2. From NORTH CAROLINA there are three returns. Mr. Jones, collector, at Wilmington, states there are in Cumberland county six cotton factories, water power: three joint-stock, established prior to 1840: largest capital, $140,000; others average $40,000; annual profits about 14 per cent.; lumber and turpentine business equally as profitable. Factories work ten hours a day; much of their pro-ducts sent to northern markets. Of these products of North Carolina, a small portion is exported to British North America, but no shipments are made direct from North Carolina to foreign ports. The western portion of the state is supplied with domestic iron, and the factories are remote from navigation, and from the points of importation. Mr. Singleton, of Newbern, states, North Carolina produces cotton, rice, tobacco, corn, wheat and oats; exports boards, planks, scantling, square timber, masts and spars, staves, shingles, heading, hoops, tar, pitch, rosin, turpentine and spirits of turpentine; chief exports, wheat and corn. Mr. Pritchard, of Elizabeth city, estimates nineteen-twentieths of the capital of North Carolina employed in agriculture; average profits on agriculture, last three years, had not exceeded 2 per cent., partly from a failure of crops. Agricultural prosperity of state greatest from 1832 to 1841, capital paying from 5 to 8 per cent.

"The state produces a sufficiency and an excess, except horses and mules, which are brought here in limited number, from Ohio, Indiana, Tennessee, Kentucky and Western Virginia. The prices have been 33 per cent. lower the last three years than the ten preceding. The decline I attribute to the reduced means of purchasing, in consequence of the low price of wheat and corn. We export tar, turpentine, lumber, salted fish, &c.; it is difficult to say whether they have been affected by the tariff of 1842. We export but little direct, owing to the peculiar situation of our state and its bad outlets to the ocean-most of our produce finding its way to New-York, (through the ports of Virginia,) and to South Carolina and Georgia. Some lumber, corn and beans, go directly to the West Indies. The prices are regulated by the foreign demand. We have 25 or 30 manufacturing establishments (mostly cotton) in the state. They are said to be doing well. Ship-building was once followed to a great extent, but at present, there is not enough tonnage to do the coasting trade, having to rely on canal boats of Norfolk and the New-England vessels. The capital employed in commerce is about as one to two of the agricultural products and staples for sale and export."

"Products-wheat, corn,

3. SOUTH CAROLINA.-P. W. Fraser : rice, cotton, tobacco, potatoes, sugar, hay, hops, silk, wine, &c. Rice, cotton, corn, wheat and potatoes, are the principal staples of South Carolina. In 1840, 60,590,861 lbs. of rice were produced; 61,710,274 lbs. cotton; 14,722,805 bushels corn; 968,354 bushels wheat, and 2,698,313 bushels of potatoes. The price of rice has been very low for several years, until the present time; and my estimated average profit on capital for the last three years 6 per cent.,

after deducting all expenses. I confine my answer to this one particular. The price of rice from the year 1832 to 1844, has varied almost every year from 60 cents per bushel, rough rice, to $1; clean rice, $2 40 to $4 per 100 lbs. I estimate my average price of rice at about 70 cents per bushel rough rice, or $2 80 per 100 lbs. clean rice, in consequence of rice selling oftener at the lower than higher point of the market. Indeed, it has seldom happened, that rice sold in the Charleston market at $4 per 100 clean rice, or $1 per bushel rough rice. The annual average income per hand or laborer, deducting all expenses, can easily be estimated by the hire; by which standard I am disposed to be governed; and I consider full task hands must have brought annually, during those years, $60 per head, and the furnishing $15, leaving $45; many planters realize $100, or more, depending upon locations, etc. The state of South Carolina is not dependant on any state, and raises largely of every kind; but many horses and mules are brought into the state and sold, from Kentucky, Tennessee, &c. Number of horses in 1840, 129,921; but cannot give the average annual amount or price for the years specified. Aggregate amount of wool in 1840, was 299,170 lbs. Previous to and after I cannot say; prices generally prevailing from 25 to 50 cents per lb. In 1840, iron, 2,415 lbs. ; salt, 2,250. Gold, granite, marble and other stones, are found in this state, but cannot say what quantity or price for the years specified."

R. F. W. Allston, of Waccamaw Beach, answers elaborately the circular of the Treasury. "Cotton and rice are the agricultural staples of South Carolina. The following statements will be understood as relating to the latter staple exclusively, unless cotton be expressly named. In the business of cultivating and preparing rice for market, a capital of $18,000,000 is employed. Average per cent. profit since 1842, 73; from 1832 to 1842, 8 per cent. pork and bacon, in the year 1841, and prior, I expended $200 per annum, where I now do not lay out $40, notwithstanding the quantity consumed on the plantation, 10,000 lbs., has been increased to this extent. Boards, scantling, shingles, staves, tar, &c., are also exported from South Carolina.

