The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1858-07-08

What should we think of an energetic Far
mer, Who after constructing, under many dIsad-
vantages, and by dint of untiring industry, sys-
TEN of roads which enabled him to transport with
ease the products of his fertile fields to the great
central granaries he had prepared for their reception
and who also possessed the local advantage Of a
direct and unobstruced avenue to the best markets.
if he should make use of that avenue, and of
his own wagons, to transport his products to the
place where they were to be sold, but should sys-
tematicay be seized of the strange fancy to hire
vehicles to bring back his return loads, and order
them to be brought home, not by the direct route,
mt indirectly through the grounds of neighbour?
Such freak of eccentricity would certainly lead us
to infer that although he might be an energetic and
far-sighted man in every other respect he was. at
least in one particular, singularly wanting in a
due regard for his own interests. The case howev-
err is altogether hypothetical No sensible Far
mer would carry his grain directly to market, and
employ Others to bring back, by an indirect route
his fertilizers, or his articles for domestic consump-
ton. As he went, so he would return; because
he well knows that it is cheaper for him to use his
own teams, and to feed off his own provender
than to hire the teams of strangers. and to paw q
profit upon the provender these teams consume.
Reasoning from analogy, the merchants of Balti-
more ought to follow an example so evidently die
tated by common sense. If they export direct to
a market, which they certainly do; they should i'm
port direct from a market-which they certainly do
not Figuratvely speaking they travel to
| a place well booted, but come back from it
in slippers, leaving directions with their ouon-
dam host to send the boots home by different
route. Now, with all due Difference, we submit
that it would have been quite as easy, and much
cheaper, and would have saved time as well as
money, if they had brought the boots home them
selves. But apart from all types and figures it is
manifest enough to every one who can appreciate
the nice balances upon which the whole system Of
trade is poised, that city can take the highest
rank, as a Commercial Emporium, where, if the
Expectation is direct the Importation is crcuitous
We should like to know what obstacles the port OF
Baltimore presents, which preclude our merchants
from passing their foreign purchases through
their own Custom-Iouse, or what advantages
New York possesses over Baltimore, beyond the
mere fact that it has, at present, almost monopo-
ly Of the carrying trade of Europe? If the mer-
chants Of Baltimore, while using their own broad
avenue as means of egress to a market, have
hitherto largely assisted to build prosperous trade
elsewhere, by bringing back their return freights
through their neighbour grounds aging toll for
the privilege, and subecting themselves to the de-
lays incidental to overcrowded mart, and to the
populations of officials not very scrupulous in dis
eliminating between meum and tuum, let them re-
fleet how much more it would be to their interest
and how largely the prosperity of our city would
be enhanced if they were to cast off this subordina-
ton to Others and assert their commercial indepeu-
dence. We have the products most in demand in
European markets. We require also large supplies
of foreign fabrics in return. Every year is adding
to our capacity, both as producers and as consun-
ers. We have two main trunk railways running
at right angles to each other. One draining the
granaries of the Western valleys, the other pre-
pared to receive the immense commercial contribu-
tons which are seeking their way across the Great
Lakes to the nearest outlet on the sea-board-and
that nearest outlet is Baltimore. We have,
moreover, inexhaustible supplies of fuel in our
mountain ranges, and ship-builders and machinists
of acknowledged skill, to whom the construction
of line of ocean propellers might safely be en-
'i"@teu' Ihc NH'tuHel W lle HirDOr 10 longer
opposes any serious obstacle to the entrance of
merchant vessels of the largest class and if our
citizens would exhibit in the organization of line
of ocean steamers, but tenth part of that bold
spirit of adventurous enterprise which they evinced
in blasting out pathway for the locomotive across
the wild precptous region of the Alleghanies; and
if they were also sufficiently impressed with the
commercial value of the Chesapeake Bay in its re-
lation to the city of Baltimore, the progress we
have already made in wealth and population would
be small in comparison to what it would be under
more favorable auspices. How long then, we ask,
will they continue to be perfectly satisfied to leave
home in boots and to return in sppers-or bare
| foot?