Baton-Rouge gazette. [volume] (Baton-Rouge, La.) 1819-1856, 1847-05-08
coMMERGIAL RECIPROCITY.

COMMERCIAL hECfPhOCIl
In some remarks made by us recently,
the gains Of commerce, produced from the
scarcity Of food b Europe, were alleged
to be more apparent than real. The mi-
t4al exchange Of national products IL the
true foundation Of permanent prosperity
The nation or peopleswho exchange their
money for subsistence the present year,
must rodouble their exertions the succeed
ine wear. The aggregate amount Of their
industry will be diminished, OF ifthere Is no
sA~1,sjnution in the quantity Of their prodnc-
sA55ns their money UaItBtt or that 0ftheir la-
Dor, which comes to the same thing, lseor-
~respondingly lessened. Temporary causes
may arrest the operation Of Ais law OF
commerce, but its action viii soon sur
mount the influence Of such circumstances.
No one doubts that the high price OF
grain In Europe Is counteracted IN its
present influence on the English cotton
market by the lessened production OF the
latter article, but with the d%iminution OF
the purchasing power Of the laboring Or
defs, the consumption Of manufactures
must coon be proportionably diminished.
This no one denies. All engaged In COM
merce and agriculture admit the operation
Of this circumstance, but clouds darken tho
future. Each engaged IN raising and sell
ling or buying products for foreign mar
kets endeavors to approximate, in hiscal-
culations, to the period when the demand
and supply Of breadstufTs and the raw ma.
terial ofthe cotton manufacture, Will be 80
adjusted as to bring prices 70 their former
level.
I'm this condition Of markets, the ordina.
ry guides have left us to grope our way IN
conjecture. The most narrow mercantile
experience ID as reliable as the most COM
prehensiye. The page ia blank that we
would consult as n record OF rules 10 In
struct us In the result Of a failure, perhaps
for two successive years, of the food for the
people Of populous portions Of Europe, COM
~plicated with other effects, such as govern.
ment loans, reductions IN tariffs of duties,
etc. The merchant cannot look beyond o
short period for these circumstances Of
probable change which guide bis opera.
tons. His yl-iou Is necessarily bounded.
lie is governed by markets which are con-
atantly ~fluctuatiug. A few weeks terniil-
ates bis purchases and sales. He is in.
n%uenced more by the present than the fn-
ture. Not 50 the ag~ficnlturist. The
planter or farmer who puts his crop in the
ground must embrace a wider range
Of cobjectnral calculations. He looks
less 10 the present than to the future, for
the efforts of his industry require time for
their development.
May moi these hints be Of some practf.
cal value 70 The planter, who, looking mer-
ely to the present prices of cotton, may be
inattentige to those other circumstances
which may and must, sooner or later, limit
the demand for their material, such az the
continued scarcity Of food IN Europe, and
the necessity Of purchasing it inthe United
States by other equivalents than the ordi-
nary products of European industry I The
safer process Of planting with 4 view to
profit, Is, under present circumstances, so
to compute the relative prices Of bread.
stuffs and the raw material Of cotton cloth
ing, as to place the latter, ifnot the former,
ofthese staples Of agriculture, below, ratEi.
er than above the present prices.
Charleston Euening Mercury.