New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1859-04-28
NATIONAL PROSPERITY.


During the last three quarters of the fiscal year
which closed with June last this country was
in state OF great pecunlary depression. . Panic,
"pressure, "regulsion," disaster" are among
the words BY which its commercial and financial
condition were currently characterized. And
this condition may be said to have continued,
with gradually lesscniBg intensity, until about the
at of January 1859; since which the recovery has
been steady aud rapid, until We have regaihed state
which is rejoiced over as prosperity. Our mills,
furnaces, FORCES, &c, are quite generally active.
Labor has nearly full employment Wages, If not
so high az they we're two years since, aro higher,
in the average, than they were year ago. Trade
is brisk Banks have full lines of discount and OF
circulation Our Imports, for the first four months
of 1889, fully up TO high-water mark Real
estate, in this aud other large cities, sells readily at
high prices. And there seems to be very general
and confident expectation Of still better times
ahead.
II is quite possible that these sanguinc hopes
nav be realized II we have great Harvest this
year, and If Europe PUSHES int" general war
thereby creating vast demand for our Breadstufs
and Meat at high prices while increasing the cost
of production in her manufactures, and thus les
SEEMING the intensity of their pressure upon ours
we may close this years books joyousy, and enter
upon the next with hopes and energies undamp-
epcd by present or recent disaster All this we
say, rnoy be. Let US look now to other possible
ties equally palpable and imminent:
1t may be that the war-cloud now so densely
overhanging Europe will be dissipated either with
out Citing at all after one brief decisive cam
paign 1t may be that we shall have another short
crop; consequently, little Grain OF Meat to send
abroad, however tempting the prices offered us.
1t may be that we shall be involved in hostiites
ourselves, and thus miss the opportunity OF making
gain from the calsmities of our Deighbors. Pestl'
lence, iuordinate speculation, or one OF dozen
other possibilities, may disspate our fond csicuia
tons of profit from the evils impending over the
Old World. Our present buoyancy OF spirit is
based on count of prospective chickens from eggs
hardly yet laid.
But, passing from the region of contingencies, we
are confronted by these solid facts:
l. We are, as people, inordinately IN debt.
The amount of our existing, active, intcrestbearlng
obligations to Europe cannot fall short OF Five
Hundred Millions of Dollars, calling on us for an
annual interest OF Thirty Millions. This debt cI-
lists partly in the form of Federal or State Stocks;
partly in that of County or Town bonds partly in
that of the stocks and bonds of Railroads aud other
industrial corporations; partly in that OF mefcan-
tile balances and obligations. The whole of 1t,
however, with an immense amount beside that We
| have blotted out by bankruptcy or reputation,
represents Metals, Wares, Fabrics, &c, that we
have bought from the Old World over and above
all that our Exports have paid for In other words,
We have, through nearly all the years in which we
had no Protective Tariff, been wearing clothes and
drinking wines of European production that We
have not found it convenient TO pay for; and the
| aggregate value of such consumption in excess of
our production amounts to several Hundreds of
| Millions of Dollars.
| This is q startling fact Edetc, dccayiug Eu-
rope, as We are accustomed to regard her. with
| every fourth man of her ablebodied males torn
from her fields and workshops to carry soldiers
musket or a policemans truncheon in support of
| her despotisms-with her producers taxed 70 the
extreme limit OF endurance 10 sustain nel idNlsn
ROYALTIES aristocraeies and presthoOds, is still able
10 pay us for all we send her and run us in debt to
| the extent of many Millions per annum. And SO
| long as she feels reasonably Of ultimate pay
ment, she lets us increase our debt BY Millions
after Millions, and We call this Prosperity; but,
by-andby, she fears TO trust US further, really
needs her pay and calls for shred of what is due
her; and this brings Us TO knees in an instant:
| Merchants break, Mills stop, Banks suspend, and
all is darkness and despair And this We call Panic
Pressure Calamity, Revulsion. Such was the eI-
perience OF 1851.
Now, having settled and funded our old scores,
and for brief year paid for all We purchased, thus
reestabhshing our credit, We are rushing into debt
again at a break-neck pace. We have sent forward
and sold our crops Of 1853, and have nothing
consequence to export but Gold until We can real
| ize the crops of 1859. as yet scarcely sown. W
are still importing at this point alone to the extent
of Five Millions per week, and for the Whoie
country at the rate of Eight Millions Per week,
-Four Hundred Millions per snnum, though our
Exports for 1859, Gold excepted, ~iu not exceed
Three Hundred Millions. OF course, We must ex-
port Gold: and all we fall short Of exporting One
Hundred Millions worth of this metal will be just
81 much added to our Foreign Debt. And this is
what We call National Prosperity
We produce The better hslf Of the Co;ton When