Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1860-12-07
WATERFOWL REPUBLICAN.
FRIDAY, DECEMBER, 1850.
Financial Condition Of The South.
From the New York Herald, 14th.


From the New FORK Herald, l4th.
The advices from the South tend to con-
6rTr an opinion which we have already ex-
pressed, that the cause of the present
trouble lies deeper than the election of Mr.. |
Lincoln to the Presidency. From several |
sections we hear that land is unsaleable, |
and from all parts the report is that ne
groes have fallen and are falling in price.
This result would, of couse, be produced in
course by such agitations as are pro-
ceeding in South Carolina But it could
hardly have been effected so soon as this :
and IN seeking for its cause we are forced
to look further back, and to inquire
whether it may not have had an original
anterior to, and very different from the
present political excitement. Between the
years 1850 and 1857 the average cot
ton crop of the United States was about
100000 bales; the average price of
middling uplands was about Sc to &c a
pound; the average price Of negro field
hands was $500 to $1,000; and cotton
land was remarkably cheap. Three to
four years ago the development of cotton
manufactures throughout Europe and the
United States increased the demand for
cotton to such an extent that mddling
uplands was wanted at lie to lie in this
market, and at I I'D to Sd in Liverpool
This led, as a matter of course, to wider
cultivation of cotton in the South ,rn
States Planters in the Carolinas and
Georgia not only continued to plant as be-
fore on the land they held. but bought
new land in the younger States. stocked
it with negroes, and planted there like
wise. Thus the cotton crop swelled from
3, 113, 962 bales in 1878. to 1891 ,4S1
bales in 1859 and 4,615.77U bales in
1S59-60 had the weather been as iavora-
BILE this year it is known that tee crop
would have exceeded 5000, 900. Yet,
Notwithstanding this surprising increase of
production. the price has not fallen. Mid
ding uplands is still worth between II
and II cents pound-a price which
would in former times have given the plan
ter profit of fully five cents Ter pound.
Now, this vast increase in the production
of the staple, unaccompanied by any de-
cline in the price. would naturally have
made all the Southern planters rich, but
for one thing; like the Western farmers in
1856 and 1857. the more money they
made the more they laid out 10 laud and
negroes. machinery and buildings. Tho
Missouri and Virginia were steadily drain
ed of their slaves, negro field hands rose
In the cotton States to $4,000 a head !;
land advanced at corresponding ratio;
more machinery was put up in three years
than III the ten previous. Hence, though
the South has been receiving a hundred
millions of dollars year more for cotton
than she did twelve or fifteen years ago.
At Is quite doubtful whether the planters
have any more available means now than
they had then. Like the Western farmers
IN 1857. they have plenty of cotton every
winter; they have very large amount of
money invested in slaves at a very high
price. But from all that we can learn
they have no more actual money now than
they used to have. They are. in word,
precisely in the condition in which the
West was in 1870 greatly expanded
that the first adverse wind was snre to
cause catastrophe. The adverse wind
came this year in the shape of the drought,
which destroyed over 800, 900 bales of cot
ton, and cut eff the corn crop in the Gulf
States. The catastrophe we see before
US. With negroes at $4,000 head, and
corn imported from Illinois and laid down
at the plantation at s. IS bushel even
eleven cents pound will hardly reward
the planter for growing cotton; and if out
of the proceeds of his crop he has to pay
debt to his factor, incurred for purchases
of land and negroes, the result cannot be
doubtful, and it would have been the same
whoever had been elected President The
election OF Lincoln has irritated the minds
of Sousherners aroused their approximations
of trouble with Their negroes, and has thus
preclpitated matters; but it could hardly
have produced the results we see had the
South not been in an expanded condition,
and but for the recent excessive deyelop-
ment of cotton culture. So far as we can
learn, the debt of the South TO the North
for goods purchased was never so small as
1t is at present. But the advances of the
Southern factors to the Southern planters
are hea1ier than they ever were, aud the
shipments of cotton to the ports in paw
ment of these advances, up to the present
dates, are fully $7.00o.O0O behind those
of last year.