertheless un­
derstood that they shall remain subject to the said laws and regulations also in respect to
sales by wholesale or retail.
They shall have free access to the tribunals o f justice in their litigious affairs, on the
same terms which are granted by the law and usage o f the country to native citizens or
subjects, for which purpose they may employ in defence o f their rights such advocates,
attorneys, and agents as they may judge proper.
A r t . II.— N o higher or other duties shall be imposed in any o f the ports o f the United
States on Hanoverian vessels than those payable in the same ports by vessels o f the
United States; nor in the ports o f the kingdom o f Hanover on the vessels of the United
States than shall be payable in the same ports on Hanoverian vessels.
The privileges secured by the present article to the vessels o f the respective high con­
tracting parties shall only extend to such as are built within their respective territories, or
lawfully condemned as prize o f war, or adjudged to be forfeited for a breach o f the mu­
nicipal laws o f either o f the parties, and belonging wholly to their citizens or subjects
VOL. V .— NO. II,
23




178

Commercial Regulations.

respectively, and o f which the master, officers, and two thirds o f the crew shall consist
o f the citizens or subjects of the country to which the vessel belongs.
The same duties shall be paid on the importation into the ports o f the United States of
any articles, the growth, produce, or manufacture o f the kingdom o f Hanover, or of any
other country belonging to the Germanic confederation and the kingdom o f Prussia, from
whatsoever ports o f the country the said vessels may depart, whether such importation
shall be in vessels o f the United States or in Hanoverian vessels; and the same duties
shall be paid on the importation into the ports o f the kingdom o f Hanover, of any articles,
the growth, produce, or manufacture o f the United States, and o f every other country o f
the continent o f America and the W est India islands, from whatsoever ports o f the said
countries the vessels may depart, whether such importation shall be in Hanoverian ves­
sels or the vessels o f the United States.
The same duties shall be paid and the same bounties allowed on the exportation o f any
articles, the growth, produce, or manufacture o f the kingdom o f Hanover, or o f any other
country belonging to the Germanic confederation and the kingdom o f Prussia, to the
United States, whether such exportation shall be in vessels o f the United States, or in
Hanoverian vessels, departing from the ports o f Hanover, and the same duties shall be
paid and the same bounties allowed on the exportation o f any articles, the growth, pro­
duce, or manufacture o f the United States and o f every other country on the continent of
America and the W est India islands, to the kingdom o f Hanover, whether such exporta­
tion shall be in Hanoverian vessels or in vessels o f the United States, departing from the
ports o f the United States.
A r t . III.— N o higher or other duties shall be imposed on the importation into the
United States o f any articles, the growth, produce, or manufacture o f the kingdom of
Hanover, and no higher or other duties shall be imposed on the importation into the king­
dom o f Hanover o f any articles, the growth, produce, or manufacture o f the United States,
than are or shall be payable on the like articles, being the growth, produce, or manufac­
ture o f any other foreign country.
N o higher or other duties and charges shall be imposed in the United States on the
exportation o f any articles to the kingdom o f Hanover, or in Hanover on the exportation
o f any articles to the United States, than such as are or shall be payable on the exporta­
tion o f the like articles to any other foreign country.
N o prohibition shall be imposed on the exportation or importation o f any article, the
growth, produce, or manufacture o f the United States, or the kingdom o f Hanover, to or
from the ports o f said kingdom or o f the said United States, which shall not equally ex­
tend to all other nations.
A r t . IV.— The preceding articles are not applicable to the coasting trade and naviga­
tion o f the high contracting parties, which are respectively reserved by each exclusively
to its own citizens or subjects.
A r t . V.— N o priority or preference shall be given by either o f the contracting parties,
nor by any company, corporation, or agent, acting on their behalf, or under their authority, in the purchase o f any article o f commerce lawfully imported on account or in
reference to the national character o f the vessel, whether it be o f the one party or the
other, in which such article was impoi ted.
A r t . VI.— The contracting parties grant to each other the liberty o f having, each in the
ports o f the other, consuls, vice consuls, agents, and commissaries, o f their own appoint­
ment, who shall enjoy the same privileges and powers as those o f the most favored na­
tions ; but if any o f the said consuls shall carry on trade, they shall be subjected to the
same laws and usages to which private individuals o f their nation are subjected in the
same place.
T he consuls, vice consuls, and commercial agents, shall have the right, as such, to sit




Commercial Regulations .

179

as judges and arbitrators in such differences as may arise between the masters and crews
o f the vessels belonging to the nation whose interests are committed to their charge,
without the interference o f the local authorities ; unless the conduct o f the crews or o f
the captain should disturb the order or tranquillity o f the country; or the said consuls, vice
consuls, or commercial agents, should require their assistance to cause their decisions to
be carried into effect or supported.
It is, however, understood that this species o f judgment or arbitration shall not deprive
the contending parties o f the right they have to resort, on their return, to the judicial au­
thority o f their own country.
The said consuls, vice consuls, and commercial .agents are authorized to require the
assistance o f the local authorities for the search, arrest, and imprisonment o f the desert­
ers from the ships o f war and merchant vessels o f their country.
For this purpose, they shall apply to the competent tribunals, judges and officers, and
shall, in writing, demand said deserters, proving by the exhibition o f the registers o f the
vessels, the muster-rolls o f the crews, or by any other official documents, that such indi­
viduals formed part o f the crew s; and on this claim being thus substantiated, the surren­
der shall not be refused.
Such deserters, when arrested, shall be placed at the disposal o f the said consuls, vice
consuls, or commercial agents, and may be confined in the public prisons, at the request
and cost o f those who shall claim them, in order to be sent to the vessels to which they
belong, or to others o f the same country. But if not sent back within three months o f
the day o f their arrest, they shall be set at liberty, and shall not be again arrested for the
same cause. However, if the deserter shall be found to have committed any crime or
-offence, his surrender may be delayed until the decision o f the tribunal, before which his
case shall be pending, shall have been carried into effect.
A r t . VII.— The citizens or subjects o f each party shall have power to dispose o f their
personal property within the jurisdiction o f the other, by sale, donation, testament, or
otherwise.
Their personal representatives, being citizens or subjects c f the other contracting party,
shall succeed to their said personal property, whether by testament or ab intestato.
They may take possession thereof, either by themselves or by others acting for them,
at their will, and dispose o f the same, paying such duties only as the inhabitants o f the
country wherein the said personal property is situate, shall be subject to pay in like cases.
In case o f the absence o f the personal representatives, the same care shall be taken o f
the property o f a native in like case, until the lawful owner may take measures for re­
ceiving it.
If any question shall arise among several claimants, to which o f them the said property
belongs, the same shall be finally decided by the laws and judges o f the country wherein
it is situate.
Where, on the decease o f any person holding real estate within the territories o f one
party, such real estate as would, by the laws o f the land, descend on a citizen or subject
o f the other, were he not disqualified by alienage, such citizen or subject shall be allowed a
reasonable time to sell the same, and to withdraw the proceeds, without molestation, and
exempt from all duties o f detraction on the part o f the government o f the respective states.
The capitals and effects which the citizens or subjects o f the respective parties, in
changing their residence, shall be desirous o f removing from the place o f their domicile,
shall likewise be exempt from all duties o f detraction or emigration on the part o f the
respective governments.
A r t . VIII.— The ancient and barbarous right to wrecks o f the sea shall be entirely
.abolished with respect to the property belonging to the citizens or subjects o f the con,
trading parties.




Commercial Regulations.

180

W hen any vessel, o f either party, shall be wrecked, stranded, or otherwise damaged,
on the coasts or within the dominions o f the other, their respective citizens or subjects
shall receive, as well for themselves as for their vessels and effects, the same assistance
which would be due to the inhabitants o f the country where the accident happens.
They shall be liable to pay the same charges and dues o f salvage as the said inhabitants
would be liable to pay in a like case.
I f the operations o f repair shall require that the whole or any part o f the cargo be un­
loaded, they shall pay no duties o f custom, charges, or fees, on the part which they shall
reload and carry away, except as are payable in like cases by national vessels.
It is nevertheless understood, that if, while the vessel is under repair, the cargo shall be
unladen, and kept in a place o f deposit destined to receive goods the duties on which
have not been paid, the cargo shall be liable to the charges and fees lawfully due to the
keepers o f such warehouses.
A r t . IX .— T he present treaty shall be in force for the term o f twelve years from the
date hereof; and further, until the end o f twelve months after the government o f the
United States on the one part, or that o f Hanover on the other, shall have given notice
o f its intention o f terminating the same.
A r t . X .— The present treaty shall be approved and ratified by the President o f the
United States o f America, by and with the advice and consent o f the senate; and by his
majesty the King o f H anover; and the ratifications thereof shall be exchanged at the
city o f Berlin, within the space o f ten months from this date, or sooner, if possible.
In faith whereof, the respective plenipotentiaries have signed the above articles, as well
in French as in English, and have affixed thereto the seals o f their arms, declaring at the
same time the signature in the two languages shall not hereafter be cited as a precedent,
nor in any manner prejudice the contracting parties.
Done in quadruplicate, at the city o f Berlin, on the twentieth day o f May, in the year
o f our Lord one thousand eight hundred and forty, and the sixty-fourth o f the indepen­
dence o f the United States o f America.
H EN RY W HEATON,
[l .
AU G U STU S DE B E R G E R ,

s

.]
[ l . s .]

