RECIPROCITY : ENGLAND AND AMERICA.
MR. WEBSTER'S Baltimore speech is a most important document. It affords evidence that there is in the United States a growing public opinion in favour of drawing closer the commercial relations between themselves and this country. Nay, more, it contains evi- dence that sensible Americans, seeing how our present Govern- ment is circumstanced—and how any Government able to hold the -reins of power in Great Britain for some time to come is likely to be circumstanced—are not inclined to stand upon their extreme -claims and refuse to lower their tariff unless all their agricultural produce be admitted. "I have not heard," said Mr. WEBSTER, "a suggestion from any quarter that England would be inclined to a -modification of her Corn-laws, properly so called—I mean her -duties on wheat and flour." And then Mr. WEBSTER proceeds to -Show that the Union has other agricultural produce, for the ad- mission of which into Great Britain on more favourable terms it -Ivould be advisable to reduce the American duties on our menu- -factures.
Mr. WEBSTER is right. Independently of wheat and flour, the -leading products for which the United States demand a market are—Indian corn, rice, cotton-wool, tobacco, pork and beef, salted or smoked,) butter and cheese. The citizens of the United Itates have a fair trade in flour and provisions to South America and the West Indies; those regions afford no markets for the atunaining produce enumerated. Nearly all the Continental states -of Europe raise sufficient corn and provisions for their own domes- tic consumption. Most of them grow tobacco, or prohibit its im- portation except for the Government monopolies. Cotton-wool is -almost the only article of importance that France, Germany, Russia, -and Italy, take from the United States. It is to England alone, ,otherefore, that the United States can look for any material exten- -sion of the market for their Indian corn, rice, tobacco, preserved -pork and beef, butter and cheese.
And the quantity of those kinds of produce they have to dispose of is sufficiently great to induce them to close a bargain with Eng- land for their admission to its markets, even though the unwise in- fluence which refuses to admit foreign wheat and flour should continue to preponderate. In 1840, the United States produced- 377,531,875 bushels of Indian corn ; 14,971,586 head of neat cattle (averaging 500 pounds) and 26,301,293 swine (averaging 200 pounds) ; dairy produce to the value of nearly 34 millions of dollars ; 219,163,319 pounds of tobacco ; 80,841,422 pounds of rice. The Indian corn is far more to be considered as a staple produce of the Union than wheat : in the same year that upwards of 377 millions of bushels of Indian corn were grown, the wheat amounted to rather less than 85 millions. Under the influence of a liberal commercial intercourse with this country, these large quantities could be vastly increased. The total population of the American Union in 1820 was about 9f millions ; iu 1840 it was rather more than 17 millions.
Here, then, is a large amount of the produce of the United States which might be admitted into this country on favourable terms without encroaching upon the wheat-preserves so jealously watched by the preponderating interest in the British Legislature. Indian corn might be classed at a moderate fixed duty with rice; and Indian corn-meal might be taken out of the list of prohibitions, and allowed to enter, as an umpanufactured article, in the same way as bread or ship-buiscuit, at an ad valorem duty. The duty on rice might be further reduced ; as also the duties on butter and cheese, due attention being paid to the exigencies of the revenue. The duties on salted beef and pork might be reduced 50 per cent without sensibly affecting the revenue ; and so might the duties on smoked hams and bacon. The duty on tobacco is enormous ; and
though, being imposed solely for revenue and Yielding a large amount, it ought to be cautiously dealt with, some modification might undoubtedly be made. The rates of duty on manufactured
tobacco have evidently the effect of increasing adulteration as well as smuggling. A reduction of the duty on cotton-wool, (or, if the
state of the revenue permitted, a total abolition of it,) would materially benefit the English manufacturer, as well as agriculturists in the United States. A few years ago, the principal markets for the provisions of the Western States were the cotton-growing States of the South : at present, the returns from cotton are so low that the planters have been obliged to economize in every way ; they have discovered that their slaves can raise enough of Indian corn to feed themselves, and their demand for the provisions of the Western States has ceased. The abolition of the duty on cotton imported into England, would give a fresh impetus to the cotton- planting and relieve the provision-growing States of their surplus produce. These are specific facts : they show the articles in which an ex- tended trade between the United States and England might be created. More general considerations tend to show that the trade between the two countries, most beneficial to both, must be what is commonly called a colonial trade ; the new-settled country import- ing the manufactures of the old, in exchange for its own raw pro- duce. In all economical relations the United States still stand to England in the relation of colony to mother-country. No small
proportion of the rapidly increased population of the States consists of British emigrants; and the British emigrant is placed in regard to holding real or personal property, immediately after his arrival, in exactly the same position as an American citizen. Theetates have little capital of their own : their roads, railways, and canals, nay their manufacturing establishments, have been mainly depend- ent upon advances of British capital. The shock lately given to the credit of some American States, and the impossibility 'of finding a vent for their increasing agricultural produce, by stopping loans and advances from this country, have cut up by the roots the whole system of bank facilities and long credits, and reduced • domestic trade in the interior, from the want of a circulating me- dium, to barter. The farmer gives two pounds of wool to a weaver for one pound of the same wool made into homespun, and sends four bushels of wheat to the miller in exchange for the flour of three bushels. The farmers in the West use coffee only once a week, substitute maple sugar for sugar of the cane, and wear homespun. The failure of public works