New-York daily tribune., 1861-02-18

part of the cotton trade, bow comes it that Char
lesion, grasping twice as much, actually decreases
in popula,ion, and that New Orleans controlling
ten times the quantity, does not build one-fourtb
az many houses as New-York The ignorance
which raised and yet continues this cry, is almost
incredible. What cotton We receive undoubtedly
pays profit to somebody among us, as we
handle it with that especial object. But what
W make is fairly earned The South does not
send it here TO oblige u.s. but because this des
tination suits her best. She enjoys perfect free
trade in cotton, and selects her own method oi
dsposing of it. If she could do better with 1t
elsewhere it would not come here.
Another incident of this prevalent Jealousy
maintains that New-York grows rich at the ex-
pense Of the South by our vast traffic IN ex.
change drawn against cotton. If the crop is ac-
tualIy shipped at Mobile and New.Orleans, the
freiphts enrich Northern shipowners, and the bills
come here TO be sold. But do they not come
for the same reason that borrower goes to the
bank. because the bank has money! This city
is the great monetary center of the nation. Here
the great bulk of foreign imports is received and
here we have a vast number of importers WHO
are constant purchasers of exchange to pay Tor
their importations. Through them ready mar
kct always exists for bills, ard this market In
sures for Southern remttances quick sale at the
best rates. Let this market be glutted with eS-
change. and we have recent evidence of the dis
aster ard embarrassment which are sure to follow,
most of which would fall on the Southern owner.
In that crisis the banks combined to save us from
a lower deep than had ever been known, and that
in the face of horizon clouded with biacker
political storm than had ever Oyerspread the
country. 1t may thereafter be assumed that cap
ital will always be abundant here for all the cot
ton bills that may offer. OF no other city can as
much be said. Of the whole volume OF such
bills. none come out of love for us, but for the
profit and convenience of the owner. He knows
this to be his best market, and hence he seeks
it, He makes his gain by the Operation-wby
reproach US for Oursl The cotton growers them
selves have had the whole shaping OF the business
of exchange. They have handed it over to us
because we possessed the means aud they did
not, and they have no right to complain of its
being profitable to us. man should calculate
his own profits, not those of his neghbor.
The truth is that the receiving, selling and
shipping of $4,000 bales Of cotton per annum, is
mere fraction of the huge volume of business
transacted in this city. If it ceased altogether,
its loss would be felt within n very small circle.
But if we ceased to purchase cotton blls that
fact would Immediately cover the Cotton States
with disaster, and they would in the end discover
that new markets could be reached only by pay
lug higher rates. The cotton sold here is worth
probably =, 600, ,0OO on which q commission Of
u per cent would amount 10 100000. The cot.
ton bills negotiated here have been estimated at
$40, 0O0 per annum, which the clear
profit can hardly exceed 7 per cent, and may be
much less. But at this rate it would amount 10
$g00,000. The storage and handling Of the cot
ton may amount to 50 per bale, say $500 900
more, or grand total Of Sl,iO0,000 realized
from a business which has required the use Of
$I3O, 1000 to carry it on. The South COM
plains that We are thus growing rich at her ex-
pense when all that we do is absolutely essen.
tal 10 her daily comfort and when the total
profit is less than - per head Of our population.
But behind this there is even q deeper grey-
ance. II is that New.York does not pay ih.
$3.50, GOO to the South in money, but fobs
her off with foreign goOds or Yankee notions,
which the South wants, it is true, and indeed
must have, but on which New-York makes a
clean 20 per cent profit. II s not the goods
which constitute the grievance but the fact Of
our making profit, because it helps TO make us
rich, thing which ought not TO be, no matter
how industriously we labor for it, Now, if the
South paid up squarely for all she bought Of US,
that fact might happen. We have cultivated her
! assiduOuay, sold her all she wanted urged even
more upon her, and given her unlimited credit,
10 discover at its termination that she was
wholly unable To pay. There ia painful evil
dencc of this last fact in many aching hearts
among us now. If our business with the South
has yielded the profit she complains Of, she has
had that profit back again in the shape Of enor-
nous credits. She is, in fact, never out of debt,
and, with her present ideas of business, probably
never viii be. But these goods she buys because
she needs them, not 10 oblge us. Most of them
| are produced in New England, and sent here for
sale. If she could get them cheaper elsewhere
hub Noilu uO tOJ IL CItull htlt BlHtis ~ w
make profit by selling to her. We earn it. An
important distinction eXists-for all she sells she
gets cash. and for all she buys she exacts credit.
This antithesis implies that she is in debt.
Knowing il TO be so, We take the risk and con.
tnue 10 sell. Once in every few years she ex-
plodcs, aud the North loses enough to swallow
up the profit of seven. 1t is thus the South
q oT