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Fifteen-sixteenths of the rice crops is consumed by foreigners, and five-sixths of the cotton; exports, cotton, principally to Britain and France; one-eighth goes to north of Europe, Mediterranean, &c. The exports of rice are principally to the north of Europe, Great Britain and Cuba. To Great Britain it is exported chiefly in the rough or crude state, called paddy; some shipments are made to France, clean and in the rough, the choicest samples being selected. About one-fourth of the crop is shipped coastwise, principally to New-York and Boston, whence, for the most part, it finds its way to the north of Europe and the West Indies. In Cuba the consumption of Carolina rice is about 17,000 barrels, (average 600 lbs.) Competition is met with here in rice grown in Old Spain, in Maranham and Campeachy.

"In England and the north of Europe, the competition encountered

is great, being from the Java and East India rice, which can be afforded much lower than ours. In England there are mills (constructed by Mr. Lucas, of this state) which will prepare over 300,000 bushels. Whenever it becomes the interest of their capitalists not to purchase our rough rice, the East India paddy is put under the pestle, and thus thrown into the European markets, in a better condition far than they can possibly put it in India or Java. There are several cotton factories in the state operating on a small scale in Pendleton, in Greenville, (one here of paper also,) in Spartanburg, (one here of iron also,) in Darlington, one owned by Col. J. W. Williams, in which he employs from 40 to 50 operatives. There was one in Marlborough with superior water-power, but I believe it has been abandoned or converted to some other use. Barnwell, the Vancluse' is very successful; in Lexington, near Columbia, the 'Saluda' company divided 5 per cent. the last half year. Limited as is the number of these factories, it is believed they are not dependent for their profits on the present duties; but it cannot be doubted that a number of them were brought into existence by the patronising countenance of government, and stimulated by the temptation to share a portion of the immense profits derived from their peculiar tariff protection by the similar establishments at 'Lowell,' Fail River, Paterson, and elsewhere.

In

"Many of our cotton-planters have already set about manufacturing at home their woollen and cotton goods. I have received, as a present, some of the goods thus made, now and heretofore; they will wear almost as long again as the goods, for the same purpose, coming from the protected factories of the north.

"The average annual imports for ten years, from 1833 to 1842, were $2,089,463; average annual exports for the same time, $10,291,735. The average annual imports for two years, 1843 and 1844, were $1,213,112; average annual exports, same time, $7,597,045. In the year 1800 the produce of the state was exported from her own ports, at which were also received the return cargoes which paid for it. Then trade was brisk; all the interests of the state flourished in a high degree. Then the imports at the port of Charleston yielded a revenue of $2,203,812, (less expense of collecting.) Now, (1843,) the duties collected at the same port are $158,405, gross. The great portion of our import business is done in the northern ports, where the chief revenue is collected on them. South Carolina produces, for exportation, as much rice now as then ; but the profits of the commerce based upon her great staples enure to other ports than her own. One-fourth of the rice crop is shipped coastwise, to be exported chiefly to Europe and elsewhere from northern ports.

"Wool is raised in sufficient abundance by many planters. I have no means by which to ascertain the aggregate quantity. I have never known it held at more than 25 cents per pound. It is chiefly paid for in barter; planters having a surplus being in the habit of supplying their more needy neighbors in the country, at a very low rate, with enough, when mixed with cotton, for their annual (homemade) stock of winter clothing.

Edmund Webb, of Anderson Court House, states: "the profits on well-cultivated farms in the upper part of the state, 3 per cent. on the capital; in the lower part, 5 per cent. State does not raise supply of horses, mules and hogs, by perhaps one-tenth of former, and one-fourth of two latter; introduces them from Tennessee and Kentucky; average price of horses, 1842, '45, $65, mules, $50; pork 2 a 3 cts. gross-a reduction on previous averages.

"We have no mines in the state worth mentioning, except a few gold mines, hardly worth working. We have a few cotton and iron factories in the state-twelve or fifteen of the first, and five or six of the latter. The cotton factories make yarn mostly, and weave some coarse cloths; the iron factories make bar and sheet iron, nails, / castings, &c.; cannot state their capital; they are, however, on small scales; their profits are less for the last three years than they were the ten preceding I should say, as they sell their articles from 50 to 100 per cent. lower than some years past; yarn now $1 per bunch, ten years ago, $2; nails six cents per pound, ten years past, ten cents. Still their profits are much better than those engaged in raising the great staples of the state. But very few of our citizens are engaged in navigation, and fewer in ship-building. The capital invested by our citizens in commerce, bears a very small proportion to the capital invested in the agricultural products and staples of the state."