This treaty has been duly ratified, and the respective ratifications o f the same were
exchanged at the city o f Berlin, on the fourteenth o f November, 1840, by the ministers
plenipotentiary o f the two governments; and is made public by the President o f the
United States, to the end that the same, and every clause and article thereof, may be ob­
served and fulfilled with good faith, by the United States and the citizens thereof.
C H A N G E IN T H E C U R R E N C Y OF JA M A IC A .
The chamber o f commerce at Kingston, Jamaica, published on the 1st o f January,
1841, under the signature o f their president, Hector Mitchell, Esq., the following notice
o f a change in the currency o f that c o lo n y :—
“ By an act o f the legislature o f this island, 3d Vic., cap. 39, which has received the
royal assent o f her majesty in council, and comes into operation this day, the currency
o f the country has been altered, and henceforth the sterling money o f Great Britain will
be u se d ; and all accounts, quotations o f prices current, & c., will be made in sterling
money. All contracts, sales, and other monetary transactions now subsisting, are to be
regarded and settled for in the rates o f .£100 sterling for every £ 1 6 6 13s. 4 d . currency.
T he doubloon is declared a legal tender at £ 3 4s. sterling; the silver dollar at 4s. 2d.;
and the several subdivisions o f those coins at the same rate ; and the gold and silver
coins o f Great Britain and Ireland shall be a legal tender to any amount, at the rate they
pass current at in Great Britain and Ireland.”




Nautical Intelligence.

181

NAUTICAL INTELLIGENCE.
PORT REGULATIONS.
RATES

OF

P IL O T A G E

FOR

THE

HARBOR

OF

BOSTON.

In conformity to law, the following rules and regulations relative to pilotage for the
harbor o f Boston, approved by the trustees o f the Boston Marine Society, are published
for the information o f the p ublic:—
That the following be the rate o f fees o f pilotage to be charged on all vessels outward
bound:—

From November ls£ to May ls£.
7 feet,......... — at 90 cents per foot.
it
8 “ .........
90 it
t<
9 “ ........
90 ti
it
it
10 “ ........
95
it
ii
11 “ ......... ....$1 00
it
12 “ ......... .... 1 05 ii
ii
13 “ ......... .... 1 10 it
ii
14 “ ......... .... 1 10 it
it
15 “ ......... .... 1 10 it
it
16 “ ......... .... 1 10 it
ii
17 “ ......... .... 1 10 it
ii
18 “ ......... .... 1 20 ii
ii
19 “ ......... .... 1 30 it
it
20 »* ......... .... 1 50 i
ti
21 “ ......... .... 2 20 ii
ti
22 “ ......... .... 2 50 l
ii
23 “ ......... .... 2 75 ti
ii
24 “ ......... .... 2 75 ii
ii
25 “ ......... .... 2 75 t

From May 1st to November ls£.
7 feet,.........
per foot.
ti
8 “ .........
75 “
ii
9 “ .........
75 “
ii
10 “ .........
80 “
ti
11 “ .........
85 “
it
12 “ .........
90 “
it
13 “ .........
95 “
ii
14 “ .........
95 “
ti
15 “ .........
95 “
it
16 “ .........
95 “
ii
17 “ ......... ....$1 00 “
ti
18 “ ......... ...." l 00 “
it
19 “ ......... .... 1 25 “
ti
20 “ ......... .... 1 50 “
tt
21 “ ........ .... 1 75 “
ii
22 “ ........ .... 2 00 “
tt
23 “ ......... .... 2 25 “
ii
24 “ .........
ii
25 “ ......... .... 2 25 “

And the following be the rates or fees on all vessels inward bound:—
From May ls2 to November ls£.
F r o m N o v e m b e r 1st to May 1st.
7 feet,.........
45 per foot.
7 feet,......... .......at $1 10 per foot.
ii
1
8 “ ......... ........
1 10
8 “ ......... ........
ii
1 45
9 “ ......... ........
1 10
9 “ ......... ........
“
ti1 56
10 “ ......... ........
1 20
10 “ .........
“
it
11 “ ......... ........
1 72
11 “ ......... ........
“
1 25
ti
1 77
1 30
12 “ ......... ........
“
12 “ ......... ........
ii
1 77
13 “ ......... ........
13 “ ......... ........
“
1 35
ii1 87
14 “ ......... ........
“
14 “ ......... ........
1 35
ti
1 87
15 “ ......... ........
15 “ ......... ........
“
1 35
it
1 87
16 “ .........
16 “ ......... ........
1 35
ii
1 87
17 “ ......... ........
“
17 “ ......... ........
1 35
ii
2 50
“
18 “ ......... ........
18
......... ........
1 88
ii
19 “ .......
2 75
19 “ ......... ........
“
1 88
it
3 00
1 88
20 “ ......... ........
20 “ ......... ........
“
ti
21 “ ......... ........
4 00
21 “ ......... ........
2 80
“
ti
4 00
22 “ ......... ........
“
22 “ ......... ........
3 00
ii
23 “ ........ ........
4 00
23 “ ......... ........
“
3 00
ii
4 00
24 “ ......... ........
“
24 “ ....... ........
3 00
ii
25 “ ......... ........
25 “ ......... ........
4 00
“
3 00
That if any branch pilot o f the harbor o f Boston offers himself to any vessel liable to
take a pilot, outside o f a line drawn from Harding’s Rocks to the outward Graves, and
from thence to Nahant Head, if inward bound ; or any branch pilot who may first offer
himself to any vessel outward bound, (the pilot who brought in said vessel, or one be­
longing to the same boat, in all cases to have the preference,) and the master o f the ves­
sel should refuse to take such pilot on board, the master and owners o f said vessel, or




182

Nautical Intelligence .

either o f them, shall incur and be liable to the penalty o f the amount o f pilotage said ves­
sel would pay, for the benefit o f the pilot so offering himself, if he be the complainant.
That if any vessel while under the charge o f a branch pilot, or his apprentice, shall be
lost or run aground, or sustain any damage* through the negligence or unskilfulness of
such branch pilot or his apprentice, such branch pilot shall be liable, not only for himself,
but for his apprentice, to pay the owner o f such vessel all damages, and also be liable to
have his branch or commission taken from him.
That no branch pilot for the harbor o f Boston be allowed to make or combine or be
in any way interested in the business o f pilotage for said harbor, with any other branch
pilot, except those who may belong to the same boat with himself, under the forfeiture of
his branch.
That it shall be the duty o f every pilot, after having brought a vessel into the harbor o f
Boston, to have such vessel properly moored in the stream, or secured to a wharf, at the
option o f the master, within twenty-four hours after the arrival o f said vessel, if the
weather permits, without extra charge. The pilot, if called upon after the expiration o f
twenty-four hours from her first anchoring, to haul any vessel into the wharf, shall be en­
titled to receive three dollars for his services; and a pilot shall be entitled to receive the
same for taking a vessel from the wharf into the stream, provided said vessel does not
proceed to sea within twenty-four hours from the time o f her anchoring in the stream.
That if any vessel outward bound, having a pilot on board, should be compelled* either
by a head wind or a head tide, to anchor in Nantasket Road, it shall be the duty o f the
pilot to remain on board said vessel until the next high water, (if requested by the master
so to remain,) and if, at the expiration o f that time, the master does not see fit to proceed
to sea, and wishes the pilot to stay by him longer, the pilot so remaining shall be entitled
to receive two dollars per day for each and every day he may be detained on board said
vessel, over and above the regular fee for pilotage; but no pilot shall leave a vessel out­
ward bound, proceeding directly to sea, without the permission o f the master, until said
vessel is to the eastward o f George’s Island.
That the hull and appurtenances o f all vessels piloted into or out o f the harbor o f Bos­
ton, shall, at all times, within sixty days, be liable for the fees o f pilotage.
That from and after the first day o f May, 1835, each pilot boat in the employ of the
branch pilots for the harbor o f Boston, may have on board one or more apprentices, to be
regularly indented to one or more branch pilots attached to the boat, who shall, after
having served not less than two years, and on examination and approval o f the trustees
o f the Boston Marine Society, be authorized to pilot vessels o f certain draft o f water; and
further, that not less than four boats shall be kept in constant employ by branch pilots.
That no apprentice belonging to either o f the pilot boats shall take charge o f any ves­
sel drawing a larger draft o f water than his warrant authorizes; nor shall any other person
from either o f the pilot boats, (not having a branch,) be put on board o f any vessel, unless
a branch pilot is not to be obtained. A nd in event o f their taking charge o f any vessel,
as above, they shall cause the usual signal for a pilot to be kept flying, until within the
line drawn from the Harding’s Rocks to the Graves and Nahant Head ; and shall give
the Vessel up to any branch pilot, or authorized apprentice, that may apply previous to
getting within the said line.
Any apprentice who shall omit to give true information respecting his authority, or
refusing to give up a vessel to an authorized pilot when he has charge unlawfully, shall
forfeit his warrant.
That a blue and white signal, similar to Parker’s Telegraphic, No. 3, be established
as a signal for the pilot boats by day, and a bright red light by night, to designate them
from other vessels.




Nautical Intelligence.

