The Sun.
London, England, 1867-10-31 00:00:00

VENING, uCTOBER 31,, 1867. 1867.

COTTO N.

ITS HISTORY AND. PROSPECTS.
(From the lund Table.)

Tke world is by .no trieaus dependent upon the
tfnited States for its SUpply of cotton. This was
thundantly proved !luring the late war, as wl will
pr,:sently show ; whi.,.... ve.th regard to the popular
belief that India cann of ecompete with us in pality.
it is nevertheless the f. tet 1 hat the culture is improv-
ing. The writer saw. in Liverpol in June last
Surat cottons which were of excellent staple, well
ginned, and free fro° 1 leaf or dirt, and which
sold at a price only Id. to 4d. per pound
below our middling uplands. Cotton is not
king ; that dignity lbelongs to corn ; and it is
probable that had the leaders of public opi-
nion in the South -before the war but guessed
how greatly the growth of cotton would be stimu-
lated in other countries as a consequence of our
fratricidal quarrel they would have hesitated before
firing upon Fort Sumter. The report of the British
Commissioners of Customs for 1866 states that out
of 11,000,000 cwts. of cotton (112 lbs.) imported
li into England in 18,61 more than 7,000,000 cwts.
came from the United States. In 1866 the figures
were almost precisely reversed, this country yielding
to Erngland in-that year but about 4,500,000 cwts.,
and other countries more than 7,000,000 cwts.
It must be conceded, however, that the capa-
bilities of this country for cotton-growing are
of a prodigious, character, and_ the Qpinie

has been put upon record by sagacious judges
that in less than ten years our cotton pro-
duct will be doubled. It is, however, in
our opinion, premature to accept such a conclusion.
It will probably be many years before free labour
can be made as productive in the cultivation of cot-
ton as was the slave system, to say nothing of the
fact that about one-third of the labour which existed
before the war is estimated to be lost to the South ;
in addition to other causes, the women being kept
from the fields and the children at school must
largely decrease the available labour. On the other
hand, it is very difficult as yet to estimate what
effect upon the growth of cotton may result
from the emancipation of so, large a class as that of
the poor whites of the South from the contempt in
which they were formerly held. In 1860, out of a
population of twelve millions in the Southern States,
eight a bite and four black, there were less than
four hundred thousand who were slaveholders, and
of this number no fewer than seventy-six thousand
owned but one slave each. It is not probable that
the residue of the adult male white population raised
much cotton, and it is but reasonable to suppose
that the labour of this class in cotton culture will
hereafter be sensibly felt, although we know
that the Southern gentlemen assert that the
white man cannot work in a cotton-field and live.
They say that, in order to make cotton, the most
conscientious labour is required in almost every
month in the year. After the plant is above the
ground the labourer, black or white, must be in the
field before sunrise, wet to the waist, with his
clothes permitted to dry upon him as they may, and
his labour is not ended until nightfall. It is urged that
white men cannot work thus. The experience of
the next few years will doubtless decide the matter ;
in the meantime, coolie labour is hoped for. As the
matter stands at present, with a tax which is
almost prohibitory, and which any man of business
can at once see comes out of the producer and
not the consumer, the planter hesitates between
cotton and corn. A writer in the New
Orleans Weekly Crescent recently states that
General Pillow will this year make 200,000 bushels
of corn, which it may very reasonably be supposed
will pay him a better profit than an ordinary crop
of cotton. The corn crop will this year be very
large in the South as well as in the West. For
some time past Southerners have imported their
corn at high prices, but this is ended now, at any
rate until 1869. Negroes prefer corn to cotton
growing, and, while they are earning wages which
but few field labourers in the world get save them-
selves, whether white, black, copper coloured, or
otherwise, they should be taught to economise ; for
it is certain that the negro will have to lower his
pretensions, in a marked degree, when Liverpool re-
fuses to give us more than 6d. for our cotton. He
now gets fifteen dollars a month, with shelter and
food, besides perquisites. An English agricultural
field labourer has to be content with about the same
pay, out of which he must clothe, feed, and house
his family, with the additional disadvantage, as
compared with the negro, that he dreads that which
the latter never fears, i. e., starvation. • We are
aware that the bulk of the testimony which was
taken before the United States Commission in
respect to cotton as a source of internal revenue
is against the position which we assume concern-
ing the tax ; but the evidence came almost ex-
clusively from New England spinners, who
favoured a large tax, coupled with a drawback
upon the manufactured article when exported.
As the law now stands—that is, since the first
instant-2i cents per pound are levied upon the
planter, who cannot remove his cotton from the
district where it is grown until the tax is paid ; and
the same amount of drawback is allowed upon the
weight of the manufactured goods when exported ;
but it is our belief that were the tax upon the raw
material 10 cents instead of 2i, it would merely
serve to stimulate its production in other countries,
as Great Britain will buy the bulk of her cotton
in the cheapest markets irrespective of the cost
of raising it. Manchester establishes the price
of the article for the world, and Englishmen
are the most extensive dealers in cotton for
other purposes than the mere supply of their
own spinning wants, as may be conclusively shown
by reference to the statistics of the cotton exports
from Great Britain during the past year, 1866,
which were as follows, viz. :

American ... 208,015 bales.
Brazilian
... 111,685 „
Egyptian, ecc.... 31,337 „
East India and China... ... 782,528 „

Total ...

... 1,136,565 bales.

Equal to 323,752,917 pounds.

At the present moment her supply is so great
in port and afloat, namely, on 30th ultimo amount-
ing to 793,560 bales in the ports and 470,000
bales (almost all East India cotton) afloat, the
price of middling upland American has fallen
to 91 pence in Liverpool and in New York
to 25 cents currency. The latter price would yield
to the planter in Georgia not more than 18 cents per
pound, after the tax and all charges are paid; and
as it is probable that with the present prospect of
this year's crop prices will by the ensuing spring
decline so much that planters will not realise more
than 15 cents, the tax would, in such an event, be
equivalent to more than 16 per cent. upon his capi-
tal and labour, which we submit is unreasonable
and unjust, and wo claim that he alone pays this
tax, for the reason that he would get just as much
for his cotton were there no internal revenue tax
upon it as he now gets with the oppressive impost
which he has to pay.

With regard to this year's crop, notwithstanding
unfavourable reports from various sections of the
South, it is thought that, with a favourable season
from this time until frost, the production of 1867
will not be far from 2,500,000 bales, costing to raise
about fifteen cents per pound currency. If Eng-
land will pay us a profit upon double that quantity,
it will unquestionably be grown. At present
India cottons cost to sell in Liverpool about
twelve cents per pound in gold, and American
uplands are selling there at about nineteen cents in
gold ; but the probabilities of a heavy decline
in England before spring are great, as India
is sending forward very largo supplies, no less of
late than 200,000 bales per month. Should prices
recede much in Liverpool, our own markets must
fall to a price which will leave the planter very little,
if any, profit, as our consumption of this year's