New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1871-05-20
THE COTTON AND SUGAR INTERESTS OF
ST InIIIS

object to any attempt to divert the trade
in these staples from their present mar
kets; but the enterprising merchants of
st. Louis should remember that all trade
now adopts its own place of sale, and
that there are certain laws which govern
the selections that will not justify our
staples in going SO far to the Northwest
to prepare for the voyage to those cities
in which their value is fixed by the con-
sumner. Can not our enterprising friends
be content with the superior facilities for
commercial intercourse with the immense
territory which lies between themselves
and the Pacific ocean? We do not COM
plain that they have opened ways by
which they can send their manufactured
or agricultural articles into Texas or
Florida without our agency. We are
content that they shall bill through to
any foreign port all commodities which
can not pay the ordinary transfer charges
here. But they must not blame the en-
terprise of their merchants or steam
barge men, if they shall not succeed in
carrying cotton from Mississippi and
Texas to be sold in st. Louis. The math-
ematics of commerce is against this
course of trade. We affirm that the price
of cotton everywhere is the Liverpool
price, discounted for the cost and time of
| transporting it to that market If the
ST. Louis merchant will look at the prices
at Liverpool, New York, Charleston,
Savannah, Cincinnati, st. Louis and New
Orleans, he will find exactly that differ
ence among them that represents the cost
and time between each of these cities and
the ultimate port of valuation.
No one port can pay more than another
for cotton, any more than any one could
pay more than another for gold. The
strength of each city then as a cotton GEN.
tire must depend on their comparative faci-
lities for concentrating the staple, and for
sending it forward at the least possible
cost of time and money. We concede-
perhaps with regret-that there is no
power to control the price of cotton by
any cisatlantic combinations among the
holders. Thus far, the capital commanded
by the spinner, and the reduction of con-
sumption upon rise of price, has broken
down every attempt to corner the con-
sumner. The process of purchasing cot
ton is so plain, at this day, that it does
not require the exhibition of much
capital to move it. Take an hundred |
bales of cotton in any city of the United |
States, telegraph a New York factor that |
you will set over your bill of lading and |
policy to guaranty his acceptance, and |
you have the capital, which the cotton
has furnished you, With certificate of
rapid and certain transportation, cotton
can move itself On these subjects our
have much experience. They
have witnessed signal experiments in the
former attempts to control market prices
in the interest of the holder. They have
come to know that their interest consists
in expediting the sales and transfer of
the crop at this port, and in offering all
the inducement to planters that integrity
and economy can afford. We are not
to admit that the same amount
Of sales on commission, and the same
weight and value of a commodity can be
handled with more science, dispatch, and
more to the satisfaction of the seller and
buyer than by the cotton factors of New
Orleans.
Let our ST. Louis friends draw a series
of radical lines from Liverpool directly
through the several Atlantic ports to the
various quarters of the cotton region. 1t
will be found that all this cotton is NOV
ing on right lines between production and
Cheapness of transporta-
ton is, of course, one element that in
fuences any value in transit, but this is
controlled by the paramount Importance
Of time. Hence We see half million of
bales going North by rail and coastwise
from the cities of the Atlantic coast. The
city of Memphis can take cotton direct
from Arkansas to New York by rail- Up
per Alabama sends cotton across to Nor
folk, Charleston and Savannah. New
Orleans has lost vast amount of cotton,
grown east of the Mississippi, by opera
tons of this law of trade Of this
she does not complain. 1t is inevitable
But if we look to the fact that the cotton
abor is emigrating from the Eastern, At
antic and Gulf States to Louisiana and
Texas, it will be found that New Orleans
S rapidly so placing this labor as that it
les more Immediately upon the way to
Liverpool than any other competing
route. We do not say that the shortest
line Of transportation between Houston
Austin or Marshall and Liverpool will be
through New Orleans, but the vicinity of
hose interior cities to a deep water outlet
1T New Orleans, carrying large cargoes to
Liverpool in nearly the same time that
they could be shipped by rail across the
country to the Atlantic ports, and with SO
much greater economy, will determine
the expectation Of all cotton grown on
and west Of the lower Mississippi by way
Of the port Of New Orleans.
We demonstrate the strength Of New
Orleans by the extraordinary and steady
Of her receipts since 1866. Be
Fore the war Cba p,orLa+e1 ond cold Dea r1v