183

The present arrangement is that each pilot boat shall take turns for the outside berth
in the bay, and take all vessels (both large and small) that she can board, until all her
pilots are out, when she is to be relieved by the boat having the next inside berth, and so
to continue in rotation.
In order that the regulations may be carried into full effect, two masters have been
appointed to each boat.
P IL O T A G E OF TH E SC H E LD T.
The following information, essential to be known by all mariners, was recently pub­
lished in the Brussels papers:—
“ According to the second section o f the fifth article o f the provisional regulations for
the execution o f article nine o f the treaty o f the 19 th o f April, 1839^ relative to pilotage,
merchant slrps, with a less draft than fifteen decimetres, are not obliged to take a pilot
in the Scheldt. In order to enjoy this advantage, several captains leave Antwerp with
little or no ballast, and as they drop down the river, take in the quantity o f sand which
is wanting. After having thus fraudulently increased their draft o f water which would
make a pilot necessary, they endeavor to pass Flushing in the night, and thus to evade
likewise the payment o f the pilotage duty on leaving the river.
“ The board o f pilotage at Antwerp have received the strictest orders to check this
abuse. The delinquents will be prosecuted by virtue o f the law o f the 26th o f March,
1818, which renders them liable to a fine o f 10 to 100 florins, and from one to fourteen
days’ imprisonment; and they will have only to blame themselves for the delay which
may arise from the prosecution to which they will expose themselves.”
R E G U L A T IO N S T O BE OBSERVED IN S P A N IS H PO R TS.
The following is a copy o f a circular received at Lloyd’s, from the Spanish consul in
England, relative to certain regulations to be observed in all ports in Spain by command­
ers o f vessels and consignees “ It having been noticed with regret that the captains o f foreign merchant vessels do
not observe with due punctuality the established regulations and dispositions on their ar­
rival and clearance in Spanish ports; and it having recently occurred in Cadiz that one
of these vessels sailed by stealth, without having cleared at the captainship o f the port
(capitania de puerto,) nor received the bill o f health, omitting thereby to satisfy the ad­
miralty fees, the provisional regency o f the kingdom have resolved, through the financial
department, as follows :—
“ 1. That vessels coming to a certain consignment shall remain under the responsibility
of the consignee, who shall be answerable for all infractions o f the law s; and
“ 2. That the consuls, as agents and protectors o f the trade o f their country, shall
guarantee, not as priva'e individuals, but as such consuls, the punctual observance o f the
laws, and shall further offer the just vindication o f their government against those who
may infringe them, or who may evade the penalties by taking to flight.
“ By order o f the regency I inform you o f the above, that you may act accordingly, and
give it due publicity.
(Signed)
“ Madrid, April 12, 1841.
JO A Q U IN M A R IA DE F E R R E R .”
H O S P IT A L M O N E Y A T N E W Y O R K .
Extract from chapter xiv. title iv. o f the “ Revised Statutes o f the State o f N ew Y ork,”
entitled “ O f the Public Health:” —
S ec.

VII.— The health commissioner shall demand, and be entitled to receive, and in

case o f neglect or refusal to pay, shall sue for and recover, in his name o f office, the fol­
lowing sums, from the master o f every vessel that shall arrive in the port o f N ew York,
namely:—
1. From the master o f every vessel from a foreign port, for each cabin passenger, one
dollar and fifty cents; for each steerage passenger, one dollar.
2. From the master o f each coasting vessel, for each passenger on board, twenty-five
cents; but no coasting vessel from the states o f N ew Jersey, Connecticut, and Rhode




184

Nautical Intelligence.

Island shall pay for more than one voyage in each month, computing from the first voyage
in each year.
S e c . IX.— Each master paying hospital moneys shall be entitled to demand and reco­
ver, from each person for whom they shall be paid, the sum paid on his account.
S ec.

X.— Every master o f a coasting vessel shall pay to the health commissioner, at

his office, in the city o f N ew Y ork, within twenty-four hours after the arrival o f his vessel
in the port, such hospital moneys as shall then be demandable from him, under the pro.
visions o f this title; and every master, for each omission o f such duty, shall forfeit the
sum o f one hundred dollars.
L A W IN R E L A T IO N T O T H E H A R B O R OF M OBILE.
In consequence o f “ divers and grievous complaints” having been made o f the captains
and masters o f vessels coming into the port o f Mobile, and throwing stone, gravel, and
other ballast from on board their vessels, to the great detriment o f said harbor; and as the
laws heretofore enacted have been found inefficient to prevent such offences; therefore,
the senate and house o f representatives o f the state o f Alabama have passed an act, con­
taining the following provisions, which was approved by the governor, April 28th, 1841.
I. That from and after the passage o f this act, if any captain or master o f any ship,
vessel, or other water craft, which shall hereafter come into the bay or harbor o f Mobile,
shall throw from on board o f such ship, vessel, or other water craft, into the waters of
Said bay or harbor, any stone, gravel, or other ballast, he shall forfeit and pay for every
such offence the sum o f two thousand dollars, and be imprisoned for a period not exceed,
ing three months nor less than three days, at the discretion o f the court wherein such
offender shall be sued ; one half o f said forfeiture to be paid to the first person who shall,
on oath, before either o f the officers hereinafter named, give information o f such offence,
and the other half to the harbor master and port wardens o f the port o f Mobile.
II. That the said forfeiture may be sued for and recovered, by the harbor master and
port wardens o f the said port o f Mobile, in any court having cognizance o f the amount
sued for, by process o f attachment; to be issued in the same manner, and subject to the
same rules o f construction, provided and established in other cases o f attachment j the
said attachment to be issued by either o f the officers hereinafter named, and to be levied
Upon the ship, vessel, or other water craft, the captain or master o f which shall be the
alleged offender; provided, however, that oath be first made by the informer, or other
credible person, o f the commission o f the offence, before some judge or justice o f the
peace, or clerk o f the county or circuit court o f the county o f M obile; and provided also,
that the said ship, vessel, or other water craft may be replevied on, the captain, master,
or consignee thereof giving bond with good and sufficient sureties, to be approved by the
officer issuing the attachment, in treble the amount o f forfeiture or penalty sued for, con­
ditioned for the forthcoming o f the said ship, vessel, or other water craft, to satisfy such
judgment as shall be recovered in the suit.
III.

— That it shall be the duty o f every pilot and deputy pilot o f the bay and harbor

o f M obile, to inform the harbor master and port wardens o f Mobile, o f every violation o f
this act coming to their knowledge, as soon as possible after knowing thereof, and every
pilot or deputy pilot knowing such offence to have been committed, and failing to
give such information, shall forthwith be deprived o f his license, and be forever
thereafter disqualified for the office o f pilot or deputy pilot o f the said port and harbor of
Mobile.
IV.
— That all laws contravening or impairing the provisions o f this act, be and are
hereby repealed; provided, however, that all suits commenced, or liabilities heretofore
incurred, shall in no manner be affected by this act.




185

Steamboat cind Railroad Statistics.

STEAMBOAT AND RAILROAD STATISTICS.
E A S T IN D IA M A IL S T E A M E R S .
The East India Company look to these steamers as the right arm o f their strength.
They consist o f nine vessels, all o f which are nearly completed, and are mostly in a good
condition. They have an aggregate burden o f 15,658 tons, and a gross value of about
.£500,000. They are employed, with the exception o f four o f the number, in transport­

22 lbs.
32 lbs.
18 lbs.

2

68 lbs.
32 lbs.
32 lbs.

220

646
670

230
285

950

220

1000

300

)

) 2
3

\2
ls
4

68 lbs.
32 lbs.
32 lbs.

88
88
77
88

M ILES.
8
.
g ^

60 s
§ §
o

Speed.

3
3
4
3

900
Berenice,..................

Semiramis,......................

230
210
180
220

714
6G7
411
700

4

A V E R A G E OF T R IP S TO
SUEZ AND BACK----- 5984

Time
taken.

V ictoria,......... .. ........
Atalanta,..................
Hugh Lindsay,.........

*5
8
3
Cb

Calibre.

NAMES

Horse Power.

Tonnage.

ARM AM ENT.

The following is a list

Total officers and
men on board.

ing what is called the “ overland mail” from Bombay to Suez.
o f them and their appointments.

630
660
665

38
42
45

9i
74
6
8J

841
850

40
42

8}

134
88
97

71

130
132

The voyage to Suez out and in is 5984 miles, and commonly performed, including all
delays, in 33 to 40 days.

T he stay at Suez is about 100 hours.

The coaling alone costs

from £2 ,500 to £3,000 for each voyage up the Red Sea, and the total cost o f coal for all
the vessels is upwards o f £30,000. The number o f passengers o f all descriptions for two
years preceding May, 1840, was— from Suez, 2 3 4 ; for Suez, 2 5 5 ; these include ser­
vants and children. The fare o f the first class passengers between Suez and Bombay is
£ 8 0 , o f which £ 3 0 goes to the commander o f the vessel for table money, and £ 5 0 into
the government treasury. The gross receipts for passengers in the period just alluded to
was above £30,000, o f which about £12,000 went to the commanders, and £18,000 to
the treasury.
M A SS A C H U S E T T S R A IL R O A D S .
T he following table shows the receipts, expenditures, and dividends o f the Massachu­
setts railroads during the year 1840 :—
CO M PA N Y .

Receipts.

N ew Bedford and Taunton Railroad,*...........

$267,457
202,601
231,575
183,297
121,347
82,638
93,468
26^437

Expenditures. Dividend.
Per cent.
6
7
8
5

$140,441
91,400
105,293
62,071
52,532
70,022
13,026

....... 74........
64

* This road has only been in operation since the 4th o f July, 1840.

VOL. V.— NO. II.




24

186

Bank Statistics.

BANK STATISTICS.
CO N D ITIO N OF T H E S T A T E B A N K S IN T H E U N IT E D S T A T E S .
A resolution was adopted by the house o f representatives, July 10, 1822, directing the
secretary o f the treasury to lay before the house o f representatives, at each successive
session o f congress, copies o f such statements or returns, showing the capital, circulation,
discounts, specie, deposits, and condition o f the different state banks and banking com­
panies as may have been communicated to the legislatures, governors, and other officers
o f the several states within the year and made public; and where such statements cannot
be obtained, such other authentic information as would best supply the deficiency. The
states or territories that have not complied with the demand o f the secretary o f the trea­
sury, or only in part, are Vermont, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, N ew York (free banks,)
Delaware, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Ohio, Illinois, and Iowa. W e are indebted to
the Hon. Thomas Ewing, the secretary o f the treasury, for a copy o f the document, which
is quite voluminous, occupying nearly fifteen hundred pages. The condensed statements
which follow are derived from this document, and are entitled—
1. A condensed statement o f the condition, at different intervals, o f all the banks in
the United States.
2. A comparative view o f the condition o f all the banks in the United States, near the
commencement o f each year, from 1834 to 1840, inclusive.
3. A general statement o f the condition o f so many o f the banks as have made returns
dated near to January 1, 1841.
In a subsequent number o f the magazine, we shall endeavor to lay before our readers,
the condition o f the banks in each state or territory, for several years.

