The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1857-06-01
The Coffnn Trad

The following Is An extract from An article o.
the London Times on the supply of cotton fol
British manufactures, in connection with the Anne.
rican institution Of slavery. The Times diIate.
FIRST upon the importance of the cotton manufac.
turing to British national prosperity, and goes on
to point out the growing insecurity of the
of supply. We quote:
"Of the 900 900 600 fb. wsg at of cotton which we
imported last year, 100 COO 900 ft came from the
United states, and, ~ our readers know. from the
Southern provinces of the Union especially. Now,
the cotton crop IL only liable to the ordinary at
mosphsic calamities, but 10 cultivated through the
fundamentally OF an institution which nobody
abolish Slavery and cotton. growing act and react
upon eaeh other-slaves produce tho cotton harvest
and the value of this harvest stimulates the practice
Of slaveholdirg This result of all this IT, that four
ffshs OF our entire supply are exposed to . double
hszsrd-to the chances Of the climate where bad
for any part of the crop bad for the
whole and to the chances of domestic trouble where
trouble of some sort seems always menaced Our
supply from America besides being Insecure 10 90.
tualy insufficient, and threatens to become moro 70.
This In Iact the ming feature of tho two
Al regards the insecurity of the supply from the
United States, we might perhaps rely without much
sppre snsion upon the zeal and vigilance of the
American planters and upon the operation of inter.
ests a. active ono side OF the the other
Anything like an absolute failure has never oc-
CURED yet and perhaps. therefore, never might
cur; while the organization of the trade across the
Atlantic 10 80 perfect and the article is,f Of such
excellent quality that nothing better could be asked
than the continuance and expansion of suoh q com
merce In the proportions desired. Unfortunately,
however. the Americans Themselves have felt and
acknowledged that, in the matter of cotton con
sumption has been gaining upon production until the
resources OF the latter about to give way Since
1917 our consumption has arisen from SO 600 600 h.
ten times that amount and other countries are be-
coming consumers too. 1t 10 therefore manfestly of
the utmost importance that should look about for
esh sources of supply; and this 10 the second stage
OF the argument allowing ofno dissent than III
first"
The Times thinks that these ''fresh sources are
to be found in India, and cites statement made
At late meeting of the London Society of Arts
that single province of India, bearing about the
same proportion to the whole dependency that the
county of Kent does to Great Britain, could of it.
self produce more cotton than the total growth OF
the United States.
The only difficulty In the way, the editor suR.
sests, is the difficulty of getting Englishmen to 20
and reside in India to overlook and develope Eng
lish interests. Sooner or later, however we are
told, the difficulty must be looked In the face and
met If the prospect of British manufactures is to
Dc prevented from falling into decay.
There is no danger to the cotton interests of the
United States from any experiments which Eng
land may make. Consumption Is likely to continue
and increase it's gain upon production at rate
which will tax to their utmost all the fresh sources
OF supply that both England and America can
bring into the field