The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1861-06-24
The South not Bankrupted by the War.


All accounts from the North represent the
condition of the mercantile and manufactur-
ing CLASSES there as deplorable in the extreme.
Every SORT Of property has fallen IN value,
business is utterly Frustrated, failures are Of
daily occurrence and of enormous magnitude,
| and all interests and classes are on the high
way to ruin. The chief market, the only
market of any great magnitude, for Northern
manufactures. was at the South and by the
suicidal policy of their own Government, that
market is Gu, of from thep completely.
The case il even worse with the Vest
The only very considerable market for vest
ern produce was at the South; for the "hHe
laborer on the Western prairie TED the negro
laborer on the cotton plantation The ne
gro could earn four FIVE hundred dol
lars = wear bv working at the cotton crop, and
only . hundred and fifty by raising gram
Hence the planters upon The rivers and rail-
roads preferred to purchase their gram anu
rork rather than take off their negroes
from the cotton crop. There was thus opened
q, immense market for the products of the
" est through All tue NNNH'iy
This large and lucrative market is closed to
the Western farmers. This calamity has be-
fallen them at the same time that, IN conse-
quence of the depreciation of public stocks, all
Western bank notes have fallen to half the
value represented on their face. 1t has be-
fallen them, too, at a time when expectations
of grain to Europe, from the Northern cities Is
checked by a1vices of unusually promising
crops throughout Europe. In fact, never were
people more badly off in business point Of
view than those Of the West.
While such are the effects which the war is
producing upon the North, there are no indi-
cations Of ruin and bankruptcy at the South
We have yet to hear, in all the Southern
cities, of the failure Of single commercial
house, or of solitary bank or banking con-
Germ. While the war has caused, doubtless,
very heavy individual loss by the stoppage Of
business, there is so far nothing like para
lysis Of credit and overthrow Of private for
tune. The people, doubtless, lose by the
war; but they lose checr!uly and without re-
proach and are more liberal, nothwithstand-
| q their iDSSGS, III CDulTtDuliOHc " INV holJ
than they have ever been known to be before
There are no traces of fnancia! panic, COM
mercial pressure, or impending widespread
bankruptcy. The people are easy III their cir
cumstanccs and, although their profits from bu-
sness have been suspended, they arc still not
at The doors Of want and poverty. Except
the fact that business is brought to stop, we
doubt if the financial condition o: the South
ern people was ever more healthy and sound
than al present.
These facts 80 to show that the war VIII
really prove saving operation to the South.
While our intercourse with the other section was
unrestricted, we were constantly carrying on
with it "A system Of oyer-trading which kept
our country exhausted Of its resources. We
bought an immense multitude of useless wares
that could all have been manufactured as well
at the South and have cost the community
no.hing,or could have been dispensed with alto
gether. We bought so largely Of every kind
of merchandise and notion at the North, that
the products which they took in exchange from
US fell far short of paying our debt, and very
large portion of our great Southern staples ex
ported to Europe were shipped on Northern &C
count, and the proceeds collected by the North.
So large portion Of cur commerce was thus
turned into Northern channels that even those
of our exports in return for which we received
foreign instead of Northern goods had gradu-
ally come to be imported through Northern
cities and 'y Northern jobbers for us, thus
breaking up cur direct trade with Europe and
utterly destroying Southern commerce.
The result was, that the North not only sold
us immense and unnecessary quantities Of
their own mean wares, taking our great sta
pies in exchange, which they exported to Eu-
| reue on our own account, but they secured the
manipulation of nearly all our exports, ship
ping all to Europe on their own account, So
| curing foreign goods in return, and selling
them to the South at a profit. The whole
| operation amounted to S4O9, 900 0G0 year.
| We bought Of the North foreign goods and its
| own products and manufactures to that
amount, and turned over to it the whole man
agement of our great staples in payment. The
| profit of the North on this magnificent business
was at least 50 per cent, all OF which the South
saves by the war. Not only does she save the
profit, but, ceasing to buy Northern goods
and compelled to manufacture herself, she
saves all that she was in the habit of paying
the North for those goods. 1t was also esti-
mated that the South owed the North $50 0C0,-
| coo at the beginning of the war, which also is
| saved while the war lasts. The reason, there
| fore, is very plain why the South is not suffer
| irg pecuniary embarrassment. The war aaI
non-intercourse is worth to the South fifteen
| or twenty millions month; it is worth, in fact
more than the expenses Of the war. 1t will
| leave the South in a fsr healthier condition
| than it found it.
Priyateering.