1s t
Ja n .
1811
1815
1816
1820
1830
1834
1835
1836
1837
1838
1839
1840

51
120
134
213
282
406
515
559
632
663
662
661

38
88
112
95
48
100
43
8
2

61

T o ta l n u m b e r o f
b a n k s .*

D a te

T a b le , e x h i b i t i n g a c o n d e n s e d s t a t e m e n t o f th e c o n d itio n , a t d iffe r e n t in t e r v a ls , o f
a ll th e b a n k s o f th e U n ite d S ta te s.
N u m b er o f banks
th e a ffa ir s o f w h ic h
a r e e s tim a t e d .

A

N u m b er o f banks
f r o m w h ic h r e tu r n s
a r e r e c e iv e d *

I.

89
208
246
308
330
506
558
567
634
663
662
722

L oa n s and
d is c o u n ts .

S p ecie .

C ircu la tio n .

D e p o s its .

C a p ita l.

D o lla r s .

D o lla r s .

D o lla r s .

D o lla r s .

D o lla r s .

15,400,000 28,100,000
52,601,601
82 259 590
17,000^000 45,500,000
19j000j000 68,000,000
89,822,422
19j820j240 44,863,344 35,950,470 137,110,611
200,451,214 22,114,917 61,323,898 55,559,928 145,192,268
324,119,499
94,839,570 75,666,986 200,005,944
365,163,834 43,937,625 103,692,495 83,081,365 231,250,337
457,506,080 40,019,594 140,301,038 115,104,440 251,875,292
525,115,702 37,915,340 149,185,890 127,397,185 290,772,091
485,631,687 35,184,112 j116,138,910 84,691,184 317,636,778
492,278,015 45,132,673 135,170,995 90,240,146 327,132,512
462,896,523 33,105,1551106,968,572 75,696,857 358,442,692

* The number o f branches is not given in this table, as it was not the practice to enu­
merate them previous to 1835. For the number in that and each succeeding year, see
table 2.

T he whole number o f banks and branches, at the commencement o f 1840, is

there given as 901.




A c c o r d i n g to r e tu r n s n e a r e s t J a n .

1,...

Banks from which returns have been rec’ d,
Branches do.
do.
do.
do...
Banks, the affairs o f whieh have been (
estimated, for want o f returns,............ t
Branches, the affairs o f which have been (
estimated, for want o f returns,....... .. \
W hole N o. banks and branc’s in opera’ n,

1834.

1835.

1836.

1837.

1838.

1839.

1840.

406

515
141

559
146

632
154

663
166

662
178

661

100

43

8

2

506"

5
704

"713"

"788"

Capital paid in,............................................. §200,005,944 §231,250,337 §251,875,292 §290,772,091
525,115,702
324,119,499
457.506.080
365,163,834
Loans and discounts,....... ...........................
12,407,112
11,709,319
9,210,579
6,113,195
S tocks,............... ...........................................
19,064,451
14,194,375
10,850,090
11,140,167
Real estate,...................................................
10,423,630
9,975,226
4,642,124
1,723,547
Other investments,......................................
51,876,955
59,663,910
40,084,038
27,329,645
Due from other banks,..................... .........
36,533,527
22,154 919
Notes o f oilier banks on hand,..................
32,115,138
21,086,301
5,366,500
Specie funds,.................... . .........................
3,061,819
4,800,076
26,641,753
Specie............................................................
37,915,340
40,019,594
43,937,625
149,185,890
Circulation,......................................... „ .......
140,301,038
103,692,495
94,839,570
127,397,185
75,666,986
Deposits,.......................................................
83,081,365
115,104,440
Due other banks,............................... .. .......
62,421,118
26,602,293
50,402,369
38,972,578
25,999,234
Other liabilities,...........................................
36,560,289
19,320,475
816,047,441
Aggregate o f bank accounts,....................
974,643,887 1,205,879,136 1,372,826,745
567,010,895
342,806,331
Agg. o f investm’s suppos’ d to yield inc’me,
390,156,804
493,385,000
276,238,804
Excess o f do. beyond am’ t o f cap. paid in,
142,800,387
241,409,708
158,906,467
170,506,556
276,583,075
Aggregate o f deposits and circulation,...
255,405,478
186,773,860
Agg. o f do., do., and sums due oth. bk.s.,
197.108.849
339,004,193
225,746,438
305,807,847
A gg. o f specie, specie funds, notes o f >
oth. bks., and sums due by oth. bks., £
76,126,317
128.811.763
139,479,277
108,169,783
Excess o f imm. liab. beyond imm. means,
120,982,532
176,996,084
199,524,916
117,576,655
Total o f means o f all kinds,............ ..
705,490,172
418,932,648
622.196.763
498,326,587
Total of liab., exclu. of those to stockh’s, 197.108.849 245,066,913 331.807.081 376,564,482
Total of liab. of the bks. to one another,. 76,086,857 100,142,917 134,394,462 158,618,555
Liab. to all, except oth. hks. andstockh’s, 121,121,992 144,923,996 281,404,712 313,143,364
Nett circulation,........................ .
82,606,194
72,684,651
108,185,900
112,652,363




139
61

829

840

40
901

c

I
5

1
,
5

§327,132,512 §358,442,692
492,278,015
462,896,523
36,128,464
42,411,750
16,607,832
29,181,919
24,592,580
28,352,248
41,140,184
52,898,357
20,797,892 ^
27,372,966
3,623,874
3,612,567
45,132,673
33,105,155
135,170,995
106,968,572 f
90,240,146
75,696,857
53,135,508
44,159,615 C
62,946,248
43,275,183
1,371,008,531 1,286,292,796
559,082,772 00^
573,366,559
200,640,080
246,234,047
182,665,429
225,411,141
226,825,044
278,546,649

1

129,016,563
149,530,086
702,383,122
341,492,897
133,406,831
288,357,389
107,798,029

98,667,105
128,157,939
657,749,877
270,100,227
106,097,691
270,100,227
86,170,680

•r

I

D a te .

1841

Jan.,
Oct.,
Jan.,

1841
1840
1841

Jan.,

1841

Jan.,
Jan.,
Jan.,
Virginia,................................... Jan.,
N ov.,
Oct.,
Georgia,................................... Oct.;
Florida,.................................... Jan.,
Oct.,
Dec'.,
Arkansas,................................. Oct.,'
M aryland,...............................

1841
1841
1841
1841
1840
1840
1840
1841
1840
1840
1840




L oa n s and
D is c o u n t s .

S to c k s .

B e a l E s ta te .

47
27
7
115
62

|4,371,500
2,837,508
597;810
33,750,000
9;823,558

$5,820,792
4,099,612
964,417
46,513,685
12,194,485

95
26

36,401,460
3,834,816

54,691,163
5,315,936

$4,630,392
' 40,098

3,588,132
343,696

881,648
10,214,908
1,745,155
10;283;633
3,225,000
li;78 2;35 8
15,098,694
4,040,775
14,379,255
41.711,214
3,532;706

1,472,464
12,554,889
2,000,505
15,495,117
4,506,226
16,106,806
13,783,221
5,024,877
24,183,586
48,646,799
3,838;694

59,411
939,953
219,989
1,204;567

66,918
504,433
188,048
798;i46
95,780
333;497
4,217,493
115,343
599,366
13,192,038
' 67;i96

1

5,802,447
2^87,200
1,178,866
4;044;025
2,671,618
8,103,243

1

1 ,0 0 0 ,0 0 0

7,604,352
3;02i;458
1,628,203
3,4921438
3,689,595
9,878,328
1,713,769
224,365
771941

3
21

6
6
3
12
23
3
3
16
2
2
i
1

i
i
26
3

4
2
21

7
16
4
3
31
8
14
4
2
6
12

1

1 0 0 ,0 0 0

1

lo o io o o

514

136

O th e r I n ­
v e s tm e n ts .

$322,750
76,893
14;380
1,169,803

2,222,293
1,785,304
977,045

500,000
1 2 ,0 0 0

1,025,000
2,101,849
294,000
74,541
1,000

431,985
92^ 0 4
80,580
47i;995
223,629
75,512
14,404
4 ^ 06

D u e b y o th e r
B a n k s.

$223,397

$600,804
" 337,620
111,691
4,702;491
603;938

861,643
60,243

10,061,002
1,138,043

137,311
34,536
55;341
4,076
107,212
328,102
104,169
434,904

395,082
2,007,906
1 2 2 ,1 1 0

1,440;684
538,784
533;869
1,785,649
2 1 0 ,0 0 2

403,030

1,499,693
1,816,630
'm ;3 i o

29,850
23,808
15;990
717,782
2,688,692
160,172
80,537
7|221

905,123
5011609
186,520
7971278
305,146
571,333
180,467
2,571
762

the banks as

Jan., 1841
Dec., 1840
Jan., 1841
Illinois,..................................... Nov'., 1840
Indiana,.................................... Nov., 1840
Dec., 1840
Michigan.................................. Jan. 1,1841
Sept., 1840
Sept., 1838
Pennsylvania Bank o f U. S.,
Kentucky,...............................

C a p ita l.

T a b le , e x h i b i t i n g a g e n e r a l s ta te m e n t o f th e c o n d itio n o f so m a n y o f
h a ve m a d e r e tu r n s d a te d n e a r to Ja n . 1, 1841.

Jan.,

N um b, o f N um b, o f
B a n k s. B ra n ch es.

]

\. A

S T A T E OR T E R R IT O R Y .




N um b, o f N um b, o f N o te s o f
B a n k s . B r a n c h e s . O th . B k s .

