New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1855-07-07


bis own and in every other case. When he buys
barrel Of Gour in Washington be pays as he
knows price that is higher rlower regulated
BIZ the quotations Of this City. When his
brother journalist in Buffalo or Chicago buys
barrel OF -four, apiece ofb ee(os ofpork the price
he pays is regulated by what could be obtained
fer the same commodities in this rnsrket-and
so il i: with the loaf of bread and with the
meal for buckwheat cakes Knowing this to
be so, and knowing that our contemporary
could not be ignorant that such was the
case, we felt no hesitation in putting to him the
question: as not the price of food regulated
"eyerywhere by the market Of England ~ In
reply he tells Us that
"The price Of food everywhere is regulated mainly
by the supply and demand, with variations produced by
fluctuations in the currency. An abundant harvest IN
Englsnd, with large supplies from the Baltic, will di
minsh the pice there, while short crops with Ms at the
same time will increase prices here On the other
hend if our harvest be large, short crop in England
by raising the prices there, may stimulate our exports
and yet prices here remain moderate.
On reading this we felt, we must confess,
greatly disappointed. We expected the frank
and zsnly admission of fact that could not be
denied, but instead received parcel of words
intended to convey to the mind of the reader the
impr, ssion that its existence was denied, and
that vet 90 not go the length of denying its ex-
istence good cause would have required no
such strain upon the conscience as was needed
for the construction Of this paragraph. 1t must
be. to use one Of the words of oar contemporary,
a very "baIbarous" system that requires even
the appearance of denial of fact Of universal
notoriety. Fairness and candor are, he may rest
assured the companions not only of truth, but
alsO of civilization
As our readers may now desire to know why it
is that The Era should find it requisite to deny
the fact to be as il had been stated by US,
will explain the mystery. British Free trade
always magnifes the Importance of the Eoglish
market to our farmers, and always arIanges its
facts with a view to its exaggeration. Thus it
was that Mr. Walker promised the farmers a
market in Europe that was by this time to
amount to hundreds of millions of dollars and
thus it is that cur contemporary by help of the
Irish famine, and by help Of the West India and
South American trade. is enabled to exhibit an
export of hundreds of millions " chiefly to En-
gland" BY using tie famine years, during
which the market would have been the same
under any circumstances, he Is enabled 10 keep
out Of sight the "beggarly account of empty
"boxes" exhibited by this trade on every occa-
sion of reasonable and fair crops in Europe, as
compared with that natural trade carried on
with the West Indies and South America. Its
total amount in the two years previous to the
famne-the sliding scale being then in force
was less than twelve millions, against nearly
twenty. four millions elsewhere aud in the four
years that elapsed between the entire abolition
of the sliding scale and the present war, was
but forty. eight millions against ffty-sx to other
parts Of the world.
The total value Of the food produced in this
country cannot be less than 1900 millions, and
OF this Great Britain and Ireland take, as is here
seen, II millions, or about, and probably not evea
SO much, as one per cent; and yet it is by the
price that is obtained for that miserable guam
tty that the price is regulated for the whole
If grain falls abroad the farmer is forced to sub
nit TO reduction upon his whole crop, because
market has TO be sought for one per cent oft in
Europe; and if that fall be equal to ten per cent,
II IS tquai 10 ten times the rglue of all that is e.
ported. The more he must send to that market
the greater is the tendency to a fall of price,
and that loss, as we see, extends itself to all his
crop. That such is the case is admitted by the
admirers of British Free trade when they tell
us that we cannot make market at home for
all our food, it being a well known fact that
when market must be sought abroad for
any quantity of an article, however small,
the price of the whole is regulated by that
obtained for the little surplus Ia COM
muDity that imports grain the price will al
ways exceed that paid in others by the cost OF
importing what is required to supply the def
cheney; and in one that exports grain it will al
ways be as much below that paid elsewhere as
the cost Of srporatiOn As general rule the
price here is as much below that of England as
the charge for freight, insurance and commits
sioRs and the reason why il il below ii is that ge
do not make market at home, and that our far
mers thus enforce upon themselves a necessity
for seeking distant market.
Our contemporary is unwilling to admit
though snoble to deDy-that in the sale of food
throughout this country prices are regulated By
the English market because a correct apprecia-
ton of that fact, taken in cOnrec ion with the
diminutiye character of that market would
tend greatly TO open the eyes of our farmers
to the price they pay for the support of British
Free trade. The quantity exported in the years
prior to the present war averaged, as has been !
seen, but twelve millions, and the prices
4. a. IL IN IL