The republic. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1849-1853, 1850-04-27

system OF "loW dutleS, which SubStl-
tutes foreign iron, and coal, and cloth, for
that produced at home; and that they may
judge for themselves the object of our
neishbors in giving their readers the i'm
port into England instead of the export
from the United States, we now furnish
them the following statement of the actual
export of breadstufs from New York to Eu-
rope in the six months ending on the 30th
ultimo
Domestic. Foreign.
Wheat, bushels ........... S2,364 1885, 54
Flour, barrels. ........,.. 76,06S 96,393
Corn, bushels. Il 1854 1855
Corn meal barrels. ...... 355
We see, thus, that of the -four imported
into England from this country, in these
six months, almost sixty per cent. was
Canadian, that passed through New York
because of the depression of freights;
while the total value OF the export of oar
oacn breadstuffs, for the half year, was but
about million of dollars With another
year of similar augmentation, the export
will have ceased; and such is likely to be
the case until the further closing of mines
and furnaces, and the further cessation of
the building of mills, under the "benign"
influence of the tariff of 1916, shall have
so far diminished the home demand as to
reduce the prices so low as will enable
the farmer of the West successfully 10
"compete" with the people of northern
Europe, who have no pursuit but agricul-
ture, and must sell at any price however
low.
Our neighbors inform their agricultural
readers that prices in western Europe have
been lower than the average of the past
twenty years, and would have them be-
lieve that something better is in store for
them; that, small as is the export now, it
must ego on augmenting," because prices
must rise; but if those readers Judge of
the future from the past, they will put little
faith in their promises. 1t was by pre-
cisely such promises that the farmers of
England were deluded to their ruin. The
editor of the Economist, some years pre-
vious to the passage of the corn laws,
gave statement of the average of the
previous seven years-about fifty-two shil-
lings-and assured them that, if they
would only establish free trade and admit
foreign grain, they would obtain higher
prices, and land would acquire higher
value than ever before; and similar prom
ises were held out by Golden and others
of the free-trade school. Sir Robert Peel
thought that 54s. would be the lowest
price. Later, he limited his promises to
44s. What are the facts' In March,
while the Baltic was still closed by ice,
the price of wheat in the principal mar
kets of England varied from 32s. to 36s.
per quarter of $50 lbs, or from 81 to 80
cents per bushel, while extra fine qualities
commanded about ten per cent. more, be-
ing from 36s. to- 40s.
The markets of the Baltic were filled
with grain ready for England when the nav
igation should open. AT Hamburg, wheat
weighing sixty pounds was delivered free
on board at 33s., and the freight was Is,
making the cost in London GAS. At
Odessa, it had been offered to be sup
piled at 24s., and freights had been con-
tracted for at 6s., making the cost in Eng
land but 30s., or less than eighty cents
bushel; and yet but few years since the
free-trade advocates were promising their
agricultural readers that they should have
higher prices than they had even then, if
they would but give up protection, and
enable the wheat of Russia to come in
duty free. Their prosperity was to ego
on augmenting;" as was our export Of
s'breadstuffs and provisions;" and the
promises of the free trade advocates on
both sides of the Atlantic have proved
equally delusive, showing that the men
who made them we're on both sides equal
ly ignorant of the subject, or equally dis
posed to play upon the ignorance of those
to whom they addressed themselves.
Such being the present, what are the
prospects for the futurel In answer, we
have to say, that while much is dependent
upon the character of the seasons, the ten
dency Of prices on the average of seasons
must be downward. The highest author
tiles inform us that Russia raises annually
forty millions Of quarters, for which she
needs foreign market, and that in past
years, having no such market, vast guam
titles have been wasted or destroyed
That market she now has, and she is daily
extending her lines of railroad to enable
her products cheaply to reach the Black
/ Sea or the Baltic on its NAV IN England