Jan.,
June,
Jan.,
Oct.,
Jan.,

1841
1840
1841
1840
1841

47
27
7
115
62

Jan.,
Jan.,

1841
1841

95
26

Jan.,
Jan.,
Jan.,
Jan.,
Nov.,
Oct.,
Oct.,
Jan.,
Oct.,
Dec.,
Oct.,

1841
1841
1841
1841
1840
1840
1840
1841
1840
1840
1840

Jan., 1841
Dec., 1840
Jan., 1841
Nov., 1840
Nov., 1840
Dec., 1840
Jan. 1,1841
Sept., 1840
Sept., 1838

$213,737
64,594
27,924
2,120,782
318,998

3

21

6
6

21

3

7

12
23
3
3
16

16
4
3
31

2

8

2
1
1
1
1

14
4

26
3

2

6

12
1
1

1
1
514

136

Specie
F u n d s.

Specie. Circulation. Deposits.

$269,729
193,359
67,777
$60,209
2,991,804
327,206

D u e to O t h e r
O th e r
B a n k s.
L ia b ilit ie s .

$733,834
420,800
7,116,703
7,257,410
950,747

3,911,724
3,961,805
518,615

4,922,764 2,188,565 5,429,622 15,235,056 17,053,279
436,049
2,099,069
400,720

10,374,682
211,307

106,604
1,022,382
176,752
900,538
221,067
295,208
2,140,161
49,745
2,693,292
2,577,578
157,123
343,847
446,936
42,345
129,977
166,251
867,935
71,964
29,397
18,874

155,691
1,556,020
245,629
2,318,791
802,709
1,608,537
1,300,694
5,032
1,589,510
3,163,243
403,030 203,813
53,101

5,000

647,945
663,449
509,597
529,640
1,076,551
1,052,767
123,635

48,492
3,033

^1,754,390
1,088,750
9,483,029
9,112,882
1,565,880

860,963
312,247
2,529,843 3,136,979
121,975
6,852,485
2,092,877
3,008,514
5,518,822
476,706
7,211,141
6,443,785
995,905
2,045,375
1,795,058
347,530
3,105,415
2,865,568
3,584,341
568,177
90,305
10,990

$45,281

28,209
1,860,015
268,197
872,152
90,363
589,597
1,299,703
382,219
1,486,345
7,090,815
28,308
336,236
317,438
87,871
117,893
148,829
410,287
5,678
175

$136,909
145,738
1.379.512
1.379.512
504,935
2,937,485

225,529
3,135
725,743
92
521,297
582,937
1,126,591
2,152,508
7,777,812
250,000
423,172
509,590
1,939
1,022,503
512,849
85,451
5,035

T a b le , e x h i b i t i n g a g e n e r a l s ta te m e n t o f th e c o n d itio n o f so m a n y o f
th e b a n k s a s h a ve m a d e r e tu r n s d a te d n e a r to Jan. 1, 1841.

Maine,.................................
N ew Hampshire,...............
Vermont,.............................
Massachusetts,...................
Rhode Island,....................
Connecticut,.......................
N ew Y o rk ,.........................
N ew Jersey,.......................
Pennsylvania,.....................
Delaware,............................
Maryland,...........................
District o f Columbia,........
Virginia,..............................
North Carolina,..................
South Carolina,..................
Georgia,..............................
Florida,...............................
Alabam a,............................
Louisiana.............................
Arkansas,............................
Mississippi,..........................
Tennessee,..........................
Kentucky,...........................
Missouri,.............................
Illinois,................................
Indiana,...............................
O h io ,...................................
Michigan,............................
Wiskonsin,..........................
Iowa,...................................
Pennsylvania Bank o f U. S.,

Date.

3 c o n tin u e d .— A

S T A T E OK T E R R IT O R Y .

*

190

Commercial Tables .

COMMERCIAL TABLES.
STATE

STOCK TABLE,

Computed fo r the Merchants' M agazine, by D. J. Browne, civil engineer.
This table exhibits the comparative value o f the various classes o f state bonds that have
been issued in the United States; assuming the interest to be paid thereon at the end o f
each year, and afterward improved at 6 per cent compound interest.
Also, the present worth and amount o f any bond o f $1000, for 1 year to 30, if improved
in the same manner as assumed in the table. For example, an Indiana 5 per cent bond,
payable at the end o f 19 years, is worth 88yVj?o per cent, when compared with an Ohio
or Illinois 6 per cent bond, at 100 per cent, or pary and its present worth is $888 42,
while the Ohio or Illinois 6 is worth $1000. A N ew Y ork 5 per cent bond, payable at
the end o f 9 years, is worth 93y q-Vo per cent, while a bond bearing the same rate o f in­
terest, and payable at the end o f 19 years, is worth only 88yV<nr per cent.
Although the interest on state bonds is usually paid semi-annually, it was thought
proper to assume it as paid at the end o f each year, on the ground that it would have to
remain unimproved for a time.

COCO«iOnN!NO(NOI>^P)‘rtWONCOCOO'^»-iC*5H^«0«OHiO
TrnN^--r-lX-HCOGOGOi-':C3rHONO»iflNO'^0»OCDO-(OC50
05oqtOTt;c,«c5»oc'jGqeoaqcoaqc'jt':'-j'^oq<-H'r!;t'70cr5iot^oc<-'tfiot^
©--HdcdstH-^idtdcdr-^t^GOGOoscsoooi-Hr-H-Hcicicicicdcdcdcdcd
O O O O O O O O O O O O O O C r H r H r H r H r H - H r —,-<r^<-H.-H.-H,-HrH.—

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T-Hto

Commercial Tables.

191

From the u Report o f a Late Committee o f the British House o f Commons, concerning
Protective D u t i e s w h i c h report has been the basis o f an article on the subject
o f import duties, which is already before the reader, zn the present number o f the
Merchants' Magazine.
PRO F O R M A T A B L E OR T A R IF F OF N E W C U STO M S D U TIE S,
UPON A MOKE E Q U IT A B L E AND FISC A L B A SIS.

Proposed.
Rate
o f Duty.
v i z :—
£ s.
A sses,...........................................each 0 10
Goats,................................................... 0
Horned Cattle,.................................... 0
Horses, Mares, or Geldings,............. 1
M ules,.................................................. 0
Sheep,.................................................. 0
Swine,.................................................. 0
10
. Carriages, all sorts, per X100 value,...10 0
. Coffee and Cocoa,.................. per pound 0 0
Produce o f and imported from all
British possessions, including the
states under British protection in
the Peninsula,................................. 0 0
4. Cotton wool, Sheep’s wool, Goat’s do.,
and all other kinds o f hair, & c., cwt. 0 2
Produce o f and imported from a
British possession,...................... 0 0

1839.

Estimated
Revenue on
Proposed
Scale.

£

£ s. d.
Prohibited.
Ditto.
Ditto.

n im a l s ,

CO (3

1. A

Revenue
fo r

Present
Rate
o f D uty.

1 0 0
0 10 0

339

5,000

36
501

250
1,000

• 794,818

1,000,000

• 559,645

600,000

0 Prohibited,'
except nearly
at famine
prices.
0
1,089,775

2,000,000

0
0
9

Prohibited.
Ditto.
2 13 0
30 0 0
0 1 3 ■

5

0

0

6 .

6

0

2

11

6

0

0

6

5 . F ood, viz :—

W heat,.............................. per quarter 0

Barley,..................................
Rye, Peas, and Beans,......
0 4
Oats,....................................
Maize or Indian Corn,......
Buckwheat, Bear or Bigg,,
Flour,............................... per 196-lbs. 0 4 0
Barley and Oatmeal, Indian Corn,
Meal, & c ................... .per 196 lbs. 0 2 0
Rice, not being rough,..
0 8 0
0 15 0
1
Rice, rough, or Paddy,..
0 1 3
0 2 6
Rice from British possessions, & c., \
1
0
32,297
0 0 6
/ rough 1
per cwt.......................
0 1 0
0 2 0
Potatoes,........................
Onions,...........................
0 2 6
0 3 0
1,840
1,792
M accaroni,.....................
0 0 1
0 0 2
12 0
Beef and Pork, salted,..,... .per cwt. |
0 8 0 30
Ditto,
smoked,
1 1 0 8
Sausages,........................
0 0 4
3,823
Bacon and Hams,..........
0 12 0
1 8 0
Beef, Pork, and all kinds o f Butcher’s Meat, fresh,........
0 12 0 Prohibited.
Butter,............................
0 10 0
i 0 0 213,077
0 10 6 105,219
C heese,................................................ 0 8 0
Eggs,........................................per 120 0 0 10
0 0 10
12,014
Chiefly
Fish o f all kinds,................ 10 per cent ad val.
prohibited,
2,040
Fish, British taking, free,.................. Free
J
Fruit o f all kinds,................20 per cent ad val. 10 to 200 p. ct. 437,046
H ay,.............................per load..........10 0 0
1 4 0
5
6. Indigo, Cochineal, and Verdigris, per lb. 0 0 4
0 1 6
37,624
Indigo, from British possessions,..... 0 0 3
0 0 3




800,000

500,000
30,000

192

Commercial Tables.
Proposed
Rate
o f D uty.

Present
Rate
o f D uty.

7. Hides and Skins o f all kinds,
£ s. d. £ s. d.
Undressed,............................. 2 J per ct. ad val, Var. duties"!
10 to 50 per ct. >
Dressed or Tanned,.........................
5 ditto
........... J
8. M

anufactu res,

....... Var. duties f
20 to 500 per ct.
O f Silks, o f all kinds,.........................
O f Paper, (except writing paper,).. . 20 per c.
O f Leather and Skins, Boots, Shoes, J
Gloves, & c ....................................
O f Linen and Hemp, (except can­
vass,)........................................

10.

11.

12.

13.

14.

