The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1888-10-17

buyers of these and similar bust
ness firms of the large cities of this coun-
try These buyers 90 to Erance and Italy
for their silks, to Germany Tor shawls and
cloal1s, to England for certain varieties of
wooden and cotton goods. They go 10 the
manufacturing establishments OF these
various countries, make their selections
and purchase precisely as if they were
buying for the English, German or French
trade; pay for what they buy in accord
ance with the cash or credit system OF the
country, have the goods packed up and
sent to the United States.
The interest in these goods OF the for
eign manufacturer ceases after he has
delivered them in England. France or
Germany to the American purchaser, and
when they arrive in Boston or New York,
it is Mesnrs. Jordan, Marsh q Co., X. IL.
White & Co. and others who are COM
PEELED to ply the duty upon them which
is exacted under our customs regulations.
These retail dealers in dry goods are out
of pocket to the extent both OF the for
eign cost of their goods and the duties
paid upon them, and they must add both
of these items to the selling price of their
wares before they can get back the money
they have advanced, to say nothing of the
profit they expect.
Now for another ilustrationof a reverse
character A year on two ago the French
parliament voted a protective duty of
something like 10 cs'nts a bushel upon
foreign-grown wheat, a Jaw aimed specially
against the American farmer. IL the the
DRY that foreigners pay taxes OF this KIND
were true, our American farmers would be
compelled to sell their wheat in the
French market at about IS cents less per
bushel than they would consider 1alr
price in the English market, where their
products 90 in untaxed. But, as a matter
OF fact, they do nothing of the Kind. The
price of wheat in Paris is, with very slight
variations, the same as the price of wheat
in London, plus the French duty. That
is to say, the American farmer does not
contribute as much as one cent toward
the payment of this French duty, which
has to he paid by the consumers of wheat
in France.
We might rest the case here, as the ilTTs-
trations we have given represent the cox
ditions under which all but a very insig-
nifcant part of the foreign trade of this
country is carried on. But it now and
then happens that goods are sent to for
eign market for sale by those who pro-
duce them. Thus a few years ago the cot
ton manufacturers of Fall River found
that they had on hand a large surplus
quantity of cotton cloth, which, if some
way of disposing OF it could not be found,
was likely to keep down the home market
price of this commodity. They, there
fore, arranged among themselves to re-
lieve their market by sending to and sell
ing in England a large quantity Of the
manufactured goods that they had on
hand. 1t is possible that in this opera
ton they sold their goods at a loss, for,
necessarily. they were compelled to meet
the English market price, whatever that
price may have been.
In the same way it occasionally happens
that a foreign manufacturer finds that he
has upon hand larger stock of manuiact-
ured goods than the immediate demands
of his home market justifies him in hav-
ing, and, to relieve himself from the en-
barrassment of carrying these for an in
definite period, he sends them abroad,
sometimes to this country, sometimes to
other countries, and sells them, as the
Fall River cotton manufacturers did, for
whatever they will fetch. Under such
circumstances, if he sends these goods to
the United States, he has to meet the
American price. whatever that may be,
and, in order to do this, he may at times
be compelled to pay part of the import
duty himself. All transactions of this kind
are of an entirely exceptional character,
current of international trade than the
padding of child's hand would have on
the great currents of the ocean.