but one great difficulty still remains, that is, a regular supply of the raw material, not only at moderate prices, but in annually increasing quantities. Mr. J. Baynes, in 1846, calculated that "the consumption of cotton, for the last thirty years, has increased at the compound ratio of six per cent. each year, thereby doubling itself every twelve years." The supply of cotton ought, therefore, to continue to increase regularly, in order to keep the manufacturing population in full and healthy employment. This great object, it appears to us, can only be effected by multiplying the sources, and having so extensive a basis of supply as to counterbalance any local peculiarities of seasons, and to make the annual increase of several places keep pace with the annually increasing demand. Before proceeding to consider the capabilities of different countries to meet, not only the ordinary, but this constantly increasing consumption, it will be instructive to take a cursory view of the way in which the present enormous and comparatively sudden demand has hitherto been met.

Though we have notices of the import of cotton in small quantities at earlier periods, in the year 1697 it amounted only to about two millions of pounds. In 1775, the average import was only four times what it had been in the beginning of the century, and chiefly from the Mediterranean and Levant. In the year 1786, the quantity imported amounted to 19,475,025 pounds, in the followimg proportions,

from

"The purposes for which the cotton was used, in the year 1787, are thus stated." (Baines's Hist, p. 216.)

The first notice we have of cotton being imported from India is in 1783, when 114,133 pounds were obtained from thence; but in the year 1790, as much as 422,207 pounds, in consequence of an order from the Court of Directors of the East. India Company. The export of cotton from the United States was little thought of at this period; for in 1792, Mr. Jay, the American negotiator of a commercial treaty between the United States of North America and Great Britain, stipulated that no cotton should be imported into the latter from the former; the object being to prohibit, in American vessels from the United States, such articles as they had previously imported from the West Indies. But small quantities of the short staple cotton had, previous to this, been grown in North America.

In 1784, an American ship, which imported 8 bags of cotton into Liverpool, was seized, on the ground that "so much cotton could not be the produce of the United States." (Macgregor's Commercial Statistics, vol. iii., p. 453.) In 1790, 81 bags were exported to Europe from the United States. The total of the imports into this country in that year amounted to 31,447,605 pounds, and increased in 1800 to 56,010,732 pounds, Though the import increased so much at the end of the century, it did not materially increase for the next fourteen years being an average of 66 millions of pounds annually, until the conclusion of the war in 1814. In 1815, the import amounted to 100 millions of pounds. Subsequent to this period, the increase has not only been rapid, but most extraordinary, as may be seen in the aver age for periods of five years

From 1815 to 1819

Average increase.

33,934,218 lbs.

་

118,267,611 lbs.

53,463,182 "

280,918,826 "

75,253,815"

415,039,185 "

134,120,359 66

586,507,757 "

171,468,572 "

629,144,967 "

66 1845 to 1849

43,637,210"

The author is indebted to the kindness of G. R. Porter, Esq., of the Board of Trade for informing him that the imports from all countries have been, for the year 1847, 474,707,615; for 1848, 713,020,161; and for 1849, 775,469,000 lbs.

In the year 1846, when Mr. J. Baynes made his calculations, and when there was a deficiency of cotton, in comparison with the consumption, he aaid: "If the consumption of cotton continues to increase in the same ratio which it has done during the last twelve years-all other things being the same-the cotton required twelve years hence, say for the year 1858, will be

or upwards hf 5,000,000 of bales of cotton from the United States twelve years hence.'

The latest progress of consumption and supply has not kept pace with these anticipations.

During the year 1849 there were imported

From the United States,

A manufacture employing so vast an amount of raw material must necessarily be of immense importance. In the year 1824, Mr. Huskisson considered the total value of the cotton manufacture to amount to £33,500,000. This has since been considered too high an estimate

for that period. Mr. McCulloch, in the year 1833, estimated its val ue to be £34,000,000, and the amount of capital employed in the manufacture to amount to about the same sum; and Mr. E. Baines, who arrived at his result by a totally different process, valued it at £31,338,698 in the same year, and considered Mr. McCulloch's estimate of £34,000,000 as the amount of capital invested in the manufacture to be very moderate. The population of the counties where the chief cotton manufactures are carried on was only 781,850 in the year 1780, but in fifty years it had increased about two millions, for it amounted to 2,753,685 in the year 1831. "The number of individuals directly employed in the manufacture, with those dependent on them for subsistence, must amount to 1,500,000," and now it is supposed to be as much as one-tenth of the population. The exports of cotton goods are valued at twenty-five millions a year, or one-half of the exports of the produce and manufactures of Great Britain, and employ 300,000 tons of shipping for freight. It is stated that, up to the year 1834, cottons to the enormous value of £570,000,000 had been sent from this country to foreign markets, thus furnishing materials for clothing to the people of almost every region of the globe, at the same time benefiting the nation itself by the production of clothing at so much less cost, and of so much better quality, than that to which the mass of the people had been accustomed.