15.
16.

17.

1839.

£
62,676

Estimated
Revenue on
Proposed
Scale.

£

50,000

v iz

O f Glass, (exclusive o f Excise,)..... "

9.

Revenue
fo r

27,326
247,362
2,681

- 500,000

24,874
14,182.

316,425
O f Cotton, W ool, and H air,,,
•1
| 300,000
O f Metals, Minerals, Clays and
Earths, Stone, W ood, Precious
126,930
-10 pr. ct. 10 to 30 pr. ct.
Stones, Feathers, and all other
443,355
manufactures, not otherwise enu­
merated or charged,.................... _
Metals and Minerals, and Stones o f
all kinds—
R aw or Smelted,........................... 1 pr. ct. ad v. Var. duties £
33,170
50,000
Forged or Hammered,.............. .
10 to 30 p. ct. £
Oils o f all kinds, per .£100 value,,... } 1£ ditto. ) jq
^qq
70,032
100,000
From British possessions, and from >
>
W est Coast o f Africa,................. ) 2£ ditto. ) ^er en ‘
Seeds and Grains—
Flax, Hemp, and Rape Seed, quar. 0 1 O')
Mustard S eed,........................ ........, 1 0 0 I Various du-^
Ditto
ground,...................... 20 pr. ct. I ties, from ( U r «nc>
150,000
Carraway Seed,.,............................. 1 0 0 j 5 to 200 |
’
A ll other Seeds and Grains, not
per cent. J
otherwise enumerated, per cwt. 0 2 0
Spices o f all kinds,................... per lb. 20 p.. ct. C Various du- i
89,202
100,000
ad val.
iral. < ties, 20 to >
10 ditto.
itto. ( 600 pr. ct. )
From British possessions,..........
Spirits—
Distilled, o f all kinds, (except Aqua­
fortis and Spirits o f Turpentine
to be used in manufactures,) per
2,615,442 2,500,000
gallon,........ .................................
0 14
Produce of, and imported from, a
British possession,......................... 0 8
Liquors and Spirits, sweetened or
prepared, the produce of, and
imported from, a British posses­
25,258 ................
sion, ........... ................................... 0 10 0
1 0 0
Aquafortis and Spirits o f Turpen­
82,936
90,000
tine,.................................. per cwt. 0 10 0
T allow ,................................... per cwt. 0 3 0
0 3 2
Produce of, and imported from, a
| 181,999
180,000
0 1 6
0 1 0
3,658,800
4,000,000
0 2 1
T ea,............................................ per lb. 0 2 0
0 3 0 1
Tobacco,............................ ................ . 0 2 6
0 2 9 £ 3,495,686 3,200,000
From British possessions,............ 0 1 3
0 6 0
Manufactured,............................., 0 3 0
Sugar, clayed, and in any way re­
fined,............................... per cwt. 2 10
3 3 0 ) continued— next page
Muscovado, Brown and Y ellow ,., 1 10




Si

193

Commercial Tables.
Present
Rate
o f D uty.

Proposed,
Rate
o f D uty.

£ 8.
Produce of, and imported from British possessions— Clayed, White,
and in any way refined,............
Ditto, ditto, Muscovado,..................
R efin ed,.............................................
Molasses,...........................................
Produce of, and imported from British possessions,............... per cwt.
Syrups and Preserves in Sugar,
per lb.
Succades and H oney,......................
18. W in e,.......................................per gall.
And additional 20 per cent,........
Produce of, and imported from Brit,
ish possessions,............... per gall.
19. W o o d Mahogany, Rosewood, and all oth­
er Fancy W oods for Furniture,
per load o f 50 cubic feet,............
From British possessions,................
Boards and Deals o f Mahogany,
Rosewood, and all Fancy W oods
for Furniture, per load,................
And additional 10 percent,...
Ditto, from British possessions,.....
And 5 per cent, ad val................
Oak, Teak and Elm, Cedar and
Juniper, and Mahogany from
Honduras, for ship-building, per
load,................................................
Deals and Boards of, per 50 cubic
feet,................................................
And 5 per cent additional,.....
Oak, Teak, Elm, Cedar, Juniper,
and Hardwoods, & c. Produce
of, and imported from British pos­
sessions, .........................................
Pine and Fir Timber, and Spars o f
all kinds, per load o f 50 cubic
feet,................................................
Deals, Boards, or Staves of, per
load o f 50 cubic feet,..................
And 10 per cent additional,...
Pine and Fir Timber, and Spars,
Produce of, and imported from,
a British possession, per load o f
50 cubic feet,...............................
And 5 per cent additional,...
Dyewoods, o f all kinds,..............5 p.
20. Raw Materials o f all kinds, to be
used in Manufactures, in Science,
and in the Arts, 2£ per ct. ad valo­
rem, ....................................................

0

6

d.

0

£ s.

d.

1

4

0

8

8

0

1 13

9

0

0

0
2

4,893,733

7,800,000

1,849,710

2,000,000

1,603,194

2,500,000

0 0
0 0

0 0
0 0
0 2
0

9

Estimated
Revenue on
Proposed
Scale.
£

5

6

Oj

1 10 0
0

7

5 0 0
6 41. & 11.10«.

1 10

0

0

6

7

0 10 0
0 10 0

0

5

0

1 5

0

1 5

0

0

6

7

A ll former­
ly more
than 250
per cent.

c. ad val.
2J ditto

Export Duties o f all kinds to be abol­
ished; with the exception, perhaps, o f
Coal.
Total Revenue for 1839,..

10 to 200 p. c.
68,997
Various 1
duties, and I
, co

(

free, to 200 f
per cent. J

II.




25

351>153

.£22,962,600

Total Estimated Revenue by pro forma Tariff, say....

VOL. V.— NO.

393,775

.£28,850,025

194

Commercial Tables.
IM P O R T DU TIES.

RE A SO N S W H IC H H A V E INFLUEN CED T H E A M ERICAN

CH A M B E R OF COMMERCE A T LIVERPOOL TO

A S S IS T IN A D V O C A TIN G A R E V ISIO N OF T H E IM P O R T DUTIES.

1.
T he magnitude o f the trade between Liverpool and the United States o f America,
as compared with that with the British W est India possessions, including Demerara and
Berbice, in whose favor prohibitory differential duties are sought to be maintained, in il­
lustration o f which the following table is annexed :—
IN W A R D S .

American British
Tonnage. Tonnage.

From the United States,................................ 397,745
From British W est India possessions,........

Total.

Value, at £ 1 2
per Ton.

67,823
43,940

465,568
43,940

£5,576,816
527,280

82,335
55,562

406,894
55,562

5,962,728
666,744

O U TW ARDS.

T o the United States,................................... 414,519
T o British W est India possessions,............
PRODUCE IM PO RTED .

From the United States,........................................£12,422,450
From British W est India possessions,................
1,286,220
2. The United States take from this country, in manufactures, on an average o f years^
the whole value o f the produce imported from thence, as shown by the following table :—
Value (in dollars) o f Imports
into Great B ritain and
Ireland from the United
States.

1831
1832
1833
1834
1835
1836
1837
1838
1839

Value (in dollars) o f
Exports from Great
Britain and Ireland
to the United States.

............. 26,329,353.................................. 24,539,214
............. 30,810,995.................................. 36,921,265
............. 32,363,450.................................. 37,845,824
............. 44,212,097.................................. 47,242,807
............. 52,180,977.................................. 61,249,527
............. 57,875,213.................................. 78,645,968
............. 54,683,797.................................. 44,886,943
............. 52,176,610.................................. 44,861,973
.............59,896,212.................................. 65,964,588

3. The approaching termination o f the tariff compromise act in the United States, when
20 per cent ad valorem will be the highest duty levied upon any article imported into
that country; and, as we impose a duty on tobacco o f 600 per cent, on wheat and flour
a duty varying from 10 per cent to 75 per cent, and virtually exclude rice (clean,) ashes,
timber, and staves, it is naturally to be expected that the states o f which those produc­
tions are the growth, comparing the moderate maximum duty to which our manufactures
are subjected with the burdens we impose on the products o f their labor, will unite with
a portion o f their manufacturers for the purpose o f establishing a tariff based on a prin­
ciple o f retaliation.
4. T he sliding scale o f duty on wheat and flour places countries so distant as the
United States on an unequal footing with those less rem ote; because, whenever grain is
admissible at a low duty, the demand is so rapidly supplied from the continent o f Europe,
that the duty is generally at a prohibitory rate before supplies from the United States can
reach this country; and, as above shown, that our imports from the United States are
paid for by an equal amount o f exports o f our manufactures, it is reasonable to assume
that the whole value o f grain and flour received from that country would be paid for in
the same medium, and not in gold.
5. That if timber were allowed to be imported from the United States at the same
duty as previous to the year 1808, the flourishing trade formerly carried on in that article
would be re-established, to the great benefit o f both countries, as it is notorious that such
is the superior quality o f timber the growth o f the United States, to that o f British Ame-




«

195

Commercial Statistics.

rica, that vessels built o f it are insurable as first class for double the length o f time al­
lowed to ships built o f the latter.
6.
The circumstances o f the manufacturing interests have materially changed during
the last few years; formerly we consumed the greater portion o f our manufactures at
home, but now more than two thirds o f our cotton fabrics are exported, showing the vital
importance o f encouraging trade with those countries which, like the United States, are
willing to receive to any extent the productions o f our industry in exchange for theirs.
N IC H O LA S ROSK E LL,
Liverpool, May 10, 1841.
President o f the American Chamber o f Commerce.

COMMERCIAL STATISTICS.
T R A D E OF G R E A T B R IT A IN W IT H T H E U N IT E D S T A T E S A N D F R A N C E .
IM PO RTS AND E X P O R T S .

