The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1868-12-03

And the means of fortune and wealth are
found in direct trade.
Charleston should export this year about
three hundred thousand bales of cotton,
and if three-fourths of this could be shipped
direct to England, the city and the State
would be benefited: First, by the greater
profit of the factors and brokers; and Sc
cond, by the profits accruing to every class
of the community by heavy import trade
Under the first head would be included the
gain arising from the fact that large guam
tity of cotton would be actually sold here
and shipped to England for account OF the
buyer which now is simply passed through
the city. Beyond this there would be the
circumstance that cotton could be drawn to
Charleston for direct shipment which could
not be had for shipment to the North.
Economy in transportation and qulckness
of delivery arc the great requisites OF the
hour; and these con be best obtained ny
shipping from port like Charleston, which
is reached at saving of hundreds of miles
of railroad transportation, and is open TO
navigation all the year round. And every
additional bale of cotton drawn in this man
ner to the city would be a profit to the rail-
road, the drayman, the stevedore and the
shipping agent, and through them to every
merchant and business man. Under the
second head the gain would be enormous.
The direct shipment of cotton would give
us sterling e1ch .nge with which to meet
debt incurred on the other side by the pur-
chase of manufactured goods, and these
goods would be delivered here at the price
at which they are now delivered in New
York. so that the commissions and profits
now made by the New York importers would
be saved. This would not be limited to this
city or this State. The whole Of the South
western States would be copartners with
US, and by importing through Charleston, as
it is their interest to do, would share in our
advantage. The handling of the imported
goods would, of course, leave money here;
but this would be nothing as compared with
the effect on our trade of the arrival and
departure of a feet of steamships and sail
ing veasels-giving employment to our labor
ing classes, paying dues to the city and
making profitable our wharves, as well as
encouraging the building of our own ships
in our own yards with the timber which
grows in our own forests, and to be filed
with the cotton, and rice, and naval stores,
which are the products of our SOIL AL
ready our railroad system is extended to
the mouth of the Mississippi, to the Bay Of
Mobile and the waters of the broad Ohio,
and the lines which are to feed Charleston
will fail to accomplish their purpose if they
do not receive the encouragement of direct
shipment and Importation.
Baltimore has never been diverted from
her one great object of completing her
sthrough" railroad system by the addition
of European steamship lines; and she grows
daily in population and strength. Liberal
ity and municipal good sense have helped
her as they shall help us, but her shipping
trade has been the foundation of the whole.
Baltimore, when she began the race, had
no advantages, natural or artificial, which
Charleston has not This city can be made
greater and wealthier than Baltimore, and
we have implicit faith that few years will
SEQ Charleston marching on with rapidly
which no city in the Union has ever sur
passed.