Daily Nashville union. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1862-1862, 1862-05-21
=. G. MERCER, Editor.


war will be over by midsummer lhe cot
ton supply question begins to be much
discussed in commercial circles. While
this important product has been proved
bv the war to have no regal powers it is
still in great favor the world over, and
hundreds Of millions Of money are ready
10 be poured into the South in exchange
for this hoculent fibre as soon as COM
mercial relations. can be re-establishcd.
Now. what is the proposed? Will the
cotton be sold or destroyed? How much
NAV we reasonably expect to find availa-
bic in the South, and what will be the
probable course of prices?
Assuming that the crop of last year,
not vet marketed, was 100000 bales Git
has been estimated at 100000 bales,)
81 is not possible that more than $1,000
bales can have run the blockade, or have
been wasted and destroyed by the Union
and Rebel armies. As yet our armies
have barely skirted the cotton regions
Some was destroyed on the South Caro-
lima coast, but more was seized by the
Union troops or transported into the in
terror by the Rebels. A few hundred
bales may have been destroyed in Virginia,
thousand in the neighborhood of New
Orleans: but the vast bulk of the crop is
still lying unginned and INHALED on
plantations and in out-of- the-way places.
No matter if the whole South is the
scene of bitter partisan war which
abould continue even until autumn, the
stock of cotton, eventually available for
commerce cannot be reduced below 81
100000 bales. In the meantime another
is growing, not as large as that of last
year. for obvious reasons but still not
more than third less. 1t is indeed
safe to assume that there will be 6,0O0,-
600 bales Of American cotton which will
come upon the markets of the world be-
tween next July and the following April.
The planters must sell and submit TO low
or prices than have been known for many
wears, for the immense accumulation Of
The two years will meet in competition
an excessive product from all the other
cotton regions of the EARTH
REMARKS
Four millions of bales is high esti-
mate for last years crop of cotton. Be-
tween three and half and four millions
is the proper estimate OF this not more
than two millions will ever be brought to
market, The residue viii have been de-
stroWed by the rebels themselves rather
than see it fall into the hands, even by
purchase at high price, Of their hated
opponents. The Confederate forces will
burn the cotton as they recede and wher-
ever they go, if there be no other means
of preventing it from falling into the pos
session of the people of the loyal States.
They have invariablypursued this course
hitherto, and will continue TO pursue it.
Our New York contemporary greatly
ander-e estimates the amount already
burnt. He says, a few hundred bales
may have been destroyed in Virginia,
North Carolina and Tennessee, and few
thousand in the neighborhood of New |
Orleans" Why, in a single county in
this State, GILES, between two and three
thousand bales were destroyed by a troop |
of SCOTS Louisiana cavalry, besides some
hundreds, as we have been informed, in
the adjoining county of Maury. If the
matter were left TO the planters, the great
mass of them, we think, would rather
sell their cotton even 20 the Northern
than burn il; but that
there are planters, and no very insignif-
cant number Of them, in South Carolina,
Georgia and other Southern States who
would themselves apply the torch to their
crops, rather than sell them for their full
market value, high as it now is, TO pur
ahasers from the loyal States, there can
be no doubt This business of burning
cotton has but commenced. Before the
war is at an end, il will be seen that the
Confederate authorities, civil and militia
ry, and even a portion Of the planters,
are madly in earnest in their threats 10
destroy the entire crop of last year rath-
ST than permit it to go North on any
terms short of the acknowledgment Of
their independence. Two millions of
bales, then, we think high estimate Of
the amount of last years crop that will
be eventually saved from destruction.
As to the growing crop, it may be safe
ly said that the number Of acres planted
this season, is not more than half the
usual amount; and that the condition of
She country viii necessarily cause the
tlllage OF that half TO be less complete
than il ordinarily is. Two millions of
bales must be considered a very liber-
al estimate for the growing crop. In.
stead Of ccncurriDg, then in the aesump-