, 1875-10-30
AMERICAN COTTON PLANTERS.
PLANTERS GaseHe.)

In the United States and caused so much
distress. promises to be q change in the industry
of the Southern States, which cannot fail, we
gather from the Neto York Commercial Chron-
tce, and from a contemporary, to be fruitful
in advantages to their population. Hitherto
it has been the practice Of the planters 10
cultivate their cotton plantations almost wholly
by means of credit advances. The system
originated in the extraordinary demand created
by the marvellOusly rapid growth of the cotton
manufacture in Europe. Planters in general
were without other capital than their lands and
their slaves, and had they been compelled to
depend entirely on their own resources, the
European demand would never have been
satisfied, Manchester would hardly have attain.
Cd its present wonderful prosperity, and, at any
rate, the South would never have obtained the
control of the market. But The capitalists of
the North came to the aid of the planter, and
he was thus enabled to extend his cultivation
in proportion to the demand. SO far the ar
rangemeDt was clearly profitable TO all parties.
10 the European manufacturer and to the
consumer it was ~palpably profitable, since it
kept down the price Of the raw material and
allowed The free growth of the manufacture.
To the capitalist lender it was equally profit
able, for it gave him a high interest for his
money, secured on a property the value of
which every day was enhancing. And to the
planter himself it was not less profitable, as
1t enabled him TO do a very much larger buSi-
ness than he otherwise could have done, netting
Il considerable profit over and above the interest
he was obliged to pay on the borrowed capital
with which he was working. But it is the
nature of all such arrangements to lead to
abuses. The planters, speaking generally. were
not tIained to habits of business. They were
statesmen. Legislators, soldiers, diplomatists,
onI OOunfvu OoOflaman licuaOcipn a lavish
hospitality, and keeping up a somewhat rude
and reckless dignity, but they did not give
that close attention to the profit and-loss
account which is essential to the permanent
success Of a credit system of business. The
vices Inherent in a society resting upon slavery,
aggravated the evil which in any case was
inevitable Still it is dcmonstrable that the
system must have been fairly profitable to all
parties. IF it had not. the whole planting
interest must have disappeared in the catacIysm
Of conquest, revolution, and emancipation which
closed the Civil War. The planters, however,
Did not disappear, and the old system Of credit
advances was almOst instantly resumed. 1t
is true that, without loans, the planters could
not have resumed cotton. planting. impoverished
as they were by the long drain of the war and
by the loss of their labourers. Still it is
manifest that a mode of cultivation which
mortgages the growing crop, thus transferring
in great measure the nominal owners interest
in it TO a distant third party, and which
depends for very existence on hand-tO, mouth
devices, is essentially an unhealthy one, and
this the planters were made to feel by the panic
of two years ago. The sudden paralysis Of
credit fell with extraordinary severity on the
planters. Several of them last year failed to
obtain on any conditions the advances to which
they looked for enabling them TO cultivate their
lands, while the far greater number had to pay
exhorbitant interest. The area cultivated, CON-
sequently, was decreased by nearly q million
of acres, and there were loud complaints that
the season was one Of the most Improbable
ever known. The planters were said to have
taken the lesson to heart, and this year to have
contriyed to cultivate an increased acreage
with much less recourse TO the money-lender
than has hitherto been customary
In other respects there is equally satisfactory
proof of growing prudence and growing busi-
ness-habits on the part of the planters. Every
visitor to the South in past times has remarked
the reckless waste of natural manures which
was permitted. The planters thus threw away
the meaus of preserving the fertility of their
soil. while they had to import at great expense
~fertilisers to enable them to raise cotton, or
resorted to the spendthrift remedy Of abandon
ing the plantation, and leaving to nature the
recuperation of its powers. According to our
contemporary the planters have at length