The southern press., 1850-11-04
THE SOUTHERN PRESS.


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Reply OF EIlwood Fisher to the Review
ofhis Lecture ON the North and the South
by "Justice.. no -'aa lanaaa' .a
ooNTisuED. -..
To the Editors Of the Louiseiiie Journal .
II is difficult to estimate the profit or loss on
manufactures relatively to commerce In some
respects the former is exposed TO peculiar evils
\ large portion of the capital invested is fixed,
and in case the fabrics exceed the demand either
through excessive production, rcvulsions oftrade,
"r changes of fashion, the fixed capital in build
ing and machinery cannot be reduced accord
ingIy. In ease of the invention Of better ma
chinery, the value of the greater part Of the old
is destroyed, as the introduction Of coal and
steam transferred the manufactures of England
from her water courses to her coal fields In
other respects, manufactures present the same
delusve attractions to the distempcred Judgment
of men is commerce. In 1888, there were S43
bankruptcies in England and Wales; OF these,
30 were manufacturers and nearly 400 ner-
chants and dealers. The number Of persons en-
gaged in commerce and manufactures is not
widely different, but the number of capitalists in
the latter is perhaps not half the former, although
the amount invested is perhaps equal; for a fac
tory generally requires more capital and more
labor than mercantile house. In that year the
number of bankruptcies in city cmployments
was SI3, and Of farmers there were only three,
and there was much more capital and capitalists
in agriculture than in all other pursuits.-Jour.
nal @ The Statistical Society Of London, rol. 2, p
1877 ...
According to the " Massachusetts State Re
cord" for lS4S, an elaborate statistical work b,
Nahum Capen," the failures in that State from
August, 1916, to October, l847, which he says was
period OF prosperity, amounted to 1885! 0l
which, Boston, with one-seventh of the popula-
ton furnished 4l3, or nearly one-th third; and
Lowell with little more than three per cent. of
the population, supplied five per cent ; of the
whole number, only serenty.fre 1cere farmers
all the rest Of fcityemployments. The agricultural
population of Massachusetts is about 40 per cent
of the whole, yet its failures are not six per cent
There arc more than ten times as many failures
in the city us in the country vocations, in pro-
portion to population, and it is probable that the
amount lost in the latter, an each case, is not
more than one-tenth of the former
In Boston, the number Of failures is 4l3 Tn
her census for lS45, we have detailed catalogue
of the employmcnts Of all her people The
number of males employed is 24.S87. have de-
Quoted from these the aborcrs seamen, servants,
and others, who do not employ capital in their
therefore subject to these failures, is at the
highest not over $500 persons. Now, in the
list of failures, we are expressly told that firms
are counted rs individuals Making an allow
ancc for this, and the number of persons would
be at least 500. The time in which these fail
ureS occurred is IL months. Deduct one-seventh
to reduce it to year, and we have Il failure of
A29 persons per annum in Boston among the
merchants, manufacturers, principal mechanics,
&c, out OF 5000, or Orer sic per cent At this
rate the failures in less than l. years, would en-
coed the whole existing number. Those who
lave thus iailed have sunk not only all the capi-
tai they had, but also all the amount of their un-
paid debts. Then there is the far greater num-
Der who, without having lost enough to fail,
l"vc lost enough to sink Il portion of their capi-
tai, and of these We have no account How
then can commerce or manufactures be profta-
lie III Boston, when in year of acknowledged
prosperity more than six per cent of those so en-
syaged actually failed; when by so doing they
must have inflicted heavy loss on the survivors
when it is obvious that many of the latter, from
the same causes that produced the failures, must
have lost heavily themselves How can we infer
that those who did make profit, made enough to
equal all these losses, and to leave anything for
profit on the whole aggregate Investment in
those pursuits? How can this be inferred in de-
tiauce Of the fact now demonstrated, that com
quantities where these pursuits prevail, have not
Kept pace in the accumulation of wealth with
such as are chiefly agricultural! j! How can it be
relieved when il has been shown that, although
The wealth of Boston is on m average high per
cap7i0, yet that it has not been made there, be-
cause not One-tenM of her adult population lcas
horn there, the other more than nine-tenths going
there from the interior of Massachusetts, rfrom
other States, and taking the wealth they had ac
quired or inherited into that great arena Of in
tense competition, hazardous speculation, eX.
travagant expenditure, heavy taxation, losses by
tire, ruiuous failures, wasting disease and ap-
paling mortality. In Philad, lphia, Capen says
that per cent. only of the best class merchants
survive without failure 25 or 80 years, and in
New lOrk 2 per cent. retire Independent, after
the usual ordeal of failure The Southern Quar-
,ery remarks, that, where one fortune is made |
hy cultivating the earth, thousand are made by |
commerce and manufactures. have it on the |
highest authority, that, in Fayette county, Ken
rurky, there are 100 to $50 men worth each
over 100000 Can Boston, can London, do
better than this in proportion to their respective
population? And yet Fayette county is proba-
bly, surpassed by considerable part of the Mis-
sssippi delta. admit and rejoice that few such |
ortunes are made in the South rs the Rothchids'
the Barngs', the Astors', or the Girards'. The
Quarterly also remarks that, among the nations,
the most wealthy are the most commercial and
the largest manufacturers, and refers to Poland,
Russia, Egypt, and India as instances of agri-
cultural poverty. India and Egypt, however,
were certainly among the wealthiest of nations
and Poland and Russia have a climate which is
rendered habitable for civilization only at an cx-
pcnse which rcpels commerce and manufactures
even more than agriculture. 1t is true that com
mercial States make a great display of their
wealth, and that nations when they arrive at that
period OF their grandeur which pr,ccdes decay,
from their very inclination to luxury become
more commercial and manufacturing, and present
y splendid and variegated aspect to the eye, but
it is like the succession of brilliant hues in dy-
ing Dolphin--like the diversified foliage Of au-
'wnnal woods, when the sap has departed and
hcsolaton draws near, compared with the uni
lorn, enduring, agricultural, Evergreen system of
the South
But it is asked why, if the commercial arc less