The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1874-12-29
n,,o pevo,nt;on in Commerce.

Il
lc,I>ness of great cities is Manufacturing.
THE amount Of wealth that is accumulated
by turning raw material into manuiactufeo
goods Is amazing. The process afiords oceu'
nation to multitudes and gains that come
from il are great, and promote with Won
derrul rapidity the growth aud prosperity OF
a city. There is no great city that does not
prove this fact London Is the greatest
mar ufacturiog city in the world. We do
10, mean to say that all the manufacturing
tn. ministers to her greatness takes place
within the boundaries of the city. London
capital employe ed in manufacturing has hulit
yillsees and large towns at a considerable
distance from the great metropolis; but the
goods manufactured By them are exposed to
sale in London, and gains upon their manu-
facture so 10 enrich the trade of that won
deIful city.
: But London is the great capital CONNER
cial) of a small kingdom that is immediately
under her influence, and her supremacy cam
not be impaired by rivalry within the king
dom. Not so with the great cities OF the
Atlantic. The country is so broad and the
local production and wants Of sections afford
such ready and material support to towns
tba, they spring up rapidly in all sections,
while in the principal quarters there are
cities Of such power that they are gradually
ercroaching upon the large Atlantic cities in
making ali kinds of manufactures and sup
plying various quarters that once looked
wholly to the Atlantic cities for what they
wanted. These prosperous cities of these
quarters have been rapidly supplied with
imported labor by agencies and greedy cor
porations, which have been mainly support
ed by the capital of the very cities that have
suffered.
While the Government has been central
lied, commerce has rather tended to decen-
tralizatiop. The country is so vast, the
natural advantages for manufacturing are so
Giffuscd. ard skilled labor has been so ac-
lively distributed through railroad agencies,
that manufactures have sprung up every
where, constantly wearing away the supre-
IDucS lUil OuCc plSSdliCu III q sLAlaAl SSStloA
Of the eastern part of the Union.
{ We suppose nobody will deny these state
ments. The infererc &c is irresistible. When
We say that this decentralizing tendency has
been greatly aided by The social revolution
in the South, we say that which cannot be
denied. The poverty which followed the
revolution greatly diminished the wants of
the South aud compelled the manufacturers
to diminish their force and curtail the
amount Of their fabrics. 1t changed the
character Of goods consumed in the South.
Fabrcsstbat bad supported Du'itudes and
enriched hundreds of manufacturers were
no longer used, and the machinery and the
workmen engaged in making them had to be
otherwise employed-and that, toe, at time
when all other branches of manufactures
were oyerdone aud required to be "cut
down."
This view relates more directly to the
North and South. The detriment suffered
bv manufactures from the terrible revolution
in the South fell chiefly upon the North,
these manufactures, in their rivalry with the
Atlantic mills and FORCES, have gained
strength.
Returning to the point that great cities are
mainly dependent upon manufactures for
their wealth and population, we may see
what blow in this way has been struck at
places which once held supremacy.
The Atlantic towns must be the places Of
shipment for staples for foreign ports, and
also for the entering of importations from
abroad. That relation to the commerce of
the world and of this country they cannot be
deprived Of. But it requires no great num-
Der of people to transact all the exporting
and importing business, and MI the settling
that grows out of it that Is probable at even
the greatest port in the Union. Were New
York sustained only by this export and i'm
port business it would be anything but
great metropolis.
We repeat what we said yesterday, that it
is these things which are disturbing the
northern cities. They are due to all the
causes assigned, but chiefly to that political
revolution which spread disaster over the
land.
Under the powerful agency Of railroads,
and the manner in which they diminished
time in travel and transportation, it appeared
at one time that commerce and trade would
be more than ever concentrated to the Sc
rious injury of the growth and independence
of what may be called local towns. But it
seems that the reduction Of the prices of
transportation cause people more than ever
to make the cost of freights subject for
close calculation. Distance must Involve
expense; and where men of enterprise can
get, besides the advantage of economy in
living, nearness to raw material, they will
take the trade from others over whom
they have such advantages.
The western towns TEEN with domestic
industries. The West, that great storehouse
of the production of the necessaries Of life,
Ras driven to strait by the immense accu-
mutation Of supplies and their low prices.
The easiest way to make them available has
been exactly what they have been doing and
what they are now prosecuting with inn
mense energy. 1t was to make partition
of labor-to send large part Of it to manu-
featuring. The West thus went on to in
crease the consumption of their products at
home and to turn to account many things
not Heretofore available as the sources Of
,porav