has thrown the majority of those engaged in them upon agriculture. There is a glut of provi- sions of all kinds : the farmers find the wharfs of the inland ports loaded with their produce, for which they can obtain no return in money. The net produce of the cargoes of the provision--boats from the upper basin of the Mississippi at New Oi'eans last year, after deducting freight, commission, &c., did not &veld a dollar or two dollars each. Both England and the United States are suffer- ing because the (economical) colonial relation has been broken,— because the surplus capital of England does not find its way to America along with the stragglers of its surplus population ; and be- cause the raw produce of America, through the influence of restric- tive duties, and for want of that capital, cannot find its way to England. Common sense would dictate the reception of all the raw produce of the Union in this country, upon favourable terms ; but, since that cannot at present be looked for, enough has been said to show that much may be done to reunite the countries in commercial respects without alarming the landlords of England for their imaginary interests. There is good reason to believe, that in announcing the inclina- tion of the American Government to come to terms—to lower their tariff if we will admit their other great staples independently of wheat—Mr. WEBSTER does not speak without warrant. The Ma- disonian, the Government organ at Washington, holds the same language. The fact is, that the statesmen of the Union are divided between two opposed systems. The one, which may be called the system of Isolation, or that of imposing high restrictive duties on foreign merchandise, and depending entirely upon their home pro- duce and manufactures, is supported by Ileatay CLAY, General CASS, and VAN BUREN ; the advocates of Free Trade, or of low revenue-duties, are the present President and Mr. CALHOUN. The States most inclined to a high tariff are Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, New York, Delaware, and Mary- land : they have in the present Congress 103 members, and will have 86 in the next. The States most decidedly opposed to pro- tecting-duties are Virginia, North and South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Missouri: they have 75 members in the present Congress, and will have 67 in the next. The States which hang in a manner between the two parties are Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, and Michigan : they have 43 members in the present Congress, and will have 51 in the next. The disproportion between the representation of the Free Trade and the Isolation States is about to be diminished, and the unde- cided States are gaining an accession of strength. The manufactures of the United States are located in the Isola- tion States and in New Hampshire and Maine. These two States are Democratic, and side with the Free Trade party ; and New York, Pensylvania, and Maryland, producing more provisions than they consume, are less decided in favour of Isolation than Massa- chusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Delaware, and New Jersey. The Free Trade States, as cultivating cotton, rice, Indian corn, and tobacco, are more united. The sugar-planters of Louisiana have been tempted by the promise of protection, by high duties, against the sugars of Havanna and Brazil ; but this interest is nen-
tralized, even within the state, bythe cotton-growers. The balancing States grow provisions ; and the present glut of their produce would be relieved to a greater extent than the demand of the foreign market opened by the demand occasioned in the States growing cotton, tobacco, and rice, by withdrawing the slaves from cultivating provisions to the production of those staples. So strongly is this felt, that it is only by introducing into their protective Tariff-bill a clause respecting the distribution of the land-revenue, in com- pliance with the wishes of those States, that the Isolation party has secured their temporary alliance. Man to man, the agricultural interest of the Union is far more numerous and powerful than the manufacturing. According to the last census, there were only 791,545 persons engaged in manufactures and trades, and 3,717,756 in agriculture.
Without a higher tariff than the present, the Americans cannot compete with our manufactures. The want of capital and the want of a locally condensed population prevent them. A number of furnaces and cotton-factories have already been beaten out of the field by the low prices of Scotch iron and Scotch and English cottons ; and many establishments are going on solely because stopping them would involve a still greater loss on the fixed ca- pital. In silk and linen goods and broad cloth the Americans do not pretend to compete with us. Now, whatever may be the case with the agriculturists of other countries, the agriculturists of Ame- rica are quite alive to the advantages of buying cheap ; and they understand perfectly that a high tariff to protect their manufactures means that they are to buy dear. Nay, some who are engaged in trade see that this protection is injurious to them. At present there is no nation that can compete with the United States in pushing manufactured goods into the countries of Middle and South America, by means of assorted cargoes in vessels sailed by the owner both of ship and cargo. It is for the common interest that this hardy, enterprising, and independent class should retain this sea retail traffic. They can only be enabled to retain and extend it by substituting the cheap fabrics of England for the dear " domestics" of the Union. Oun-shippihg-interest will lose nothing by the extension of this branch of the American marine, with which it has never been able to compete ; and Mr. WEBSTER will find this the most effectual means of creating the large commercial navy he so ardently desires. And in so far as our manufactures are concerned, the class of American adventurers alluded to will find markets for their goods where no Englishman could carry them.
Mutual concessions in the matter of duties on importation by England and America—an adjustment of their tariffs on the basis of a well-digested treaty—is clearly for the benefit of both coun- tries. Such an arrangement would insure to both all the advan- tages that could have been enjoyed by them if they had remained under our sovereignty. It would relieve the pressure under which both are suffering, and perpetuate peace by making them one in interest as they are one in lineage.
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