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some of the coarser fabricks, the British manufacturer was rivalled by the produce of domestic art and industry; and, by thus deliberately shutting ourselves out of this great market for British goods, we established, in favour of the American manufacturer, the irresistible encouragement of a complete monopoly. The usual policy of nations has been to confer peculiar privileges and distinctions on domestic industry. In the case of America, we have reversed those common maxims of national prudence; since the tendency of all our measures has been to encourage and extend her growing manufactures upon the ruins of our own. As the former unjust attempt of Britain to tax America accelerated the natural period of her political emancipation, our recent policy has, in like manner, contributed to hasten the period of her second emancipation, by rendering her independent of this country for a supply of necessary manufactures.

But, independent of the hostility of neutral nations, we had no reason, considering the enemy we had to deal with, uselessly to draw down upon our defenceless commerce the vengeance of his military power. It was obvious, that we depended on a free intercourse with the nations of Europe, for a vent to our surplus produce. By the friendly intervention of the neutral merchant, British goods found a ready access into all the markets of the Continent. No hostile territory was found a sufficient barrier to their entrance; and all that was exacted in return, was an equal toleration of the neutral commerce at sea. If we had been contented with the exercise of rights universally acknowledged-if we had not persisted in straining our maritime hostility beyond its natural limit, to the general vexation of commerce, there is little doubt that the consumption of the Continent would have been supplied by British manufactures. Restrictions might have been imposed, and hostile regulations might have issued, to obstruct the free course of trade; but there existed no motive for the rigid enforcement of this policy; and the necessities of commerce would, as in all former cases, have soon restored the usual connexions of trading countries. It was the part of Britain, therefore, even if she had been challenged by her enemy to this commercial warfare, to have declined the contest. Her extended commerce presented too broad a mark, to be rashly exposed to his attacks. The consequences to her own manufacturers, of bringing their produce under a cruel proscription, within the wide extended precincts of French power, were so obvious, that by some means or other that fatal collision of incompatible claims should have been avoided, which necessarily and directly led to universal discord

and anarchy between nations. A different course was pursued; each party seemed eager for the work of mischief; and though the plea of retaliation was used, vengeance appears to have been the true spring of those destructive measures.

It is under the consequences of this policy that we are at present suffering. We sought to ruin the enemy's trade, and we have succeeded in ruining our own. All our great manufacturers depended, for an outlet to their surplus produce, on the mar kets of Europe and America; and their decline was the neces sary consequence of the loss of those markets. From the time the intercourse of trading countries was interrupted, the quantity of manufactures produced by British industry regularly exceeded the consumption. The effect of this over-production was a want of sale; and it is under the evil of an overstocked market, that our manufactures have ever since continued to languish. Our system of commerce and industry being wholly adapted to the supply of the foreign market, its produce could not be suddenly reduced within the diminutive demands of the home market. It could not be instantly new-modelled into an entirely different form; and in the supposition that trade would soon revive, manufacturers who had large capitals invested in machinery, had every temptation to continue their works. this way, the supply never decreased at the same rate as the consumption. The goods on hand were daily increasing; and the partial demands of the obstructed markets were far from bcing sufficient to clear away the arrear of unsaleable produce. There can be little doubt that this is a main cause of the long continued stagnation of our commerce and manufactures. The country is overloaded with superfluous goods, for which its merchants can find no outlet; and hence their eagerness to pour them into every open market, without any nice calculation of consequences. To this cause may be traced the immense and unprofitable exportations of goods to Buenos Ayres, and to Rio Janeiro; and though these imprudent speculations no doubt aggravated the commercial distress, they were rather the effect than the cause of it. They were the symptoms of the general malady of a deficient market, under which the commerce of the country was so grievously labouring.

III. The markets both of America and Europe have been since opened, under certain restrictions, to the commerce of Britain; but industry still continues to languish; and the cause of this seems to be, that the general consumption has not yet been able to relieve the country from the excessive accumulation of its produce. It has been usually supposed that, in Europe and America, the demand for British manufactures has been

partly supplied by domestic industry; and to this falling off of the demand, is ascribed the continued depression of our commerce. In America, various manufactures were begun prior to the interruption of the intercourse with this country; and this circumstance, by putting an end to all competition, would give them every necessary encouragement. Since the conclusion of peace, they have been encouraged by the imposition of duties on British goods imported. Attempts have also been made, in differents parts of Europe, to supplant the British manufacturer; and they have been favoured by the usual encouragements of restrictions and heavy duties in the importation of his produce. The markets of Britain have, however, been so completely overstocked, that all these restrictions on the introduction of British goods, have been found unavailing. Those goods have been poured into the markets of America and Europe, in spite of restrictions and heavy duties; and the consequence has been, that many late establishments in Europe have been ruined, and that a serious check has been given to the rising manufactures of America. Such was the state of British commerceso thoroughly was it adapted to the supply of its extensive markets-and such a vast capital was irrecoverably sunk in this peculiar channel of industry, that even after the demand abated, the production necessarily continued for some time, and it could scarcely ever be brought down to the level of the consumption. If a partial increase of demand occasioned the least void in the stock on hand, it was instantly replenished by a new supply; and this dull and discouraging industry the manufacturers were partly enabled to continue, from the extreme lowness of wages, which in most cases were scarcely equal to the purchase of bare necessaries. Even at this low rate of wages, the manufactures for the foreign market are still continued; and although we should suppose the quantity produced to be inferior to the quantity consumed, it may be a considerable time before this excess of consumption reduce the supply to the level of the demand. Until this period, however, our commerce and industry must be in a languishing condition. We have no proof that the consumption of our manufactures, either in Europe or in America, has fallen off. Immense quantities from our own overstocked markets have been exported to those countries, far greater than the demand can possibly absorb, even at the very low prices to which they have been reduced. In one year it is calculated that goods to the value of eighteen millions were exported to America, and prices were, in consequence, ruinously low. But there is little doubt that the goods will be consumed; and those sudden and rash exportations only indicate the over-abundant supply of the

