Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1858-02-06
Too Many Traders and Too Few Trades.


excellent facilities for making a correct calcu-
laiion, estimates that there are in the United
States, or were when the late crisis came upon
the country, more than trO hundred ana four
thousand stores in the retail trade. Taking
this estimate as correct, if we distribute the
twenty-five millions of our population among
them in families, each will have twenty-five as
the total number Of their customers. There is
a store TO every 1873 of our inhabitants, men,
women and children-bond aud free-rich and
poor and allowing five persons 10 The house
hold, the average number Of accounts out Of
which mercantile profit and loss is to be fig
ured in this country, is as we haye just stated,
twenty-five. 1t certainly requires no argument
to show that this proportion of rfidii traders to
the gross population must be highly injurious
10 both, and absolutely destructive to a large
fraction OF tho former. 1t is injurious to the
population in general, because will, so many
competitors in the field as sellers, the facilities
TO buyers are rendered too easy, and with the
full exercise Of an expanded system of credit,
debts ace contracted and PROMISES put forth,
which at the day of maturity cannot be liquid
aied and fulfilled. The effect of this upon the
retail trade is first TO embarass, then contract
and then bankrupt him. During the various
ihtoes and commissions which attend his rapid
progress to insolvency, he seeks relief by bor-
rowing money at fabulous rates of interest, on.
ly IN the end TO fail in the payment even of the
principal. With ~collapses of This kind in the
retail trade growing daily more frequent, the
great centres of trade begin to feel the effect,
md dana .vnpe tho v,bplpeaIa dnnlor tho -,
porter, and every other person engaged in this
over-blown, over-done, unnaturally expanded
system of trade, and The end ofthe whole is one
general panic aud widespread bankruptcy.
Such in brief is the history Of the causes
which produced the crisis of 1857, and every
other crisis which in former years has visited
this nation with, what for the time must be re-
garded, as the absolute destruction Of trade.
The Europeans derisively say that we are "a
nation of shop-keepers, " and VIC submit iftl,erc
be not some ground for the accusation, when
we ponder upon the figures which we have Civ
en- above. Going into business in this coun-
Try, to the minds Of a large majority of our peo-
Pile, means nothing else than 'opening a %s,ore,''
and II is therefore in that particular direction,
that three-fUurlhs Of the energy and enterprise
among our young men seeks a field for lis ex-
erclse, 10 the great d%etriment as we have seen,
to that branch of trade itself, and with almost
inevitable disappointment TO their own s%anguine
calculations and spirited exeriions. 1t is al.
ways easier we know 10 point out an evil than
TO prescribe IFS remedy, and we do not there
iore arrogate to ourselves that profound knowl-
edge of political,economy, and that insight into
The statistics and results OF laJor. which would
enable US at once 10 direct the Industry of n
community or State into those precise channels
which would prove iadiriduaHy the most profit
able, and generally for the highest veal. But
one suggestion we will venture upon which
Is, that as a people we greatly neglect the cul-
~tivatlon of the mechanic arts in a word we
have ''t0o many frod,rS. Jui Too fer trades.''
Our Young men grow up, at least too many of
them do. with radically erroneous notions as TO
the true dignity ofiabor, and become possessed
with the idea that it is ~'vas,lv more een,eel'
to stand behind a counter and wait upon the Ia
dies, than TO use the tools of an honest and en-
nobling mechanic art. And Just SO long as We
prefer 10 be "a nation Of shopkeepers' and not
a nation Of skilItul artisans, Just so long shall
we be overtaken with periodical bankruptcies,
and our men of middle age turned out in pow
eTty 10 lament over the folly Of having misdi-
recled the talents and energy Of their youth.
Agricultural pursuits offer inducements TO
many, and they are always sufficiently rcmun-
eraiive 10 insure independence and health to
their devotees, but agriculture may soon find
producers too numerous and consumers too
scarce, aud therefore The field which it presents
for the labor of the country is by no means
houndless, nor if engaged in by too many does
ii hold out the promise of profit in proportion
to labor. What we need as a nation is more
attention 10 the mechanic arts, and 50 long as
we lack 1t in the signal degree We nov do. we
shall be deficient in those great branches of in-
dustry Indispensable TO the progress and pros
perlty OF the whole people. Onr young men
must be educated TO appreciate the value of
good trades, and our men of 'sOcial pesition,'
10 use a phrase of the day, must set the good
example Of %devotine some Of their sons to the
mechanic arts. They will thus aid in re-
moving those false and silly notions which, in
The minds of too many, elevate the calling
whose duty may be performed by a sickly and
sentimental girl, above the stal.art and sturdy
professions which demand, and At the same time
produce, the strength and bearing Of a full
grown man.