The London Times o f April 10, 1841, contains the following valuable information,
which shows the importance to that country o f the trade o f the United States:—
“ The interchange o f the United Kingdom o f Great Britain and Ireland with all coun­
tries, given in English money, according to a scale o f official value settled in the year
1698:—
Imported.
Exported.
1835........ ....... £48,911,542............ ............£91,174,455
1836....... ........ 57,230,997........... ............ 97,621,549
1837....... ........ 54,737,301............ ............ 85,781,669
1838....... ........ 61,268,320............ ............ 105,170,549
1839........ ....... 62,001,000............ ............110,198,716
“ The interchange o f France with all countries, given in English money, at the rate of
25f. for each pound sterling, according to a scale o f official value settled in the year
1826:—
Imported.
Exported.
1835....... ........£30,429,067............. .......... £33,376,888
1836....... ....... 36j223,014............. .......... 38^451^390
1837........ ....... 32,311,718............. .......... 30,323,898
1838........ ........ 37,482,179............. .......... 38,236,305
1839....... ....... 37,878,857............. .......... 40,133,271
“ The interchange o f the United States o f America with all countries, given in English
money, at the rate o f 50d. for each dollar, according to the actual worth o f the mer­
chandise at the time and in the place where landed or shipped, in the year ending as
under:—
Imported.
Exported.
Sept. 30, 1835................ £31,228,279......................... £25,352,828
“
1836............... 39,579,173......................... 26,804,800
“
1837............... 29 ,372 ,753 ....;.................. 24,462,370
“
1838............... 23,641,125......................... 22,651,378
“
1839............... 35,227,527......................... 25,214,253
“ T he interchange o f France with Great Britain and her dependencies, by official va­
lue, given in English money, at the rate o f 25f. for each pound sterling:—
Imported from .
Exported to.
Great Britain, and possessions in Europe,......... ...... £2,451,531... ...£3,982,833
Mauritius, and British possessions in A frica,....
43,452... ...
138,296
N ew South W ales, and the East Indies,........... ...... 1,052,802... ...
184,191
British possessions in A m erica,...........................
17,506...
4,750




In the year 1835......... ...... £3,565,291...
“
1836........ ...... 3,974,438...
“
1837......... ...... 4,056,528...
“
1838........ ...... 4,545,077...
“
1839........ ...... 5,028,585...

...£4,310,070
... 5,037,186
... 4,139,382
... 6,011,993
... 6,952,001

196

Commercial Statistics.

“ The interchange o f the United States o f America with Great Britain and her depen.
dencies, (by declared value,) given in English money, at the rate o f 50d. for each dollar:—
......................................................
Imported from .
Exported to.
Great Britain and Ireland,.................... .£12,760,318........ £10,871,015
979,120........
1,663,920
British dependencies,.............................
Year ending Sept. 3, 1835................ £13,739,438........£12,534,935
“
“
1836............... 17,921,023........ 13,334,906
“
“
1837............... 10,881,157........ 12,753,642
“
“
1838............... 10,218,995........ 12,434,044
“
“
1839............... 15,020,906........ 14,201,892
“ Perhaps few o f our readers were prepared to see that France, as we are shown by her
returns, is already importing from England and her dependencies direct, to an amount
exceeding £5,000,000 sterling; and the import or custom o f France is larger consider­
ably than here appears, inasmuch as under existing regulations all products not being of
European growth or manufacture cannot be received into the French market direct, but
are sent from this country to Belgium or Holland, and thence into France. The excess
o f the French exports to this country and her dependencies, compared with the imports,
is in some degree accounted for by this cause.
“ In like manner, out o f the exports from the United States to this country, a certain
portion o f the amount (between £100,000 and £200,000) represents not the products o f
the United States, but goods sent there ; as, for example, the gum o f Senegal or the annato o f Cayenne, which are dependencies o f France, in order that they may afterward
be imported by British vessels into England.
“ The excess in the amount o f the general exports over the imports o f this country
shows, that we are a saving and a lending people ; our merchants lend to the merchants
o f other countries, and individuals o f acquired fortune invest a portion o f their capitals in
foreign stocks, or in the purchase o f lands in our colonies.
“ In the general interchange o f the United States we see a condition o f trade, com .
paring the amount o f imports and exports, the opposite o f our own. W e see that they
are a borrowing people, and that the extent o f their purchasing our products is measured
by the degree o f our lending the capital by which they are to be paid for. W e say this
in no invidious spirit, because we are among those who are o f opinion that the bond of
any solvent community is as good and convenient a return for our industry as commodi­
ties in the ordinary sense; only, we speak o f it as a fact, attested by all reasonable ob­
servation, and by such returns as are here before us, that when this country is in a spirit
to invest in American securities, then it is that America is an unusually active customer
for British goods.
“ In the general interchange o f France, we see a steadily increasing trade, and that a
remarkable equality obtains throughout, if the exports be compared with the imports. It
may be stated incidentally, with regard to French commerce, that about one third o f the
amount o f imports, and about one fourth o f the amount o f exports, are transported by
land.
“ W e cannot close this subject without subjoining one more table, for the purpose of
exhibiting from our own customhouse returns, the progress o f that portion o f the exports
to France and to the United States, consisting only o f British and Irish produce and
manufactures, which, by declared value, were as follows, v iz :—




1835
1836
1837
1838
1839

To France.
To the United States.
..............£1,453,636........................£10,568.455
.............. 1,591,381........................ 12,425,605
.............. 1,643,204........................
4,695,225
.............. 2,314,141........................
7,585,760
............. 2,298,307........................
8,839,204

Commercial Statistics.

197

“ A s the exports from Great Britain to the United States extend little or nothing beyond
our own produce and manufactures, it is at first sight not easy to reconcile what we re­
turn as the amount o f our exports to the United States with what the United States gov­
ernment returns as the amount o f their exports from this country. Am ong the causes
which seem to explain the excess o f the United States return, one is, that the freight of
the goods is only earned and added to their value after arrival, and the other, that all the
imports into the United States, south o f New Y ork, will for the last two or three years
have been estimated, we might perhaps add, paid for, in depreciated money.
Still, ex­
plain it as we will, the irregularity o f the United States, as a customer o f this country, is
remarkable. The trade is large, but occasional disorder is one o f the conditions under
which we enjoy it.
HOPS, M A L T , B R E W E R S , E tc., OF E N G L A N D .
The total number o f acres o f land in England and W ales, under the cultivation o f hops,
in the year 1840, amounted to 44,805 ; the duty on hops o f the growth o f 1840, amounted
altogether to £62,253 ; the quantity o f British hops exported from Great Britain to foreign
countries, from the 5th o f January, 1840, to the 5th of January, 1841, was 923,881 lbs.; the
quantity o f foreign hops imported into the United Kingdom, in the year ending January 5,
1841, was 11,966 lbs. It further appears, from the above return, that the total number o f
quarters o f malt made between the 5th o f January, 1840, and the 5th o f January, 1841, in
the United Kingdom, amounted altogether to 5,337,107, out o f which 3,564,411 were used
by brewers and victuallers, and 420,858 by retail brewers; that the number o f persons
licensed to sell beer “ to be drunk on the premises,” in England, between the 5th of Jan­
uary, 1840, and the 5th o f January, 1841, amounted to 36,871; and the number licensed
to sell beer not to be drunk on the premises, to 5,742. The number o f bushels o f malt
consumed by the former was 2,913,978, and the number consumed by the latter 452,890.
The quantity consumed by brewers in the whole o f the United Kingdom, during the same
period, was 19,866,154 bushels, and the quantity consumed by victuallers 8,649,145 bushels.
Q U A N T I T Y OF SO A P M A D E IN G R E A T B R IT A IN , IN 1840.
The total quantity o f hard soap made in Great Britain from January 5, 1840, to Janu­
ary 5, 1841, was 159,220,068 lb s.; and the total quantity o f soft soap made during the
same period was 13,535,856. The quantity o f hard soap exported from January 5,1840,
to January 5, 1841, was 22,004,075 lbs.; and the quantity o f soft soap, 7,008 lbs.; the
amount o f drawback paid thereon being £140,745. The quantity o f hard soap exported
to Ireland was 9,930,108 lbs., and that o f soft soap 187,244 lbs. The total quantity o f
foreign hard soap imported into Great Britain was 642 cwt., and the amount o f duty re­
ceived thereon £1,279 18s. 8d. T he total quantity o f foreign soft soap imported was
87 cwt., and the amount o f duty received thereon £ 2 0 3 2s. 6d.
E X P O R T A T IO N OF COCOA FR O M G U A Y A Q U IL .
The London Journal o f Commerce gives the following statement o f the quantity o f
cocoa exported from Guayaquil for the last eight years— that is, from the year 1833 to
1840, showing a total o f 80,960,965 lbs., and an increase in 1840 o f nearly 8,000,000
lbs. The quantity exported each year is as follows :— 1833, 6,605,786; 1834,10,999,853;
1835, 13,800,851; 1836, 10,918,565; 1837, 8,520,121; 1838, 7,199,057; 1839,
12,159,787 ; 1840,14,266,942 lbs. The countries to which the cocoa was exported were
Spain, England, France, United States, M exico, Central America, N ew Granada, Peru,
Chili, Manilla, Hamburg, Genoa, St. Thomas, R io Janeiro, R io de la Plata. O f the
quantity exported, England receives but a small portion, being no more than 864,177 lbs.
Spain takes the greatest proportion, and M exico follows. The quantity shipped to the
former place for the period stated is 37,477,503 lbs., and to the latter 10,865,561 lbs.




198

Commercial Statistics.

PR ODU CTION OF COFFEE IN T H E W O R LD .
The British Almanac states that “ according to an approximative estimate prepared
by Mr. McQueen, the quantity o f coffee produced in the various countries in which it
forms a commercial export, is as follows :—
Brazils,................................
Cuba and Puerto Rico,....
Java,....................................
Hayti,.......................... .
French tropical colonies,.
Venezuela and Colombia,.
Surinam,.........................
Mocha,...............................
Central A m erica,.............
British W est Indies,.........
British India,......................

