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own support, and afterwards giving them out in the form best fitted for general circulation. So is it with men - the man of high development seizing upon and digesting every new idea, and thus preparing himself for further commerce with those with whom he is connected. So, too, is it with societies—those in which trade, manufactures, and agriculture are combined in due proportions, being always ready to take in the productions, mental or material, of other climes to combine them with their own, and thus give new value to the labors of all, whether near or distant. Brute matter, on the contrary, grows only from withoutbeing susceptible of no increase except by aggregation. So is it with men those whose mental faculties are torpid, being dependent upon their powers of appropriation, and the instrument they use being muscular force alone. So, too, is it with purely agricultural communities-constant exhaustion of the soil producing a necessity for appropriating other lands, to be in their turn exhausted.

Growing from within, highly organized communities find among themselves all the means required for increasing and extending their internal commerce - France, and all the countries that follow in her lead, making their own roads, creating their own local centres, and thus fitting themselves for a prosperous existence, were they even wholly debarred from intercourse with the outer world. Purely agricultural communities, on the contrary, like Ireland, India, Portugal, Turkey, Brazil, and Mexico, find themselves compelled to go abroad when they seek to make roads— becoming, from year to year, more dependent upon foreign commerce, and the foreign traders by whom it is performed.

So, too, is it with the United States. At times, their policy has looked to home development, and then they have made roads, and created local centres, without the need of foreign loans. As a rule, however, their policy has been adverse to the promotion of internal growth—the consequences exhibiting themselves in a growing necessity for seeking abroad the means of making roads. at home-in a growing dependence upon foreign trade and traders -and in a constant thirst for the annexation of distant lands.

§ 3. With growth of power in the individual man, for the maintenance of exterior commerce, the necessity for it declines the

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love of home growing with the increase of family ties, and with the love of science and of books. So, too, is it with societies— the necessity for exterior intercourse diminishing as the power for its maintenance is increased by means of diversification of employments, and development of the latent powers of their people, and of their various soils. Around us, every where, we find evidence that the powers of man are in the inverse ratio of his necessities-the former growing with every step towards increase of combination, and the latter doing so with every stage in the progress towards isolation.

Seeking proof of this, we may turn to any of the advancing communities of the world, past or present. The power of Athens grew with the development of internal intercourse. It declined, as domestic commerce became less rapid, and as her dependence upon external intercourse became more complete. — The great development of British external commerce followed closely upon the growth of the internal one the latter having owed its existence to a protective system of the most stringent character.— French external commerce has almost quadrupled in the last thirty years having grown from an average of 1,000,000,000 francs, in the ten years ending in 1835, to 5,000,000,000, in 1857.*-The

*The growth in the total amount of French imports and exports, in dollars, has been as follows:

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Since the completion of her railroad connections with Belgium, Prussia, Germany, and Switzerland, France has attracted a large share of the ocean trade of the interior of Europe, diverting it from its former channels, England and Holland. Thus does the system which looks to internal development tend to triumph over that of the two European countries which look exclusively to trade.

How domestic and foreign commerce aid each other, and how extraordinary is the growth of that power which results from growing combination of action, is thus exhibited in a paper read at the meeting of the British society for the advancement of science, recently held at Leeds:

"There was reason to believe that during the six years, on railways alone, there had been actually expended in France nearly thirty millions sterling a year-an amount not far short of what led to our railway difficulties. There had also been the Russian war, a failure of the silk crop, and two partial failures of the harvest. How, then, had all this expenditure been kept up? Here was the real cause. The official returns showed that, since 1845, the balance of trade had been very much more than one hundred millions sterling in favor of France- the demand for French goods having come from the United States and Australia, through the gold discoveries."

foreign commerce of Russia, in the free trade period ending in 1824, averaged, as we have seen, but $32,000,000. Growing gradually by means of measures promotive of interior growth, it had risen, at the opening of the Crimean war, to $75,000,000.

The domestic exports of Belgium, in 1828, amounted to only 156,000,000 francs. By 1850, they had become 263,000,000, and in 1856, 375,000,000—the export of food from that little country, with its four and a half millions of people, having, thus, been greater than the American average, in the decade ending in 1855-embracing, as it did, the periods of the Irish famine, and the very deficient crops of Germany and France. Belgium, however, follows the advice of Adam Smith, in combining her food and wool in the form of cloth, and thus enabling it to travel cheaply to the most distant countries.

Spain, impoverished as she has been by the "warfare" of the smugglers of Gibraltar, and by repeated revolutions, increased her exports from 71,000,000 reals, in 1827, to 166,000,000, in 1852.

Germany, as we have seen, increased her demand for cotton, from less than 400,000 cwts., in 1836, to almost 1,400,000 in 1851 — her total imports, in the same period, having risen from $105,000,000 to $185,000,000.-Sweden, too, followed in the same direction-exporting to the extent of more than $34,000,000 in 1853, against less than $14,000,000 in 1831.

