The Middlebury galaxy. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1848-1850, 1850-01-08
1Dolitits.
Secretary Meredith's Report.

Secretary Meredith's Report.
We have only room for the following
extracts from the able and extended re-
port of the Secretary of the Treasury
embracing the substance Of his views
of the Tariff and the Sub Treasury:
Commerce is the machinery of ex-
change. 1t is the handmaid Of Agri-
culture and Manufactures. 1t will not
be affirmed that it is ever positively inlu-
rious-but it will be more or less useful
as it cooperates more or less with the
productive industry oflhe country. The
mere carriage of commodities by sea or
land is necessarily profitable only to the
carrier who is paid for it. 1t may be
useful or not to others, according TO cir
cumstances. The farmer finds a rail-
road a great convenience, but he under
stands that 1t is better employed in car
rying his crop, than III carrying away
his seed wheat and manure.
The commerce which should consist
in carrying cotton seed abroad, Ia be
there grown, would not be so useful as
that which is now occupied in exporting
the raw cotton grown al home. We
should easily understand, also, that The
commerce thus employed would be much
more limited in amount, and much less
profitable to the carriers than what we
now have. Yet our present commerce
is, in fact, of the same nature with that
above described. The seed bears to the
cotton The same relation which the cot
ton bears to the cloth. II we now ex>
port cotton of the value of about sixty
SIX millions, the same cotton, when con-
verted into cloth, would make an export
of some two hundred and sixty>iour mil
lions, or some two hundred aud forty
five millions after deduciing the fifteen
or twenty millions which would be re-
qu:red for our own consumption, in ad-
dition TO the portion of our present man
ufactures consumed at home,) and our
imports would be in like manner increas-
ed. England, at this moment, derives
a large portion of her power from spin
Mug and weaving our Cotton. When
we shall spin and weave il ourselves,
make our own iron, and manufacture
our other staples. we shall have transferr-
ed to this country the great centres o
wealth, commerce, civilization, and po.
, litical, as well as moral and intellectual
power.
At present, we are far from having
the amount of foreign commerce which
is due to our position, as vastly pro-
ductive country, with an extensive coas,
good harbors, great internal water cour-
ses, and people unsurpassed in mari
time skill and enterprise.
Our annual products were estimated
by my predecessor in this Department a
three thousand million dollars, while
our average exports are about one hand
red and thirteen millions, aud our i'm
ports about one hundred and six mil
lions, making together two hundred anc
nineteen millions, exclusive of gold an'
silver and of foreign commodities i'm
ported and reexporied. An eminen
British authority estimates the annua
, creation of wealth in Great Britain ant
Ireland, at between two thousand ON
hundred, and two Thousand two hundre'
! millions. five add, for articles omIt,e'
: by him, between three and four hundre'
, millions. we shall have total Of tw
| thousand FIVE hundred millions. Th
| British exports and imports amount an
e nually to about five hundred and tweni
millions exclusive of gold and silver an
of foreign commodities imported an
reexported If their foreign trade wer
brought down 10 our scale upon this es
. innate it would be reduced to about on
hundred and eighty-three millions.
v ours were raised to their scale, 1t wonl
n reach about six hundred and twenty-lor
y millions.
Estimating the population Of Gre'
Britain aud Ireland at thirty million
h and our population at twenty-one mi
{ lions.' their fnreign trade averages 81