Semi-weekly Camden journal. [volume] (Camden, South-Carolina) 1851-1852, 1851-03-25
The Cotton Trc de.

The decline in cotton, from the highest PQln
cf the market this season, has been three and s
half cents per pound, assuming that nlddlins
has been sold at thirteen and a half cents, which
is the fact and is only worth ten cents to-day
With crop, which will surely not exceed :,
25O,OO0 bales, if it reach that, which is very
doubtful in the minds of some of the most APT
and rejecting, where is the cause to be founl
No one pretends to contend that 2'250,OoC
bales added to that which maybe on hand from
the yield of last year, as an over-product, a'd
will supply the wholesome aad increasing con.
sumption all over Europe and the United
States. We have no idea but that several hun
dred thousand bales more could be consumed
and at remunerating prices to the planter, if his
necessities, through his merchant, did not com
pei him TO sell it at given time, for the most
it will bring, to satisfy the acceptances of his
factor for toften) imaginary wants. 1t is sheer
folly to imagine, for an instant, that cotton in
this country or England, will ever realize to the
planter its intrinsic value, SO long MS he is fore
ed, under any circumstances, to sell it within
the compass of certain hour.
Between the spectators in England, and
their numerous agents in this country, the price
of our cotton crop is controlled; and prices Of.
ten, if not sinvariably, fixed, without any refer.
crop. They closely watch the fiscal condition
oil the country, or that portion of it which Is
likely to enter into commercial pursuits, and
are free or reluctant buyers, as the case r,ay
be- When they are unable to buy here the
planter or his agent for him, preferring to ship
they value the cotton at the lowest possible
price, and advance two.thirds or three-quarters
Of the invoice. When it reaches England, or
wherever in Europe it may lie shipped, it is
sold as soon as it will bring the advance and
expenses, and the low figure Mt which it is dis
posed or forms prominent port of their print
ed prices current, which constitute the staple
of our English commercial news. So it will
be seen at glance that we are SO completely
in their power, both at home and abroad, rs to
have no alternative but to suffer i'll the one or
the other position.
What will correct the evil is the next ques.
ton which naturally recurs; and we shall en-
deavor, in few words, to explain what seems
to us the antidote. 10 the first place, our plant
ers must not increase their lands and negroes
faster than the value of their products, over and
above their economical expenses, v ill warrant;
in which case they will always be able to hold
on to their crops until they bring their intria-
sic value. They will then have no imaginary
wants but what they can personally afford to
cherish. Their merchants or factors, in like
manner, having no obligations but such as may
arise out Of the ordinary pursuits of business,
will have less urgent requistions for money;
aud thence competition wonld spring up be-
tween banks and individual capitalists, which
would make it of comparatively easy acqusi.
ton at a fair rate Of interest. In other words,
the planter must place himself in such situa.
ton as to be able to hold his crop ut home, in
the hands of his factor, until he can find II pur.
chaser for it willing to pay its value. Such
buyers would be as numerous as now, though
in shape different from those with whom they
are now compelled to deal They would be
stable buyers, and notspeculators on news from
abroad, often manufactured expressly for their
especial benefit, and that of their Atlantic
employers. He cannet possibly anticipate the
price of his cotton while growing, by drafts Oh
his merchant, shaved at onerous discounts,
without serious, if not ruinous, detriment to all
concerned but the buyer-detrimen to his mer.
chant in having his name afoat in the market
for large amounts of money, and det,iment to
his own interest in being forced to have no
election in the time Of the sale or price Of his
property. Ifthe planter prefer to ship to sell
ing Mt home, let him do SO from choice and not
necessity--that is, let him do so without the
eompulson Of drawing against it, when he can
either limit its price to such fgares as, in his
better Judgment, it should bring-tahing into
consideration the product, the consumption, and
the Political state of the world, or he can in
struct his agent not to sell until such time as,
in his opinion, the market is at its height
Then and not before, he will be able to form
some estimate of what his agricultural labor
will yield, and be prepared TO burst asunder the
chains that that bind him to the golden ear of
foreign speculation, without the privilege of
halting until himself and merchants are often
landed in the midst of bankruptcy.
NeU Orleans Crescent.
REUNION WITH Tue NoRrH.-A suggestion
has been recently made by the New York Ex-
press, an influential secular paper, that an ef.
fort should be made in this time of political
Al. Al