New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1860-02-07


ira fsee for instance, the works of the late Mr..
Colns). have visibly decaycd within the last ten
years JInhappily, enc great fact strikes the
most superficial observer. French foreign
commerce has made immense strides from
1913 TO 1860. Amounting in 1915 10 about so
millions froncs, it has risen to more
than double that sum IN 1889 An increase OF com
mercc by more than 200 per cent IN the snort space
of ten years ia a thing almost unprecedented. The
causes that have brought about that increase are to
be found in California, Australia, the United States,
and 10 forth but certainly not in The archives OF the
1uileries 1t appears, them that despite the I'M
mense increase ,s French foreign com neree within
the last ten ycasan increase to be traced u reyo-
ltons in the markets OF the world quite beyond the
petty cOntrolsyf the French p0llce--the sTaton OF
lie mass of she French nation has not improved.
Consequently, there must have been at work some
agency powerful enough to isNsiIate the natural
results Of eenmercal progress. IT the development
of French foreign commerce accounts for the ap-
parent cas- with which the second Empire has been
allowed 10 indulge its expensive vagarles, the pros
traton OF the nation despite its doubled exports,
betra,stbe cost at which that Imperial ease Is pur-
chased If the Empire could not have subslsted
,ritLO,,t that development Of French foreign com.
merce. that commercial progress has failed ioh the
Empire, to bear its Legitimate friiitf.
Ire Austrian Emperor, having banished the de-
felt from his States Icy 1int of II ukase, why
should Louis Bonaparte, by dint of another ukase,
not command the increase of French foreign COM
merce Still he apprebepds some hitch in his way.
1--WE must first, =" he says, Improve our agricul-
"tlre. and free our industry from all interior m-
"pedimcnts which place it ia position Of Inferior
"ity." That French agriculture is badly in want
of Improvement is the standing topic OF French
economists; but how is Louis Bonaparte TO do the
thingi In the first place. he will grant loans TO ag
Tcuiturc at moderate Interest" French agri-
culture is VIGOROUSLY the concern of more than
twC-thirds of the French nation. Will LOUIS Boz
naparte impose taxes upon the remaining third, IN
order TO grant loans " at moderate rate " to the
minority of the nationl The idea is in fact too
preposteTous 10 be insisted upon. On the other
hand it was the confessed aim of his Credits FOn-
ciers to direct loanable capital to the land. The
only thing they have proved efficient in not IN anne
horating agriculture, but in running small ireeholds
and accelerating the concentration OF landed es-
tates After all we have here again the old worn
out panacea-institutions Of credit Nobody will
deny that the second Empire marks an epoch IN the
development of French credit, but that 1t has over
shot the mark and that with its credit, its Gre
dit fostering inueI &C has gone to the wall The only
novelty seems TO be that the semi. officinl credit
machinery having been stretched and worked 10 lts
utmost Louis BOnaparte now dreams OF converting
The Government itself into a direct l0an.shop.
mense dangers. il would necessarily collapse as
did his grain granaries, intended TO screw up the
prices of corn. Draining, irrgatlng, and cleaning
the ground all very good things in their differ
ent lines but their only possible effect is to multiply
agricultural products. They cannot raise, and
they are not intended to raise, the prices Of those
products How then, even if Louis Bonaparte
should find by some miraculous methods the ways
and means required for those ameliorations on
national scale, how are they to mend the deprecia-
ton of agricultural produce which the French
peasant has labOred under for these five years
But then, Louis Napoleon will set about consecu-
tive ameOratiOn of the means of communication.
The GOODNESS with which this proposition is made
beats even BOnapartist impudence. Look only to
the development of French railways since 1850
The annual expense for these means OF cOmmun-
cation" amounted, from 1916 TO ~, TO about
49, Coo, Geo of francs; from lS4S to 81 to about
1876 eco 000 from 1852 to "a, to nearly $50, 1000
double the expenditure of lS4S-5l); from 1854 to
'56, to nearly $50, GOO; from 1851 to
general crisis broke in upon the commercial world,
the French Government stood aghast at the i'm.
mensc sums still required for the railways 10 prog
Iess or already conceded. 1t prohibited the railway
companies from raising, by means Of securities, de-
bentuTes, &c, more than 2l2, 500 900 francs annu
", ntcrdctcd the getting up ofnew companies, and
crcumscribed within fixed limits the work to be an
nually undertaken. And, after all this, Louis Bon
apaIte speaks if railways canals, and so forth,
were Low first TO be invented A iorcible reduction
of the canal Dues which he hints at is of course,
an operation involving the breach Of public con-
tRacts, frightening the capital embarked in those
and certainly not calculated To allure
new capital into the same channels. Lastly, to
find market for agrlcu tural products manufac-
turing industry is to be stimulated Yet, as we have
already stated, manufacturing industry has made
immense strides duTi the second Empire, but with
all that with the unprecedented increase of exports
with the immense development of railways aud
other means Of communication, with the eXaggera-
ton of q credit system formerly unknown in France,
French agriculture langulshes, aud the French peas
anry decays. How ehall we account for the strange
phenomenon The fact that 255, OG0, 900 of francs
are added yearly to the funded debt not 10 speak of
the mpost of blood for the army and the navy, offers
q sufficient answer. The Empire itself is the great
incubus whose burden grows In greater ratio than
the productive powers OF the French nation.
Louis BOnaparte's prescriptions for French III
dustry if we deduct all that is mere pbraseology,
or is still looming in the future are simply these
suppression OF the duties on wool and cotton, and
successive reductions sugar and coffee. Now,
this ls all very well, but all the gullibty of En-
glish freetraders is required to call such measures
free trade. Whoever is acquainted with political
economy, knows full well that the abolition of du-
ties on agricultural raw material forms main item
in the doctrine of the mercantile school Of the
eighteenth century. These g interior impediments"
which weigh upon French production, are as moth.
ing if compared with the Oetrois, diviG.ng France
into as many independent counties as there are
towns, paralyzng the internal exchange, and bar
ring the creation of wealth by Gripping its con-
sumption. Those octroiS, however have increased
under the Imperial regime, and will continue TO in
crease. The diminutOn Of duties on wool and cot
ton is TO be made up by suppressing the sinking
fund.- that the last resI amt upon the growth OF
the public debts although merely nominal, will