New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1867-01-07
Hn.lE MARKy + FOR RAW PRODUCE.

| Nllat nc receives IIOul tlO tAISucHCC anu ga
"tensiOn of American manufactures" and,
without entering into Mr.. Weiss application
of this opinion, we hold it to be sound
and excellent. Let us efficiently protect
our manufactures, and our agriculture will In
evitably be enriched to that extent. In other
words we shall be sure of what our \agI1cul-
turists and manufacturers Iced alike-a home
market for raw produce. This we cannot have
without especial protection of the industrial in
terests which are to draw from American helds
their supplies. We propose to illustrate this
point.
What sort of n foreign market have our
~agriculturists had din time past? Let us see.
Taking the years since 1913 in groups, when
may he fairly made, the average value Of all
breadstuffs and provisions exported to all for
eign countries runs thus: For tho three years
1916 S2O,5OO,OOO per annum; in the year OF
the Irish famine, 1s47, S6S,75O,OOO; in the fol-
lowing six years, S9O,5OO,0eO; in 1879 to 1888
during the Crimean war and disturbances III
British India, sGl,5OO,OOO; in the year 1853,
s3s 100000; and in 1860, S45,OOO,OOO.
Here we have range of foreign demand
within the first three years mentioned, from
500, 100000 to $6S,OOO,OO0 worth of our farmers
products; from this period, for six years, down
TO $50 1900, and up in the next year, 1884, 10
SOC, OOO,O O0 rising thence in 1856 to $77OOoOOo'
and dropping in 1850 to $38,00O,0OO. Can any
business stand and prosper whose dependence
is upon q market so unstable as this, ana Win
prices fluctuatng as widely and as wildly
But this is not ALL the total sales OF our bread
stuffs and provisions in foreign markets have
never exceeded, even in famine years and war
times, four per cent of our product, ana gen
orally fall under three per cent.
The question before us, however, nairows
this statement still more. The non-manuiac-
turing countries, lying in ATTITUDES north
and south of us, in our fiscal year 1So9-O0
took GO per cent of all our agricultural ex-
ports. except leaf tobacco and cotton. Tins
six-tenths of our export trade We have by the
natural law of reciprocal exchanges. lhey
took so per cent of our exported manufactures,
or S3e 100000 worth, along with S6OOOOOOO OF the
farm products of our temperate cllme ana gave
us, in exchange, sugar, guano, Spices oSe-
stuffs. fruits, coarse wool, tea, coffee, tropical
woods, gums, medicines, hides, grapes, and all
the foreign specie we received that year except
$147,1S7 only.
The wear $4,000 is the fairest for the argu-
ment. and the most favorable for our oppo-
pents which can be found in the last fifty
wears Of orr commercial experience; and, as q
farmers question, excluding the Southern plant
ing interest, it shows that of their total ex-
ports. tobacco excepted, amounting to S4I,32o.-
600. the manufacturing nations took but 3d.
100000 sending to us $200,0O0,0OO of manutac-
lures. the difference being paid by us In cot
ton. tobacco and specie. The wooden, cotton,
hemp, iron, and steel, silk, and flax manufac-
lures, imported in that year, and retained Tor
consumption. amounted to $124,250,00O; tho
ready made clothing to 100000; salt and
coal s2,OOO,OOO; total of these articles, SIPS
OOO.OOO from countries which took in the same
year, of all our products, other than cotton,
$50 32j 900, and of our specie S50,5OO,OOOl
Is this a commerce for which we may wisely
close our own factories and drive all our CAPT
tal and enterprise into the single pursuit OF
raising raw produce to be sold abroad, when it
riu sell there, and at such prices as the mar
kets. which we shall crowd, may affordf
The trader who has q stubborn notion that
all national profit and growth of wealth comes
necessarily from foreign commerce-that the
United States could no more grow rich by do
nestle exchange of commodities and services
than two boys could make five dollars apiece
by swapping their jackets, and, OF course, that
/ the globe called the earth will never thrive
generally until it establishes commerce
with the moon or other outlying prov
inces of the solar system--such
thinker will ask, do you mean to decry all
foreign trader Our answer is no. We only
mean to expose the absurdity of an unnatural
and mischievous trade which displaces our own
industry, throwing half the productive force OF
the country first into ideness, at an actual loss
of more than double the money value OF all
our imports at their highest figure, and after.
ward dragging down the prosperity of our
farmers by overstocldng the market and lessen
| ing prices, until scarcely crop in the lar West
or North West will pay its own expenses to the
ports to which it mus travel.
We wonld foster by all means the supple
mentary trade OF hndreds and climates made
interdependent by the laws of nature, and with
canal zeal and earnestness resist the diversion
of national commerce from its true and useful
channels under the delusion that nominal
cheapness of market price settles the whole ques-
ton of profit and loss. Be5ldes, the enslaved
dependence upon foreign consumption, WIN all
its uncertainties of demand and unsteadlness
of value. the simple fact that the nation which
seeks TO do all our skilled work for us never In
the average of years took more than S15,OOOoOO
out of our 81 800 100000 worth Of farm products,
or about 81 cents worth per head OF her popu-
lation, shows plainly how contemplate their
custom is. for our products, and should open
our eyes to the fact that we can have market
steady and sure for twice this amount by in
ducng one blacksmith, carpenter, and tailor,