The south-western. [volume] (Shreveport, La.) 1852-1870, 1865-08-02
Past and Future Trade of the South.

People do not to realize the change that the
war has maye in trade and commerce. They are too
apt to think that these viii remain their old basis
which temporarily suspended By the action of the
war only to be renewed the same hourishng scale,
now that white robed peace has resumed her sway
The trade of the south depended on her commercial
relations with the balance of the world These rela-
tons based upon the dissmiarity of her agreul
tural productions with those parts OF the world with
which she traded Commerce is only the result of
dissmilar productions which naturally seek inter
change with each other. In this way commerce may
be called the great equalizer Of the products of the
word-creatng, as it were, homogenity OF the great
marts of the globe. As long nation has pecu-
liar agricultural products of her own just long will
she have Furnishing commerce. In lieu of products
NAV sometimes be substituted mineral resources and
cheap manufactures, but not often. The three great
commodities of the south we're sugar, cotton and to-
baeco These were universally sought AFTER and
brought property and wealth to her shores. They
were the results of slave labor, worked by large pro-
prietors who could make gregarous servitude $50 to
speak of the negro profitable. This system OF labor
has been destroyed and in its place is attempted to
substitute sort of peonage nearly allied as posi-
bic to the slave system is consistent with the prln-
ciple of free wages.
The attention of the military authorities is being
directed to this matter and for his good, well
as for the good of the community at large, the negro
is persuaded to remain and work for wages. This may
do for tme-a year perhaps, but not longer. While
lasts the commerce and trade of the south will be
as it has been But very soon this gregarous labor
will begin to lose its adherence. The individual negro
will gradually leave the body aggregate and begin
cohcre around the smaller order of the family centre
The large agricultural estates will be broken up and
divided off into small farms worked by free white la
Dor the plan OF the European and northern farmers
The small farmers will turn their attention to stock
raising and pasturage-for this requires but little labor
in the and be done by the whites. The small
cereals will be cultivated also By and by the most
necessary manufactures viii be made and in this
the south will become to great extent self-sus
tanning. Thus the south will become similar to other
parts of the country-her productions and labor will
become homogeneous. Having her articles of
food and her manufactured fnbrics-wth no Pc
cuar products to send abroad and necessary arti
ces to import, her foreign commerce ceases and with
that entire change in her business relations
Her trade will not be extended and prosperous it
was before Great individual wealth may not be ex-
pected; princely estates will be built up, with all
their appliances and surroundings of luxury and ease
But in their place will substantial comort--a ]
comfort that will be generally dfused through
out the land, bringing it'll it, perhaps, perIna-
nent basis Of prosperity. This new condition will
combine the elements of great social refinement and
from it will naturally spring a mental independence
that will conduce greatly to intellectual cultivation
The southern people, a class, will be tanned down
from their rowing and disintegatng propensities, and
will become less boasttul and better educated peo
DE
Those who think that the war has been only sas
pension of southern trade, and who predict that it will
,e substantially restored, have not studied the events
If the last four years with any great assiduy. The
evolution has swept away the old trade system. We
doubt but that thsTe will be plentiful Sub5tltu-
ion. The necessities of large pcpuation-for we
Till have a healthful influx OF white immigration
sill beget trade, and manufacturing and agricultural
Independence will convert it into channels. The
molten lava pouring from the summit OF some seeth-
Bg crater parches cleans and destroys the vegetation
f the surrounding country. After while from the
rust of the lava springs new, and, perhaps, more
ardy vegetation than the destroyed.
The south is in this ncOhate state. The old system
f trade has been destroyed if by the action of
urning lava. New systems will be substituted and
hen she issues from the probationary condition that
be is now in, the south may have career of pros
Gritty before her. compared with which; her former
eer may be like the toddIing steps of the pigmy
longsidc the stride OF the giant. Let us live aud
ope. Galveston News.