In all these countries we find evidence that the power to maintain commerce with the world at large, grows with the growth of commerce at home-the power of digestion and assimilation being in the direct ratio of organization.

Turning now to Ireland, Portugal, Turkey, India, and Jamaica, we meet the reverse of this—the power to maintain exterior commerce gradually dying away, as the internal commerce ceases to exist. Looking next to Mexico, Peru, Buenos Ayres, and other portions of the Western Continent, in relation to which it was M. Canning's boast, that he had called them into existence, we find them to have declined in their importance - their power to make a market for the exterior world being, probably, less than it was when they were mere colonies of Spain.

§ 4. Coming now homewards, we may inquire what it is, that has given to the more than thirty States the power to maintain VOL. III.-29

any internal commerce whatsoever? Is it not a consequence of diversity in their modes of employment, resulting from the fact, that, while one portion of the country is fitted for raising cotton or sugar, others are better suited to raising wheat, rice, corn, barley, or grass; that while the soil of one is underlaid with coal, that of others is underlaid with lead or copper, marl or lime? That such is the case, is beyond all doubt.

That without differ

ence there can be no commerce, is shown by the facts, that the cotton planter of Carolina makes no exchanges with his fellowplanter of Georgia, and that the farmer of Illinois has little intercourse with his fellow-farmer of Indiana.

What, however, is the actual amount of commerce among the States? How much does Kentucky exchange with Missouri ? What is the annual value of the commerce of Ohio with Indianaof Virginia with Kentucky? Scarcely more, probably, than that of a single day's labor of their respective populations; and, perhaps, not even half so much.-Why is this the case? Is it not a necessary consequence of the absence of that diversity of employments within the States, which we see, every where, to be so indispensable to the maintenance of commerce? Assuredly it is. Ohio and Indiana are both employed in scratching out the soil, and exporting it in the form of food. Virginia and Kentucky have the same pursuits-selling their soil in the forms of tobacco and of corn. So, too, is it throughout by far the larger portion of the Union millions of people being employed in one part of it, in robbing the earth of the constituents of cotton, while in others, other millions are employed in plundering the great treasury of nature, of the constituents of wheat and rice, corn and tobacco, and thus destroying, for themselves and their successors, the power to maintain any commerce whatsoever-foreign or domestic.

The commerce of State with State is, thus, but small-the reason being, that the commerce of man with his fellow-men, within the States, as a general rule, is so exceedingly diminutive. Were the people of Illinois enabled to develop their almost boundless deposits of coal and iron ore, and thus to call to their aid the wonderful power of steam, the internal commerce of the State would grow rapidly-making a market at home for the food produced, and enabling its producer to become a large consumer of cotton. Cotton-mills then growing up, bales of cotton wool

would travel up the Mississippi, to be given in exchange for the iron required for the roads of Arkansas and Alabama, and for the machinery demanded for the construction of cotton and sugar mills, in Texas and Louisiana.

The effect of this exhibits itself in the slow growth of American intercourse with foreign nations, as compared with that of other countries- the former having done little more than keep pace with that of population, while France, Belgium, and Sweden have increased at a rate thrice more rapid than the growth of numbers. * Examine, therefore, where we may, we meet with evidence of the great truth, that the power to maintain commerce with the world, whether by individuals or societies, grows in the ratio of the growth of their own individuality, and consequent independence of the exterior world.

§ 5. That the facts are as above they have been stated, cannot be questioned. Why should this be so? Let us inquire. The obstacle to the maintenance of commerce, abroad or at home, is found in the tax of transportation-nearly all of which is paid by the community which exports the commodities of greatest bulk.† France sends abroad hundreds of millions of dollars worth of food, so condensed into silks and ribbons, laces and cottons, that the ships by which they could be carried are but few in number. India sends rude products only-requiring dozens of outward ships to pay for a single cargo inwards. - Central and Northern Europe follow in the lead of France-gradually emancipating themselves from payment of this exhausting tax, and thus qualifying themselves for becoming large consumers of the products of other countries. -Ireland, Jamaica, Turkey, and these United States-following in the lead of England - find, on the contrary, the tax of transportation to be a constantly increasing one, the results of which are seen in diminished production, and

The domestic exports of the United States, for 1836, were $107,000,000 †Those of 1856, exclusive of the precious metals, were... 265,000,000 -the population, in the meantime, having fully doubled.

Close neighbors to Spanish and Portuguese America, the exports to that vast country amount to only $13,000,000-the cause for this being found in the fact, that the people of the United States refuse to regard domestic commerce as being the true foundation of an extended international intercourse. † See ante, p. 433.

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