The Chamber of Commerce, of Charleston, through a committee, reply Cotton, rice and Indian corn, are the principal staples grown in South Carolina; the two former only are exported. The capital employed in their production cannot be estimated at less than $150,000,000. The average profit is generally estimated at three to four per cent., and the difference in the average profit for the nine years preceding 1842, and for the three last years, may be inferred from the statements in another part of this report, in answer to other questions connected with the subject. The average price of cotton for the nine years preceding 1842, that is to say, from 1833 to 1841, was $12 334, and for the three years from 1842 to 1844, $7 333; of rice, from 1833 to 1841, $3 per 100 lbs., and from 1842 to 1844, $2 54 per 100 lbs. The state does not raise a sufficient supply of cattle, mules, hogs, Indian corn or oats. They are obtained from Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky and Louisiana. The committee cannot give at this moment their average price or value. All cotton goods, especially the coarser kinds, have been higher in the last three years, while cotton has been lower than it was ever known; rice, also, has averaged $2 54 in the last four years, and in the four years preceding 1842, $3 51 per 100 lbs. It is now bringing a much higher price, the crop being one-third short, but more particularly in consequence of the failure of the crops in Europe. The coarser manufactures of every kind, which enter into the daily wants of the masses, are always the most extensively consumed; and all of these articles have been relatively high in the last three years, as compared with the prices of cotton and rice. Timber and lumber are the only articles

of any consequence, the product of the state, besides the staples, that are exported.

Five-sixths of the cotton grown in the United States is exported and consumed abroad, and the same proportion may be assumed as correct in relation to that portion of the crop raised in Carolina.* Three-fourths of the rice grown in Carolina is exported and consumed abroad. The price of the former is governed almost entirely by the foreign demand, and the latter also, except in the summer months, when the supply is sufficient only for the home consumption, and there is a cessation of export. There have been several cotton factories established within the state in the last few years. Not enough is known of them to give the information asked. They are reported, however, to be doing a profitable business, and it is believed that they would be equally thriving with a fair revenue duty.

The growers of rice, cotton, and tobacco, in the last twenty-three years, have furnished 67 per cent. of the entire export of the country, and they are heavily taxed on all the articles used in their production.

The manufactures in the same time have furnished one-tenth only of the value of the entire export, and every article used in their particular branch of industry is either duty free or lightly taxed.

* Mr. Webster, in a speech delivered at one of the fairs in the interior of NewYork, in 1843, stated that the consumption of cotton in the United States was equal to one-third of the cotton crop. Mr. Webster displayed great ignorance, or he practised a great imposition upon his hearers. The cotton crop of 1842'43 was 2,378,875 bales, and the consumption (1842-43) 325,129 bales, or oneseventh only of the crop, in round numbers. The crop of 1841-42 was 1,683,574. and the consumption 267,850, being less than one-sixth; and the crop of 1844, 2,400,000, and the consumption 389,000, or less than one-sixth of the crop also. There is a good deal of cotton manufactured on the plantations for domestic use, and by mills in the interior of the southern states, but this can make no difference in the statement, as the whole quantity is relatively small, and the cotton so used is not taken from the ports, and is not consequently included in the crop, so that both items may be thrown out with perfect fairness.

It may be said that the decline in the price of cotton is to be attributed to an increase of production beyond the wants for consumption, but this is an error. The cotton crop of the United States of 1844 was 2,400,000 bales-the largest ever made; notwithstanding, the stocks in the American ports, on the 30th August, the end of the cotton year, were less than they were on the 30th August, 1844,...... .....65,646 bales.

By the last dates from Havre, the stocks of American cotton were less than last year, at same time....

In Liverpool, they were more than at same time last year......

Making a deficiency in stock of...

. 19,500

85,146 .64,300

-20,846 bales, as compared with the same periods of 1844, notwithstanding a crop of 2,400,000 bales.

The stocks in the other continental ports cannot be stated, but they are not large. The stocks in spinners' hands in France are moderate. In England they are large, but much smaller, compared with the extent of their trade, than it was their practice to hold some few years since.

It is not unreasonable to assume, therefore, that had not the consumption been curtailed in the United States by the excessive duties on imports, and more espe cially those on the coarser kinds of cotton goods, the consumption of cotton at this time would not only have been larger, but quite sufficient to have kept pace with the production, without the disproportionate decline in price that has taken place between it and the articles manufactured from it.