Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1847-07-29

rope. which has taken our breadstufls Ut higl
prices, is S12,77O, 23S; and yet the increase O
importations, specie included, is Sl3, $3.50, Of
more than million beyond the exports; ant
taking all together the imports exceed the ex
ports by two millions of dollars. How then will
the account stand when England raises her owr
bread-when the expectation of food will almost
entirely cease and Its value decline? Let it be
remembered that the value of food has ranged
| 30, 40 and so per cent above the usual prices
during the last seven months, with large exports
of course when both the value and quantity OK.
ported are reduced, tale will be unfolded which
must put free-traders to the blush.
Again: it is to be borne in mind that famine
is nexorable-food must be had, or the people
would perish. The necessity over-rides all Ia
riffs, all restrictions, all the ordinary laws OF
trade. 1t forced England to open her ports, and
devote even the public funds to the buying of
food. Had the Tariff of 1912 been in force,
she would have required just as much Of our
food, and our expectations would have been just
as large and at as good prices: but how would
it have been with imports and the revenue p
All with less foreign goods and more specie,
we would still have just as much and even more
revenue, to be applied TO the immense national
debt which the government has been for two
years rapidly accommodating.
Then as to the SHb-Treasury, which has
drawn millions from the country, to be disbursed
in Mexico at great losses and expense who
LOO Al Ia.z =. Ii. -.
embarrass the currency and the business of
the country very seriously, if there had been no
extraordinary supply. The same extraordinary
famine, which required immense supplies of
bread, also required it to be given at with
out huckstering about the price without wait
ing to barter; and so we have received seven
millions of specie at the port of New-York-a
most opportune relief to the banks, the people
and the governments but no more opportune
than accidental. A year of plenty in Europe
would have left this country in troubles severe
enough to have aroused the people to demand
speedy abandonment of the Free Trade and
Hard Money experiments.
In short, the famine in Europe has been meat
and drink and money to the American people
aye, and medicine TO boot, to palllate the evils
Of the most stupidity bind and laundering polti-
cal quackery. Further to substantiate these re-
Elections we have only to remind the reader that
the recent intelligence of fair crops in England,
and relief in her money market, has at once
been followed by heavy reduction in the pri- |
ces of flour, grain, and various other American
productions. The rise and the fall have been
ruled by the foreign demand, irrespective of the
Tariff of '46; and this fact is demonstration of
the instability of prices and the rage for specu-
lation which will ever attend any free trade sys-
tenn that makes the American farmer dependant
upon foreign market. When the foreign de-
mand shall be reduced to the ordinary standard,
accompanied by ordinary activity among British
farmers and manufacturers, the American people
will but begin to feel the legitimate effects of
the free trade policy of 1876.