Cincinnati daily press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1860-1862, 1861-12-18
lTrom the Iouden Examiner. j
Onr flnttnn annnlv-

good deal less than GO, ,O00, 900 worth, or less
than one. fifth part Of our American supply.
In America cotton is the great staple Of agri-
culture, and everywhere else 1t is but supple
mental one, ts LII
India istbe only country from which We can
hope for, any material supply, and therefore
| let us see what IL can do toward filling up the
great gap left by the secession Of America.
Last year It furnished us with cotton OF very
inferior quality to the value in round numbers
of 9l 800, ,0OO-that is, to little more than one
sixteenth part Of the value Of the American
supply. Let Il be supposed that it furnish us
for the coming year with double this amount.
If IL do so, Il will be at double prics at least;
for the Indian cotton which cost us but 4d.
pound last year is already Sd. The increased
| supply will therefore cost us the sum OF
! 972O0, 900. Even If this amount were real
ized, IL would be short of furnishing as with
one fourth part of the value Of what we had
last year from America, and let us add that 1t is
| value more than quantity BY which our wants
are to be estimated.
/ The fact is that although all India b4 cot
ton growing country, small part Of its vast
area only is q cotton. exporting country.
Worse even than this, the msj or part, unable
| to produce cotton enough for itself, Is an i'm
porter from the minor, and hence competitor
| with ourselves in the Indian market. We
have, moreover, another competitor on the
spot, China, which on an average of years con-
sumes more Indian cotton than ourselves
usually to the value Of from 92,0OO,00O to
ca, 900 900 yearly. But when the Indian cot
ton arrives in England, two.thirds of it, as
usual, will be re exported to European coun
tries more accustomed to use il in their coarse
fabrics than ourselves, and hence enabled to
give higher prices for it. In this manner our
supposed supply of 97,200, 900 will fall to that
of f2 400, 900, which will be between a twelfth
and thirteenth part of the value of the cotton
| we had from America last year, more valuable
than the Indian cotton as to quality by fall 30
per cent.
Any immediate additional supply from In
dia, beyond the liberal one which we have now
supposed, is out of the question, and even that
can only be obtained from the ordinary supply
Of the year by the temptation of exorbitant
prices. The new crop would be sown in July
last, and as the plant takes seven months to
come to maturity, and it takes six months more
to clean the cotton and transport II from the
interior of India to England, we can not ex
pect to benefit by the crop before August or
September next. High prices will probably
produce a somewhat larger supply, but with
two American crops ready to be poured into
the European markets on the return of peace,
he would be a rash speculator who would
reckon on the present high exceptional prices,
ard hope, therefore, for a largo and permanent
increase of the Indian supply.
There are certain parties, however, who are
unreasonable enough to assure us that India is
quite capable of supplying the place of Americs,
although in forty years of free trade, the guam
tity which it has furnished to US has increased
but in a very moderate degree, and the quality
in no degree at ALL In their view, all that is
necessary is that the present high prices should
be assured to the Indian cultivators, which
simply means that moro should continue to be
paid for Indian cotton than Indian cotton il
worth, and that we should go on paying more
for a bad article than We have been paying fol
kal hat will ha ha
fault of the manufacturers of Manchester them
selves if they do not get Indian cotton enough
and they go the length of recommending to
these manufacturers to send their agents te
, India, purse in hand, and pay literally, when
they will have cotton enough to their hearts
content.
We must, however, take leave to remind
these sage counselors that it is not in the legi'
innate province of manufacturers, or consistent
with the wholesome division Of labor, that they
should turn merchants and brokers, specializing
at 15 900 miles distant from their factories IN
; a country they can not know, and with peo
J pie whose language they do not understand
, They might just as we'll recommend to th
. | wooIen manufacturers to speculate in sheep
f farming in Australia, or the silk manufacturer
to invest their funds in the produc ion of sill
| in China. Last year England paid Indii
{ | 81 800 900 for cotton; this year it will pa.
twice that sum for the same quantity, and 10
. | per cent. increafe ought surely TO be- In a.
conscience, encouragement sufficient to tn
: growth of Indian cotton. IL.
i We once more repeat what we have befOr
said in this Journal, that the present greatnes
Of the Eoglish cotton manufacture is as muo'
owing to the capacity of America to produce
good, cheap and abundant raw material as
our own skill, capital and enterprise. For th
It production of cotton the Southern State
II Of America possess advantages in soil, eli
y mate, extent of land and agricultural skill
It possessed by no other country. In these, col
ton is the primary object of culture, without
{, competitor. In other countries it is of q SCI
y oDdary consideration. Thus, in India and
:. Egypt, corn and pulses take the precedence c
q it, and in Brazil and the Antilles the cane an
o coffee plant. Deprived of the supply furnishe
IS by America, and left to depend for it on a
other quarters, decline in our manufactu
IS would be inevitable. Hitherto America hS
70 been furnishing MS in mere quantity with fvt
10 sixths of all the cotton we consume. IL wou|
e take, we guess, long series of years before tt
g, fraction furnished by all other countries woul
It become the integer Of our past supply. If, il
deed, it ever happened at all, it could only tai
IS place at the cost Of exorbitant prices, and Il
,r displacement Of much corn, cane and eoffe
with increased cost of all such production
W One half of the Anglo. Saxon people is unde
going the havoc and desols,ion Of civil wa
,e and the other so closely allied to it can not e.
of pect to escape unscathed.