NOTES AND REMARKS—BY THE EDITOR OF THE REGISTER.
The general average value of the products of the United States exported, may be estimated as amounting to 45,000,000 dollars, at fair prices; the cotton, tobacco, and rice, included in which, may be valued at 21,000,000—the balance is made up of bread stuffs and meats, the product of the forest and of the sea, and 2,000,000 in manufactures.
The chief things that we have for export bear about the following proportions to their respective quantities consumed in the United States—assuming 45 millions as the amount of value exported, and taking our products at their average quantities.
| Val. or am't | Val. or am't | |
| exported. | consumed. | |
| Bread stuffs, meats & drinks, | D. 13,500,000 | 270,000,000 |
| Provender for horses, &c. (say) | 50,000 | 60,000,000 |
| Manufactures, (in general) | 2,000,000 | 220,000,000 |
| Product of the fisheries | 1,500,000 | 9,000,000 |
| ————— forest | 6,000,000 | 60,000,000 |
| Cotton, | lbs. 85,000,000 | 40,000,000 |
| Tobacco, | hhds. 75,000 | 25,000 |
| Rice, | tierces 80,000 | 80,000 |
The value of the cotton, tobacco, and rice consumed in the United States, being considered as included in the aggregate values of the manufactures used, or other stuffs consumed, will give a value to the consumption equal to 619, say 620 millions of dollars per annum; and assuming our population at 9,500,000, the average for each individual is 65 dollars a-year. This amount includes ALL sorts of disbursements needful to the subsistence, convenience and comfort of the people, except the product of the value of labour directly applied to the erection of buildings or other permanent works. The amount, though it appears enormous, I am satisfied is less than the actual value consumed. It brings out the general result, that our exports stand to our consumption as 45 is to 620—or as one is to fourteen, at the present time. When the price of commodities was higher, the rate was as one to seventeen.
The ratio of each of the preceding items are about as follows:
| Exported. | Consumed. | ||
| Bread stuffs, meats & drinks, as | 1 | is to | 21 |
| Provender, | 1 | — | 1200 |
| Manufactured articles, | 1 | — | 110 |
| Product of the fisheries, | 1 | — | 6 |
| ———— forest, | 1 | — | 10 |
| Cotton, | 2 | — | 1 (nearly.) |
| Tobacco, | 3 | — | 1 |
| Rice, | 1 | — | 1 |
It would be excessively tedious to attempt to detail the multitude of items that affect these general conclusions. Accuracy is not pretended in either of them. Probabilities only are aimed at.
From these facts assumed as being pretty near the truth, we may estimate the importance of the home trade, or internal commerce and consumption of the people, and arrive at a multitude of highly interesting considerations. Take the following for an example:
The sudden introduction of less than 500,000 persons, would leave us no surplus of present products of food for men. But it is a demand for this surplus, no matter how created, that assesses the value of the whole product. Such products, let the fact be recollected, were at as high prices during the late war, when there was very little export of them, as they are now, the difference in the value of our circulating medium being also considered. This was caused by a partial want of agricultural labourers; but more by the waste of provisions that belong to a belligerent state.
Foreign commerce, nevertheless, has a powerful bearing on the consideration of value in a state of peace, to the growers of grain, meats, &c. The amount beyond their own immediate consumption and that of their families, may be about two fifths of the whole, besides the foreign export, or nearly 110 millions,—the price of which is fixed by the small amount of 13,500,000 dollars' worth sent abroad! And, this little surplus remaining unconsumed, or without being wasted, at home, would depreciate the general value of the whole surplus at least 50 per cent. Hence, it would seem of greater interest to the farmers even to destroy a portion of their products, than to cast them into a glutted market, according to the principles acted upon by the Dutch in regard to spices. A policy not to be recommended on the score of morality, but as according with the spirit of trade. It cannot, therefore, be advantageous to the agriculturist to depend upon a foreign market to assess the value of his articles, for it is, and ever must be uncertain and unsteady. It is his interest to have a market at home, for this may be depended upon, and the product will be regulated by the demand, so as to leave a fair profit.
A gentleman of observation, on a certain occasion, when I Was speaking on this subject, related the following case in point.
At an interval of about 10 years, he had stopped for a short time at a certain village in Connecticut—when first there, it contained two first rate taverns, and one other respectable establishment of the same kind. Two lines of stages made it their halting place every night, and all seemed flourishing and lively. When there again, the three taverns were shut up, or at least not occupied as such, and he had to apply at a private house to be accommodated during his stay, and every thing appeared dull and desolate. He asked the reason.—It was the establishment of steam-boats which had destroyed the lines of stages, and driven off the persons and horses that they had given employment to, and of course the market they created, which hitherto took off all the surplus products of the neighbourhood, had ceased to be. A thousand instances of this sort might be noted to prove that a ready market is the prosperity of a neighbourhood, country, state, or nation.
On the different items, especially those of cotton and sugar, as mentioned by the writer in the National Intelligencer, we intend to speak particularly hereafter, in the essays we have promised to write under the head of "Political Economics," the introduction to which appeared in the Register of the 13th ult. page 162.
Vine Dressing near Vevay.
Vevay, (Indiana) Oct. 28.
The season for making wine is just over; and notwithstanding the uncommon dry season, the vine dressers near Vevay have made four thousand eight hundred and ninety-two gallons.
[We copy the following from Niles' Weekly Register, with an intention, as his proposed essays appear, of giving them a place in the Rural Magazine,—having no doubt, from our knowledge of the editor, but they will be instructive as well as Interesting to our readers.—Ed.]