The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1859-11-17
THE SOUTHERN DIRECT TRADE.


THE SOUTHERN DIRECT TRADE.
We have often attempted to show that the
idea prevalent at the South, of the Importance
of direct trade to Europe, is altogether falla-
cious. We have insisted that the home trade
is the best, for the simple reason that it exists,
while the foreign trade does not exist. Men
buy where they can buy cheapest and the idea
that they should go to dearer or more incon-
venient market because it is foreign, in prefer
ence to one in their own country, can only be
the offspring of a silly vanity.
The South supplies the bulk of our foreign
exports and these, from the nature of the case,
are shipped from the nearest seaport town.
They are shipped for the greater part in North
ern and European vessels, for the simple reason
that the South has not sufficient supply of
vessels of her own. The South has the staples
of commerce, as well as of manufactures; but
she has neither the capital nor the skill to con-
duct manufacturing or mercantile enterprises
Her system of Slavery is only adapted to
agriculture, and she must forever forego the ad-
vantages of commerce and manufactures, so
long as that system shall last, or its consequent
ces be felt. Colonial dependence is the natural
condition of slaveholding communities. They
are untitled for independent existence.
Before the Revolution, the slaveholding
States. received from England directly their
supplies of manufactured goods, in exchange
for tobacco and other products The imports
and the exports were made in British ships or
in ships belonging to the Northern Colonies.
The South had no ships or seamen worth NAM
ing, far less, indeed, than she now has. The
Northern Colonies were poor, and produced
none of the valuable products which were char
acteristic of the South, and which enabled the
planters to revel in comparative luxury.
Southern writers now boast that, prior to the
Revolution, the commerce ofthe South exceeded
that of the North, but the mistake is explained
by the facts above stated, viz: that the South
ern products were conveyed to Europe in Eng
lish ships, and goods brought back from Lon.
don to Southern ports by the same English ves-
sells, thus showing amount of trade with Eu-
rope, belonging to them, far greater than the
Northern towns exhibited. But in point of
fact, the South had no commerce. 1t had far
less then than now. 1t has gained instead of
losing, relatively.
The following remarks of an intelligent
South Carolinian, which we find in the Charles
ton Mercury, show clearer perception of the
true state of things than we had been led to
expect from that quarter. The writer states
emphatically that Charleston cannot import
from Europe; that she can do better in New
York than in foreign markets; and that New
York is the centre of the commerce of the Uni
ted States, if not of the world. The author of
this article is guilty of incivism in telling these
wholesome truths to the people of that State
and we are surprised that the Mercury should
become the organ of such sentiments. When
will Southern Commercial Conventions learn
this simple dictate of common sense, applied
to the laws of political economy One would
suppose that it would not require the con-
tinual repetition of a proposition so plain,
to make it Ineligible to the habtual students
of that sci ence which we were inclined to re-
gard as Southern monopoly.
The writer in the Mercury says:
"The city of Charleston only imports to a
very limited extent. Long experience has
proved that the jobbing wholesale merchants
of that city can purchase to better advantage
in New York than they can import direct New
York is the centre of commerce in the United
States, land We might with truth say, of the whole
world.) The people of every nation send their
exchangeable commodities there to be sold, or
exchanged for American produce. The conse-
quence is, that it has become the best market
in the civilized world to purchase cheap goods
in"
Such is the testimony of an intelligent South
Carolinian to the superiority of the domestic
over the foreign market. 1t is not improbable
that the Quixotic enterprises or rather. we
should say, sPeculatons Of the Southern Com
mercial Conventions, have at length disguised
men of common sense in the South, and caused
them to look facts in the face.
The Richmond Enquirer, which, under the
eye of Governor Wise, has become an advocate
of domestic policy in many respects enlght.
ened, still clings to the idle phantasy that Vir-
ginia is loser by trading with New York in
stead of Liverpool. 1t asserts that the wheat
of Virginia is sent to New York, and thence
re-shipped to Europe; and that goods are
shipped to New York from Europe, and then
re-shipped to Virginia. On this assumption of
the facts, the Enquirer argues that Virginia
must be great loser by trading to Europe in
directly, instead of directly. But the fact is,
that the Virginia wheat and other products
shipped to New York are intended for New
York and New England, and not for Europe.
Some of it may find its way thither, just as
some of the Western wheat intended for the
Eastern States is forwarded to Europe, when
the foreign market calls for it, and the home
market can spare it.
The Enquirer is equally mistaken in sup
posing that Virginia draws her supplies of mer-
chandise in any considerable degree from Eu-
rope. We will venture to say, that nine-tenths
of the goods brought to Virginia from New
York, Boston, and other Northern cities, are of
Northern manufacture while the remaining
tenth is too inconsiderable to justify direct
trade to Europe. The consumption of foreign
goods in Virginia and North Carolina is too in
considerable to warrant direct trade, except
on small scale, and in few articles. Her
merchants cannot afford to bring out cargoes
of fine goods, when the market is so limited.
They find it safer and cheaper to go to New
York, and make up assortments in a small
way--thus saving the risk of having on hand
large and valuable supplies, without customers
to buy them.