New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1852-10-02

Euelrd; and yet so rapidly has the domestic
manufacture increased, that the export has
amost ceased, and she is nos large importer u
other woods to mix with her own. Formsdy,
most OF her wool and her food had to pass through
the ships and mills Of England. because there Wa
no power to choose between the near market and
the distant one, and the price OF the whole cros
was fixed by that which could be obtained Tor ths
quantity sent to the market Of Leeds, rinss DE
cost Of transportation. Now che imports foreign
wools, and the price at home Of tie rhese crop "a
determined by tae cost Of obtaining the small
qusnaty needed from abroad; and she nos k0s r.
rect trade ssitk all the cord, because she con-
bines her food and her wool in the form Of cloth,
in sceor5ance with the views Of Adam Smith, tAs
father ofrea free trade, and the opponent Of what
is now known a. Manchester free trade.
The nation that desires free trade mxsf place
itself in position to finish it's commodities % u
to ht them for consumption. It can then have q
thousand outlets, whereas, when il docs not .
fnish them, it must trade through the medium Of
the owners Of the mills and steam engines. Hsl
you no grist. mills in the West, you would Be CON-
PEELED to make all yeur exchanges with consumsrs
at home and abroad through the mills Of the East.
ireland and India, Portugal and Turkey have lit
tie or no machinery, and they are forced to per.
form all their exchanges through England; and
such was the case with ourselves until pretectioa
was adopted in 1923. At that time il would havs
bsen deemed the hight Of absurdity to suppose
that We could ever supply other people thaa our
selves with cotton and food compressed into the
form Of cotton cloth; and yet we arc now largo
exporters Of cottons, and our exports Of manu.
featured goods have risen to level with our ex-
ports Of vegetable food Of all descriptions b n
pats Of the world We see, thus, that protso-
ton has produced with us the same effect that it
has produced in Germany-thst is, il has reduced
the price Of manufactured goods 20 far a. b Ga
BILE US to send them into foreign markets. Sevea-
teen years since, Germany sold her wool and
bought cloth, and the producers Of tho 6rst Oh
tanned low prices for the one, and gave high prices
for the other. Now she buys wool and sells cloth.
and her domestic producers OF wool obtain high
prices for the one, while they obtain the other 1t
low ones. Seventeen years since, tho people o(
Germany obtained their hardware from Birming-
ham, for which thsy paid, Of course British prices
Plus the cost Of importation: now they mauufao-
ture hardware. and they themselves are % cheap
y supplied, that they are enabled to sell II even n
Birmingham. Protection has, therefore, produced
competition for the purchase Of he rae prodaots
of the earth, and for the sale Of manufactures
ones, thus raising the prices OF the one. and low
ering those Of the other; and 1t has done this n
France, Belgium, Germany, and Russia, precisely
as it did in this country under the tanf Of 1872:
and therefore it has been, and now is, that the
protected countries Of the world increase in
strength. British free trade tends TO destroy
competition for the purchss Of raw produce, and
to lower its prices, and equally to destroy compe-
ttion for the sale of manufactured articles, rais
ing their prices as we now SEQ to be the case with
iron as our furnaces are being closed and. there
FORE it is that we see that all the free trade coun-
tries of the world diminish daily in strength and
the power Of selEprotsction.
To determine what we should do ourselves, IL
may not be amiss to look around and see what Il
is that we should desire others to do. Russia
now makes market at home for vast quantities
of food consumed by the people engaged in vast
variety of pursuits that are protected against
British competition. Were shs to sholiah pro
lection, her factories would DO closed, and there
would be more food to 60 to England, and tho
price Of food would fall, ard you would suffer.
You therefore would wish Russia to continue
protection. Were Germany to abolish protcc-
ton, she would have more food and wool TO soa.
and prices would fall, to your disadvantage. IL
then, il 10 desirable to you that Russia and Ger
many should continue protection, is il not at sast
probable that you would be benefited by tho adop-
ton Of system that would altogether relieve
you from the necessity for contsnding with the
Russian or Polish serf for the constantly dinin-
isbing market Of England Having answered to
yourself that question, I would then beg you 70
remark that the whole tendency OF the Manches-
ter 81 stem is that Of compelling you and I'll
brother agriculturists Of the world. to compete
nth each other for the supplying ofMe one market
that is left opon to you. You need competitisa
for the purchase Of your products, and until yos
can have it, prices must continue low.
II will, however, be said that protection tends
10 compel you to sell at Lowell and Providence
even if it relieves you from the necessity for going
to Manchester. Not so. Real and efficient pro-
lection tends to enable you TO convert your food
into iron made in Jour own nsishborhood. IL
tends to enable your nnighbor Of Indiana TO nine
his coal and apply it to the driving Of spindiss aad
looms employed in converting int cloth the cot
ton of Tennessee and Mississippi received in sx-
change for your pork and your beef. II tends to
enable Illinois to mine her coal, and apply il 10
the working Of her lead mines, that should yield
twenty pounds whore now they yield but ono.
1t tends to enable the people of Wisconsia and
Michigan to find market in the vast copper and
iron region Of Lake Superior. IL tends to enable
people to raise nax and hemp who now raise
food and everywhere to make iScaimarkef for
food, and thus to relieve the farmer from the 90
ce.sity for going to either Lowell or Manchester.
The present state Of things tends to destroy al
the small manufacturers throughout the Union.