Considering the variety of interests at stake, and the numbers of people employed, directly and indirectly, it is not surprising that any deficiency of the raw material should be contemplated with so much apprehension, not only in Lancashire, but throughout the country; and as the largest supplies come from America, so are the crops of that country looked to as signs of progressive prosperity or of approaching difficulties. The failure of the American crop in the year 1846, as in the very last season, caused a considerable rise in the price of cotton; and it was calculated that in that year an advance in price of 2d. a pound required an increased payment by this country of £4,000,000 sterling. In this year, the increase of price has caused many spinners and manufacturers of coarse yarns and heavy goods, either to stop their mills or to work short time, and of course to throw many of their workmen out of full and regular employment. It has been well ascertained that, "with high prices of the raw material, the present enormous production of cutton manufactures will not, and cannot,be taken off by the markets of the world."-(Manchester Guardian, Jan. 22, 1850.) Such being the paramount importance of a regular supply and moderate price of the raw material, we cannot but expect that the enlightened Government of this country must have been assured that such methods as were appropriate to its various colonies had been adopted for extending this supply; and that the Directors of the East India Company cannot but have promoted the culture of cotton in the magnificent empire intrusted to their sway. Merchants and manufacturers, also, so keenly alive to what is not only for their own interest, but for the benefit of all, must individually and collectively have concerted such measures as were suitable for the different natures and habits, as well as to the different states of civilization of the several nations of the globe. They, better than any other class, know that even commerce, though it never flourishes

more than when left free and unshackled, yet in many situations would never have existed if it had not in a measure been forced, by the more civilized taking to those who are less so, the produce of their skill, to exchange for the rude product of some distant land. Of na tions possessing a soil and climate fitted for such a production, some require only to bo informed of, others to be induced to do, what is obviously for their own benefit.

ARTICLE VI.

Savings Banks-How they get rich.

We commend the following remarks, touching the operations and results of "Savings Banks," in New York, to the consideration of the Public economists and Legislators of our own state. Owing to the rapid growth of St. Louis, Savings Banks will in a few years constitute an important element in the financial affairs of this city; and results similar to those flowing from the New York institutions may be expected here. The subject is worthy of the attention of our legislature. A law requiring the Banks to pay all deposites which may not be claimed within a certain periodsay ten years-into the state treasury, would remedy the evils which are supposed to exist in the New York system.

(From the Merchants' Magazine.)

The Albany Allas publishes under the above caption some editorial remarks and suggestions which deserve the attention of our state legislatures. In republishing them, our contemporary of the Wall Street Journal, who has "printed column after column on the subject," trusts that the coming legislature of New York will thoroughly investigate it. The Atlas says, as will be seen below, that a million dollars, including interest, of unclaimed deposits, are lying in the savings banks of New York, while the editor of the Journal thinks that instead of that amount, there are not less than five millions of dollars due the widows' and orphans' fund. We should say that there were at least $3,000,000 in all the savings banks, now unclaimed. We therefore hope the subject will be investigated not only in New York, but in some other States. We shall endeavor to recur to the subject, in the pages of the Merchants' Magazine, at an early day. In the meantime we give below the remarks of the Atlas:

Some of the most magnificent structures in New York and Philadelphia are savings banks, built from the deposits of the "labor

ing people," and to many it seems a sort of mystery how this can be. Men grow rich, build fine houses, sport carriages, and make a great dash in the world, out of the successful management of these same "benevolent ir stitutions," and a good many people wonder how this can be.

Depositors die without drawing out their deposits. They are strangers and no heir appears to claim the money. Many deposit secretly-some actuated by a miserly and avaricious disposition, some to avoid publicity and to evade creditors, and when they die the secret of their deposit dies with them. These unclaimed deposits remain, and are regarded as the legitimate property of somebody besides the depositors. This is one source of profit, and a very large one. Savings banks, as a general thing, are connected with banks of discount and deposit, and whatever the theory may be, in regard to investment, the deposits in some shape come to be substituted for, or at all events used as capital on which the latter banks operate. Judiciously managed, the banks of discount and deposit pay a dividend (including surplus fund) of from eight to twelve per cent. This leaves a margin of from three to seven per cent between the interest paid and the interest received on the deposits, and this is an other source of profit. There may be, and doubtless are, other advantages derived from the use of the deposits, but these alone show how this sort of "philanthropic institutions" may be and are made to pay.

Now, we by no means intend to say one word against savings banks, against their policy when established, or the manner in which they are generally managed. We regard them as good things, and beneficial to the people. But their claim to the character of benevolent institutions is apocryphal, to say the least of it. There is one thing in which the people in this State have an interest, rights which they should insist upon, and we affirm that the legislature fails in its duty if it does not provide for the enforcing of these rights. When a man dies without kindred and no heir appears to claim his estate, it goes by the law to the State, and its proceeds go into the public treasury, to be disposed of as the people through their representatives may direct. This is right, in strict accordance with the principles of natural equity, for property which no living individual has labored for, which no individual living has created or accumulated, nor has any legal right to appropriate, should be used and disposed of for the benefit of all.

There are now to-day lying in the savings banks of this State, according to the most intelligent estimate, more than one million, including interest, of unclaimed deposits. These deposits (assuming that they have not been squandered or applied to individual uses) were made in small sums, by strangers, foreigners, men without known kindred, by sailors, soldiers, servant men and servant women, who have "died and made no sign." These deposits have lain there for years, some ten, some twenty, some thirty,