Pounds.
134,000,000
49.840.000
80,174,460
43,007,522
14.720.000
11,544,024
2.400.000
5.500.000
897,540
10,769,655
6,245,028
359,398,229

The consumption o f coffee in Great Britain, during the year 1838, was 24,920,820 lbs.,
being more than double the quantity supposed to be produced by the British W est Indies,
PR ODU CTION OF SU G A R IN T H E W O R L D .
The following approximative estimate o f the quantity o f sugar produced in different
parts o f the world, is taken from the British Almanac :—
cwts.
British sugar colonies,............................................. 3,571,378
British India,................................... ......................
519,126
Danish W est Indies,.................................... ............
450.000
Dutch
ditto
...................................... ...........
260,060
French sugar colonies,............................................. 2,160,000
United States,............................................................
900.000
Brazils, (exact quantity o f white not disting’hed) 2,400,000
Spanish W est Indies,............................................... 4,481,340
Java, (without distinction o f quality,)...................
892,475
For internal consumption, exclusive o f China, India, Siam, Java, and United States,.
2,446,337
18,080,658
COM M E R C E OF CUBA, IN 1840.
The official statement o f the commerce o f Cuba, in the year 1840, has been made
public. It appears, from this document, that the exports o f that most productive spot of
earth, amounted, in the year 1840, to almost twenty-six millions-of dollars, being four
millions and a half more than in 1839. The quantity o f sugar exported was six times
as large as the quantity o f beet sugar grown in France during a similar period. The im­
mense wealth o f Cuba, and her great productiveness, in despite o f all the embarrassments
imposed upon her by Spain, render her an interesting object for the contemplation of
political economists. The foreign trade o f that island is equal to one fifth o f the foreign
trade o f the whole United States, including cotton, tobacco, breadstuffs, and all the rest.
Her internal trade is, however, comparatively small, as there is very little variety in the
pursuits o f her people, almost all o f them being engaged in agriculture, and that confined
to two articles, the sugar cane and coffee tree.
The statement exhibits, in detail, the following general results :—
1.— Total Value o f Imports,.
Total Value o f Exports,.
2.— Number o f vessels o f various nations which have entered the twelve ports o f the
island open to foreign commerce :—




Commercial Statistics.

199

Spanish, 95 8; American, (United States,) 1465(6); British, 355 ; French, 59 ; Bel­
gian, 2 4 ; Holland, 2 1 ; Hamburg, 32 ; Bremen, 37 ; Danish, 20 ; Swedish, 3 ; Prussian,
2 ; Russian, 1 ; Sardinian, 9 ;
Granada, 3— Total 3023.

Portuguese, 2 9 ; Mexican, 4 ; Oriental Republic, 1 j

3. Imports— (Articles o f prime necessity.)
Rice, arrobas o f2 5 £ English,....
675,082 Butter,.........arrobas,.....................
12,698
434,412 C heese,.................d o....................
Codfish, do....................................
28,888
Pork, pickled, bbls.....................
3,871 Jerked Beef,........ do.................. 1,229,100
Flour,
do......................
194,023 Salted P ork ,........ do....................
12,931
32,426 Sperm candles, lbs.......................
Hams,.............arrobas,..................
209,205
Lard,.................... d o ....................
168,860
52,171
Tallow do.
arrobas,..............
4. Exports— (Principal articles.)
10,209
Rum, pipes,..................................
Sugar,.........arrobas,....................12,863,856
C offee,....... do.......................... 2,143,573
Beesw ax,... do...........................
26,131

Molasses, .......hogsheads,..........
T obacco, leaf,...arrobas,..........
Do. cigars,... lbs.................

5. Duties— Imports,...................
“
Exports,...................

................................ $5,951,801
................................
1,435,696

146,464
169,671
849,824-

$7,387,497
6. Value o f Imports—
From Spain in Spanish vessels, $5,288,276
“
do. in foreign do.
6,985
“ For. countries in do. do., 6,684,718
915,541
** Spanish America,............
“ The United States,......... 5,654,125
“ Great Britain,.................. 1,437,199
“ France,.............................
618,461
“ Belgium,...........................
61,761
“ Holland,............................
207,309
7. Value o f Exports—
T o Spain in Spanish vessels, $3,473,630
“ For. countries in do. do. 2,044,441
“ Spanish America,..........
37,219
“ The United States,........ 5,660,739
“ Great Britain,................ 6,749,438 (c)
“ France,............................
908,605
“ Belgium ,.........................
239,192
“ Holland,..........................
474,371
“

T h p T T n n s p a tip . t o w n s ...

2

057

From
“
“
“
“
Value

Hanseatic tow n s,............
Denmark,.........................
Turkey,............................
Italy,.................................
Portugal,..........................
o f imports in deposit,.....

$391,231'
47,914
901
20,297
8,294
3,357,172

Grand T otal,........$24,700,189

T o Denmark,........................
$11,686
“ Sweden,..........................
56,233
“ Russia,.............................
856,479 (e)
“ Italy,................................
108,544
“ Portugal,.........................
211,397
Val. o f exports from deposit, 2,987,745

(d')

Grand T otal,........$25,941,783'

(a) Excess o f Exports o f 1840 over those o f 1 839,.................................... $4,459,921
Gold and Silver Coin imported,..............................................................
1,362,226
“
“
“ exported,................................................................
1,053,100
$309,126
Excess o f Imports,..........................................................
The circulation o f the country has increased, in the last eight years, $6,246,788; o f
which $5,366,691 is in gold, the rest in silver.
(i) O f the vessels o f the United States, many are o f the largest class. Many also,
besides the direct voyage in and out, make a coasting voyage in quest o f cargo.
(c) Most o f the large American ships, carrying sugar to Europe, clear for Great Britain,
e. for “ Cowes and a market.”
(d) (e) A great part in American ships.
NOTES TO IM P O S T S AN D

EXPORTS.

1. This valuation is founded on the customhouse valuations, which being fixed, are,
generally speaking, much lower than the selling price, duty off. It makes no account
of smuggling, which, inward and outward, is considerable.
2. It shows the commercial movement to have amounted to $50,641,972; being
$3,844,307 greater than that o f the year 1839.




Commercial Statistics, etc.

200

IM P O R T A T IO N OF G R A IN A N D FLO U R IN T O G R E A T B R IT A IN .
T he following is a statement o f the total number o f quarters o f each kind o f grain(
and cwts. o f flour and meal, imported into all the ports o f Great Britain, in the year
ending the 5th January, 1841, showing the proportion imported and charged with duty
in December, 1840, and the quantity remaining in bond on the 5th January, 1841, and
also the rates o f duty on foreign from the 4th o f February, 1841:—
PROPORTION

Q U A R T E R S OF

Rates o f
Duty.

W heat,...................
Barley,....................
Oats,........................
B eans,....................
P e a s,......................
R ye, & c .................

25s. 8 d.
13s. lOd.
155. 3d.
9s. 6c?.
l l s . 0 d.
19s. 9d.

FROM

Total imported
Remaining
5 t h d e c . t o 5 t h JA N .
from 5th Jan.,
in Bond,
1840, to 5th
Charged
5th Jan.,
Imported.
Jan., 1841.
with duty.
1841.

Total quarte re,....................
Cwts. o f Wheat F lour,.....
Oat, & c . , Meal,..................

1,992,169
629,897
538,286
127,602
160,600
27,783

38,276
5,868
6,550
9,792
40,915
1,627

4,991
4,349
291
9,968
39,920
40

83,729
9,545
9,478
763
1,948
4,930

3,476,337
1,545,100
8,668

103,023
152,753
2,379

59,559
50,579
817

109,391
183,883
1,608

O f the flour imported in December, 1841, 107,279 cwts. were from British possessions,
and o f the quantity remaining on hand 115,402 cwts. are also of British colonial produce.
O f the wheat remaining in bond, 2,152 qrs. only are from British possessions.
W IN E S IM P O R T E D IN T O E N G L A N D .
T he total quantity o f the various sweets, or made wines, imported from Scotland and
Ireland into England, from January 5,183:4, to January 5,1840, was 28,298 gallons; and
the total quantity imported from the same countries into England, from January 5, 1840,
to January 5, 1841, was altogether 26,771 gallons.
SU G A R IM P O R T E D IN T O E N G L A N D .
The quantities o f sugar imported into the United Kingdom in the year 1840 were asfollow, viz :— British plantation sugar, 2,202,833 cw ts .; Mauritius, 545,009 cw ts.; East
India, 482,836 cw ts.; Foreign, 805,167 cwts. Total, 4,035,845 cw ts .; and the quan­
tity retained for actual consumption in the United Kingdom in 1840 was 3,594,834
cwts. T he nett revenue arising from the duties on sugar in the same year amounted to
£4,449,070.

ID”

T h e M e r c h a n t s ’ M a g a z in e a n d C o m m e r c ia l R e v ie w

was established July, 1839.

T he number for June, 1841, closed the second year o f the existence o f this work, and
completed the fourth volume.
advance.

It is published monthly, at

f iv e

D O L L iti^ p e r

annum, in

Six monthly numbers form a volume o f nearly six hundred octavo pages,

with a titlepage and copious index.

The first four volumes, neatly and substantially

bound, can be procured o f the publisher, 142 Fulton street, N ew Y ork, at the subscrip­
tion price, and the cost o f .binding— fifty cents per volume.

A s the repository o f statis­

tical information o f foreign and domestic trade, commerce, manufactures, banking, etc.,
etc., collected and compiled from official sources, and classified in tables, it will be found

%■

peculiarly valuable as a standard work o f reference.