home-market. The recent demands of our former markets have not been sufficient to relieve our commerce from the accumulated produce of those fatal years of proscription to which it was exposed; and it is this surplus produce which appears to be still hanging a dead weight upon the industry of the country. If this were once removed-if we were once freed by the reviving demands of the foreign markets, and by the decrease of production at home, from the burden of unsaleable produce, commerce would unquestionably revive. It would not probably, for some time at least, grow to the same extent as before. We will not, it is likely, maintain the same undisputed sway as formerly in the markets of the world, opposed, as we shall no doubt be, by domestic competition, and heavy duties. It is well known indeed, that the enemies of Britain have succeeded in exciting against her the jealousies of the Continental States, who, from be ing her allies in war, have become her rivals in trade. This feeling has been considerably increased, by the immense quantities of British goods lately poured into the Continent at such low prices, that the home manufacturer was ruined, and his workmen thrown out of bread. With all the disadvantages of our own heavy duties, and with all the internal duties against us abroad, we were enabled, by the low price of commodities at home, to undersell the foreign manufacturer in his own market, and to ruin his trade. If we have not relieved ourselves, we have at least succeeded in communicating to others the contagion of our commercial distress; and the Continental States, dreading apparently the continuance of such an intercourse, have resolved to place between us and them the barrier of vexatious restrictions and imposts, which, though they will not entirely prevent our trade, will certainly tend to obstruct it.

The same spirit prevails in the United States, from a different cause. The commerce of America was exposed to such dangers during the late wars in Europe, that her legislators now generally concur in the policy of promoting, by special encouragements, their own domestic manufactures; and it is observ→ ed, in a report presented to Congress in 1810, that the violations of neutral commerce by the powers of Europe, by forcing industry and capital into other channels, have broken inveterate habits, and given a general impulse, to which must be ascribed the great increase of manufactures' during the two preceding years. Of these, the cotton manufacture is the most important, and the most general throughout the United States. According to accounts laid before Congress, the first cotton mill was erected in the year 1791; and, previous to the year 1808, the number only amounted to 15. But at the close of

that year, when the intercourse with this country was interrupted, they were increased to 87. The cotton manufacture has been since considerably increased and extended. It has been introduced into most of the American States; and the American manufacturer has this obvious advantage over those of Glasgow, Manchester, or Rouen, that he has the raw material at home, of which they must derive a supply from the most distant countries. It has been calculated, that cotton, before it can be transported to Europe, and brought back to the United States in the form of finished work, must be loaded with an expense of 50 per cent. for the finer manufactures, and 70 per cent. for those of a coarser fabric. Upon this basis, aided by protecting duties, the cotton manufactures of America will no doubt in time be raised to perfection; but the superior skill, capital, and improved machinery of Europe counterbalancing those advantages, may undoubtedly give its manufactures for a time the preeminence in the American market.

There are scarcely any linen manufactures established in the United States; and though the cultivation of hemp has been greatly promoted by the suspended intercourse with Europe, several attempts to introduce the manufacture of this material have failed. All the coarser implements of iron are manufac tured in great abundance; but cutlery, and all the finer species of hardware and steel- work, is almost entirely imported from this country. Of earthen-ware, the coarser species of pottery is every where made; but there are only four manufactories of the finer kind, which were established about the year 1810. The glass manufactories supply about one half of the domestic consumption. They make principally an inferior sort of glass; with the exception of one manufactory, which is said to make glass equal to any imported. Most of the other American manufactures are in the same condition. All the inferior productions of industry are manufactured in sufficient abundance; while those of a finer sort are imported from this country. At present, therefore, it does not appear that heavy duties would exclude the manufactures of Britain from the American market. They would merely operate as a tax on the domestic consumer; for as no manufactures of this sort are already established, it is vain to suppose that the necessary requisites of skill, capital, and improved industry, which are the slow growth of time and experience, can be prematurely forced into existence by the vulgar expedient of prohibitory duties. The foundation for the improvement of American industry, is, no doubt, laid in the establishment of those coarse and household manufactures which

are common in the country, and which skill and experience will

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