CHAPTER V.

DEVELOPMENT OF COMMERCE.

"The consequences will be favorable to all Christendom, to Europe, to the whole world."-OXENSTIERN.

THE Commerce of this country has great providential advantages. Our extended coast-line includes innumerable bays, river-entrances, and harbors, so that the shipping of the world can reach our Atlantic and Pacific States with the greatest convenience. External commerce seems thus to have been indicated by the Creator of this continent upon a scale of greatness corresponding with the purpose of establishing here a large and prosperous nation. God makes only what he wants. The exercise of his creative power might therefore be studied, with the reasonable hope of ascertaining, to a great extent, the plans of his providence. True, his acts are largely prospective. For ages, the purposes of his special creations may remain unavailable and unappreciated: they are, however, thus the stronger evidences of his omniscient control. As the exigencies of a nation arise, the urgent demands of progressive civilization appear. How instructive and inspiring to find that they have been all anticipated by the foresight of the great Creator; that He whose wisdom is infinite, even in the original formation of a continent, provided amply, and in the most minute detail, for every emergency of the coming ages! This must be God. No finite power or wisdom could possibly produce such results; and surely nothing could be more grateful to the intelligent mind than the recognition of this most important fact.

VALUE OF EXPORTS.

It is not much more than two centuries since our exports were a small quantity of furs, sassafras, clapboards, and wainscoting, and a little corn and tobacco; hardly enough to deserve a name in the commerce of the world, and yet enough, as we have seen, to rouse the jealousy of England, and secure arbitrary requisitions on the trade of the colonists for the support of the crown.

The following figures will indicate, imperfectly however, the development of the country in the materials of trade. From 1847 to 1860, our exports were as follows:

From

Products of 1847.

1850.

1855.

1860.

$3,468,033 $2,824,818 $3,516,894 $4,156,480 5,996,073 7,442,503 12,603,837 13,738,559 68,450,383 26,547,158 42,567,476 48,451,894 7,242,086 9,951,023 14,712,468 15,906,547 53,415,848 112,315,317 88,143,844 191,806,555 10,476,345 20,136,967 28,833,299 39,803,080

1,526,076

1,437,680

2,373,317 2,279,308 62,620 18,069,580 53,957,418 56,946,851

The increase in national resources and wealth is thus shown to be constant and very rapid. The discovery and development of the gold-mines in California serve largely to explain a remarkable advance in our exports for the year 1851. They rose from $151,000,000 to $218,000,000.

In 1862, we supplied foreign countries with American products as follows:

When we consider the facts brought forward in this chapter showing the resources of the American Republic, we are impressed with the conviction, that we have but just fairly entered upon our great career of commercial prosperity. The increase of our population, and the consequent demands for home consumption, can in no way keep pace with the rapid development of our agricultural, mineral, and mechanical resources. It is fair to conclude, that, as the rate of increase in exports has been thus far largely in advance of population, our exports are to advance with our increase of industrial citizens and the consequent increased development of our resources. To estimate the future, the relations of submarine telegraphy and steam navigation to commerce must be carefully considered.

IMPORTS AND EXPORTS.

The laws of exchange must, of course, extend to distant continents and islands, and tend strongly to make neighborhood of nations. In our growing civilization, we must want . articles produced or manufactured by other people, and they must want the productions of our land and industry. Equitable exchange of commodities would hence become desirable. This is the great function of external commerce. But even a superficial view of such a country as ours would suggest the superabundance of the necessary means of life and happiness, and abundance of many of the luxuries of life, from our own soil and mines and handicraft; and that, though the doctrines of "free trade" were to become the law of the land, the "balance of trade" ought to be largely in our favor. And so it unquestionably would be, were it not for the growing follies and prodigality of our people. Preference for foreign over American fabrics and wares of equal and even superior value, and the extravagance of fashions dictated in a foreign capital, discourage home manufactures, and run up a heavy account against us in European markets. A protective tariff, however high, has thus far shown but little power to combat these American vices, and make up the losses they produce. Our policy in this respect has not been sufficiently settled and steady to determine historically the results of protection as compared with free trade.

The following table will be valuable to our readers, as it will show the amount of our foreign trade for some seventeen years, and the proportion of imports and exports for the same time:

It thus appears that, our trade with foreign nations advanced steadily on the whole, and very nearly quadrupled, during this growing period of our history; reaching in a single year the enormous sum of $762,286,237, and showing a balance in our favor of $37,958,355.

Our exports from the products of agriculture are rapidly increasing. They reached, in 1861, $101,655,000; and in 1862, $124,561,000. This indicates the future commercial greatness of our favored country. The youngest of the great nations, we have already outstripped all but one. Great Britain alone exceeds us.

During the late war, the fluctuation in the value of gold rendered it difficult to estimate the commerce of the country. It is, however, very creditable to our people, that in 1865 they imported only $234,000,000, saving $128,000,000 as compared with 1860. At the close of the war, trade rose again very rapidly: so that, during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1866, our exports (specie value) amounted to the unprecedented sum of $415,965,459, and our imports (specie value) to $423,975,036; declared value, $437,640,354. The same year we received customs-duties, $179,046,651; being forty-one per cent of the total imports. It thus appears that a protective tariff is convenient as a method of adjusting our balance-sheet in trade with nations abroad.

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