The Belmont chronicle, and farmers, mechanics and manufacturers advocate. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1848-1855, 1853-09-23
THE APPENDING SCARCITY IN
H. EUROPE.

Y
ing fact of the day. Its reality is no longer
questionable. In England, all accounts con-
cur in representing the wheat crop to be
much below the average; and the best au-
thorities estimate that the deficiency will re-
quire the importation of the enormous guam
tity of eighteen millions of quarters before the
harvest of 1854. In France, which Of late
years has been a grain-exporting country, g.
which for the last three years has furnished
England with more wheat and flour than any
other country, the wheat crop, it is calculated
has fallen off one fourth, the present year.
In large sections of Italy not half crop is
expected. Spain complains of deficiency,
and Sweden has so poor harvest in prospect,
that she is now largely importing from the
Baltic. It.s true that other grains, particular
ly barley, oats and rye, have not generally
suffered like the wheat, and it is also true that
on the continent the stock of wheat which
is secured, is generally of a superior quality;
but the fact still remains that, on account of
failure in quantity of this chief staff Of life,
there will soon be a scarcity of good in Eu-
rope. ,..,.. .,.... ......
| This is q matter OF serious Importance
commercially, politically, and socially; and
matter in which Americans as we'll as Eu-
ropeans are deeply interested. The Govern
ments of Europe are awake to the coming
evil. France has already materially relaxed
her corn laws which she has heretofore kept
so stringent. The King of Naples and the
Pope have prohibited the expectation from
their dominions altogether. Notifications Of
tariffs will doubtless be made by the nations
of Western Europe generally, in order to in
crease their supplies But whence are foreign
supplies to come! The Levant and the U.
States are the only extensive wheat exporting
regions left. The supply from the former,
on account of the want of means of inland
transmission, is always limited. Our own
country must again be the main reliance. Just
as in lS47, it exported to Great Britain about
seventy per cent. more than Russia, Turkey,
Syria and Egypt combined. 1t is fortunate
that our harvest the present year, as in ls46,
is of more than ordinary abundance. But yet
we have no such surplus as will supply the
wants of Europe. In ls47, our whole export
of wheat and wheat flour to Great Britain
amounted to less than too millions of quart
ers; and we are now told by the Bankers
Magazine of London-though to ourselves
we confess the statement appears extravagent
that eighteen millions of quarters will be
required to meet the deficit of England alone
And yet again it must be remembered that in
the former period of scarcity, no other part
of Europe drew upon our resources. On the
Europe, excepting Greece and Portugal, had
wheat to spare and exported more or less to
the British Isles. Now many of them are
in pressing want Of it themselves. France,
which in ls47 exported to England l79,259
quarters now by her own very lowest calcula-
tion, will require before the next harvest one
million and half of quarters from abroad.
Have we any surplus that can meet these de-
mands! Our wheat crop for lS49, according
the census of 1850, amounted to 100, 1903 1899
bushels. That crop was undoubtedly short
one,t that of the present year is probably thirty
per cent. larger. Allowing the widest possible
margin, and assuming our wheat crop to be
this year 10000, 900 Of bushels, it will all a.
mount to less than nineteen millions of quart
ers. That is to say our entire crop will a.
mount to less than the estimated wants OF
England and France alone. And yet we must
feed our own people first, and can only spare
them the surplus. How can Europe then,
according to her own showing, escape
famine!
We are too apt to look upon our country
as an inexhaustible granary. We Judge rath-
er from the fertility of our best lands, than
from the actual amount of our products. The
average yield of wheat in England and Wales
is about t,oenty-eight bushels per acre; in
France fifteen bushels; in the United States,
the best wheat fields yield thirty bushels or
more per acre. But though there is this diff |
ference in the productiveness, there is no
such difference in the aggregate product.
The yearly average Of the wheat crop in
Great Britain and Ireland, is larger than that
If the United States; that of Francois near
y twice as large. And ye; more, the in
labitants of both countries consume more
wheat in proportion 10 their numbers, than the
,eople of the United States. We cultivate
md use other grains to much larger extent.
They rely mainly upon wheat, and if their 4,
wn supply of this is in any way materially ,
educed, we cannot do very much towards !
making good the deficiency. ..
England must feel the effect of this. True, =
he was never SO prosperous as now--her 7
capitalists never growing rich faster, her .
aborers never better paid. But scarcity of !.
ood must bring distress upon millions, and
he immense payments for foreign shipments
{ grain must more or less ierange her
nanciul and monetary affairs. But France
} yet more deeply concerned, No where |
oes the cost of the first necessaries of life i
o directly affect the political contentment Of C
he great masses of the people, or tell SO n
eriously upon the public securities. The
Ugh price of bread in Paris in the winter of
S47-4S-hgher than at any time for twenty
we years previous--had no small influence !.
n producing the overthrow Of Louis PHILLr
E. Louis NAPOLEON perfectly understands
his, and his extraordinary grain operations
ast year in the European markets, forcibly