The Sun.
London, England, 1870-01-19 00:00:00

OUR NATIONAL WEALTH.

Ile then shows that in the five years following the war
we received a million and a half of immigrants, and that
our population is increasing at the rate of 1,100,000 a year ;
that 5,000 miles of railway have been built in the country
this year, and 13,000 since 1864 ; that our telegraphic sys-
tem has extended in 1869 by 7,000 miles of wire, and that
the crops have been good. lie estimates the cotton at
2,700,000 bales, worth $303,000,000; the corn crop is worth
$450,000,000,the wheat $373,000,000, the hay $`250,000,000;
the meat $400,000,000, the dairy products $400,000,000 ;
and the total agricultural production of 1869,53,283,000,000.
The railway service he calls $360,000,000 ; the product of
the fisheries $100,000,000: the leather manufactures
$222,600,000: and the cotton and woollen manufactures
$137,500,000; the iron production $119,950,000; and the
total annual product of the country he sets down as
$6,825,000,000. for 1869. Our present valuation in cur-
rency he reckons as $23,400,000,000; and increase since
1860 of nearly 66 per cent. The annual increase of
active capital, from excess of production over expendi-
ture he sets as low, however, as $516,000,000, and adds
—" if this estimate of the annual surplus of national

productions over national consumption, available as active
capital for reproduction, should appear too small and dis-
proportionate, it should be borno in mind that while the
aggregate of the.natiunal product is proved by incontro-
vertiVe statistics to ba very great, there is also no other
fact better proved by comparison and observation than
that the per capita consumption cf the people of the United
States is larger than that of the people of any other
civilized nation. The habits of economy and frugality
which necessity has forced upon the masses of the people
in other countries, are, in general, neither known nor
practised in the United States; and all foreigners whe
visit the United States for the purpose of studying its
social economy are particularly impressed with what,
judging from their home stand-point of view, seems an
enormous waste both in domestic living and domestic
manufacturing."
HINDRANCES TO NATIONAL DETELOPMENT.

Notwithstanding these largo figures, Mr. Wells believes
that the present accumulation of capital is at a much

slower rate than it ought to be; and he proceeds to con-
sider what the existing hindrances are. The first men-
tioned is the unfavourable condition of our foreign trade,

in consequence of our excessive imports, and the fact that
more than two-thirds of our trade is now carried on in
foreign vessels. The adverse balance of trade, after de-
ducting the excess of specie exports for the last financial
year, he calls $78,666,738; and to this adds $80,000,000
for interest paid abroad, $24,000,000 for excess of freights
carried in foreign vessels, and $25,000,000 for expendi-
tures of Americans in foreigr countries; making a total
adverse balance of annual indebtedness of nearly
$210,000,000, which we aro settling at present by sending
our bonds to Europe. Mr. Wells estimates the amount of
Government Securities now held abroad as $1,000,000,000 ;
State securities, $100,000,000 ; railway bonds and shares,
$243,000,000 ; other forms of foreign indebtedness,
$122,000,000 ; making a total of £1,465,500,000, which, as
a people, we now owe to foreigners; which has mainly
accumulated within six years, and on which we pay, as
above stated, about eighty millions of interest annually.
This pregnant fact is afterwards used in the discussion of
how we may best contract our redundant currency.

Other hindrances are the withdrawal of many persons
from productive industry, the discontent and demoraliza-
tion of labour in many places and pursuits, the unequal
distribution of the annual products of labour and capital,
and the great increase, since the war began, of the amount
of capital necessary for the prosecution and development
of industry. All these matters are copiously treated, and
the latter is illustrated by an incident which shows foreiby
enough why the cost and requirements of capital are so
much increased. "In a block of stores now erecting in
one of the leading seaboard cities the expense of the glass
(imported) used in the same is $29,000 (currency). An
analysis of this expenditure shows that one-fourth of it,
$7,250, represents simply depreciation of the currency ;
one-third of the remaining cost, or $7,250, represents the
duties imposed on its import; leaving $14,500 as the fo-
reign cost of the material, plus the expenses of transpor-
tation, profits, &c. Now, without discussing the propriety
of levying a tax upon this article to meet the necessities
of the Government, it unquestionably remains true that
the whole of this increase of price, amounting to one hun-
dred per cent., will remain, so long as these stores stand, a
tax on all the industry to which they are made subser-
vient, and also indirectly upon other industries, by dimi-
nishing the general supply of capital available in the
country, and hence increasing its cost." In summing up
this part of his argument, Mr. Wells declares that in many
respects the United States does not use the advantages it
possesses in the best possible manner, and that if we
annually increase in national wealth, it is rather by reason
of our great natural resources, than from the intelligent
direction, through legislation, of our national economy.