The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1866-05-05
COLUMBIA.
Saturday Morning, May 5, 1865.
Manufacturing at the south.

to this subject, and it is again brought
prominently to our notice by the re-
publication in DeBo,c'S Rerie,c of an
article written some years ago by
General James, of Rhode Island,
which demonstrated the capacities of
the South for cotton manufactures
At the time this article was written,
the necessities of slavery restricted
the Southern people to the pursuits
of agriculture. This must now be
changed, as free labor, white or black,
will seek other channels.
The statistics and estimates of Gen.
James will. at this time, hen the at
tention of our people is being directed
to the subject, prove highly in
teresting. He argues that the net
profits and products of manufactur-
ing cotton in Great Britain exceed
those from the culture of cotton in the
South by more than 100 per cent. In
other words, of the ratio of the profits
made on 49O, 100000 pounds of cot
ton manufactured in England, the
planter should receive as his net
profits $4,000, 600; whereas, he re-
ceives, at most, but S3O,OO0,O0O.
This is easily accounted for. The
planter sends his cotton abroad to be
manufactured, and thus loses the
profits of the process when it might
as we'll have been done at home.
Again, he produced surplus Of the
article every year, sent to Europe a
surplus supply, and consequently he
had to submit to have purchasers
make their own prices, giving for the
article just what they pleased. This
the planter may know from the fuc-
tuation in prices, and from the fact
that an occasional short crop or
temporary deficiency in the supply
creates a corresponding advance in
prices, while, when the demand has
been fully cancelled, prices fall again
to their usual level, and very fire.
nuently below it,
Gen. James very pointedly says,
hat if a Northern climate would ad-
NIT of the culture of cotton, and had
Yankee in either of the New Eng
land States cotton plantation, with
all the requisites for the prosecution
of the business, the moment he found
he could make more money by the
manufacture of that article than by
its production, it would be farewell to
cotton growing, and the next thing
you would hear on thepremises would
be the clatter of the loom and The
hum of the spindle.
Now, if Southean planters would
act on similar principle, they would
much benefit themselves, especially
at this time, when every dollar of
profits, either from the culture or the
manufacture of onr great staple,
oi4Ou10 OSiCeetiASO liC AOulc AL Lue
time he wrote the article under no
tice, Gen. James gave the following
schedule of the profits of manufac-
turing, which is from actual data
taken from the operations of cotton
factory then at work:
Cotton-1, 100000 pounds, at seven
cents per pound. ..s....... $l26, 900
Cost of power, (steam}.. ...... / 800
Cardine .......-...... 1926
s~~AA-S-SplnntnS. ................ 14,734
. Dressing and starch. . 1906
Weaving, including all cx-
penses. ........... ....... 26,59s
Cost Of repairs, wear and tear, ma
chinists, etc. .............. 1902
Cost of general expenses, officers
salaries, transportation, etc 49, 2O,G42
Interest on capital Of s25O.0D0. .... Il, 900
Total ........... s237 ,O4s
Against this sum, which includes
the entire cost of manufacturing,
we have 900, 900 yards Of No. IA