The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1842-01-11 00:00:00

THE FOREIGN CORN TRADE

The gentlemen commissioned to make inquiries into the
prices of corn and other articles of consumption in foreign
countries are now employed in the fulfilment of the duty im-
posed on them. We shall doubtless soon be made acquainted
with some of the details of their labours by the German pa-
pers and our private correspondence, but as yet nothing au-
thentic or of much importance has appeared. We are, how-
ever, enabled to extract from one of the most respectable of
the German papers, a letter from the Dantsic, which we sub-
join. It is brief, but we think it deserves particular atten-
tion, on count orthe explanation it gives of the state of
things in that part of the world. Dantsic is a great place of
trade and export, but it is not alleged that there is any pecu-
liarity in the locality to cause dearness. The observations
appear to apply to the country generally, and to leave no
doubt of the error of adopting hastily the opinion that labour
is better rewarded in Germany than in England :
" DANTSIC, DEC. 11.—An official gentleman from Lon-
don, commis,soned by the English government, has been here
for some days past. His object is to obtain accurate infor-
mation relative to our corn and timber trades, and the taxes
imposed on our working classes. The fact which has most
astonished the individual in question, and which must be
equally surprising to every one, is, that owing to the settled
duties on flour and butcher's meat, bread is as dear here as
in England, and butcher's meat alone is a little cheaper.
Moreover, the mechanics in our towns are nearly as heavily
taxed in all respects as the English working manufacturers,
consequently the distress so generally prevalent in England
can only be accounted for by the fact that the proportion of
the population there employed in manufacturing labour is
far greater than in other countries, so that whenever any
particular branch of manufacturing industry sustains a
check, vast numbers of workmen are immediately thrown out
of work, whereas here journeymen mechanics can usually
find work arid wages of some sort or other. Another advan-
tage enjoyed by our work men is, that their wants are fewer
than those of the English. If the duty on ship-building
timber were to fall lOs. or 20s. per load, our freighters would
have a hard struggle to maintain, and would run the risk of
being ruined. (Probably because the English would build
stronger and cheaper ships for freightage.) Then, on the
other hand the English would have Iron so much cheaper,
that it would nearly cover the difference in the price of wood,
which with us would be rising considerably. With regard
to ship-building, it must be borne in mind that the English
are abler, more expeditious, and in some respects more econo-
mical workmen, than we are, and that they are employed all
the year through ; whilst with us, as we lay up our ships in
winter, the year is always too short. We therefore, at least
the inhabitants of the shores of the Baltic, cannot but hope
that the Canadian interest will preponderate so far as to pre-
vent any change in the timber duty."