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NOTE I.

The object of this note is to present some general results concerning our past imports and exports, as appearing in the tables, without aiming at fractional accuracy or a minuteness, which was not attainable but by delay and labor not necessary to this purpose.

It appears that the whole imports have not more than doubled since the first four years of the Government, while the exports of domestic produce have quite quadrupled.

Again: Though we formerly exported more of the foreign merchandise imported than we now do; yet the consumption of it, since those earliest years, has not increased much over a hundred per cent., while our population has, within the same period, increased quite four hundred per cent.

This disparity has arisen chiefly from the facts, that larger proportions of our people are now engaged in manufactures and agriculture, and supply much more than they once did, the products of both for home consumption. For one series of three years, about a third of a century ago, and another about twenty years ago, the imports were nearly as large as during the last three years.

The changes in the amount of some of the leading articles both of export and import have been very extraordinary. As to the first, the exports of raw cotton, without reference to the increased consumption of it at home, have altered most. They have augmented from a few thousand dollars worth to sixty or seventy millions. This vast increase has happened without any real aid from a duty, which should be regarded as protective, but chiefly by means of a congenial soil and climate, assisted by a remarkable improvement in preparing cotton for market, which has proved to be one of the most fortunate inventions on any subject, in any age. By the larger capital and population devoted to the cultivation of this great staple, and by the increased domestic demand for other articles of our own production, to feed and clothe the greater numbers employed in its cultivation, and in many flourishing manufactures, as well as in an enlarged navy and army, all our other principal exports from agriculture, as well as from the forest and the sea, have remained stationary or declined during the last forty years.

For example: Those of tobacco, ranging near six and seven millions; flour at about four millions; lumber at two and three millious; rice from one to three millions; pork at a million and a half; and furs at nearly three quarters of a million; have remained almost stationary. While the exports of fish have actually fallen from one and two millions, to less than one; of beef from one million to half a million; and of butter and cheese, from one-half to one-ninth of a million. Indeed, the only material increase in any of the important articles of export, besides raw cotton, has been in domestic manufactures. These, from one million in 1793, have augmented to more than eight millions in 1838.

So great have been the changes in some of them, affecting to a certain degree the aggregate exported, that in the single State of Massachusetts, still distinguished for its fisheries and manufactures of cotton and woollen, the fabrics from leather, humble as they may seem in character, now yearly exceed in value either of those or any other of its great articles of produc tion, and equal nearly one-fourth of the immense exports of raw cotton from the whole Union.

These results show the strong direction which industry often takes from natural causes, such as soil and climate, as well as from habits and other peculiarities whether accompanied or not by special legislative protection.

This circumstance is further illustrated by some of the changes in the principal articles of import. During many years, the demand for those made from cotton has been very great. By means of the increased public taste for their use, and the reduced price of them through improvements in machinery, the imports of cotton manufactures have generally been larger than those of any other article.

On an average they were eleven millions annually, for the last three years; and in 1836, they reached seventeen millions notwithstanding all the flourishing establishments for those manufactures here, and their success to such an extent, that considerable amounts of the domestic fabric have long been exported.

The imports of silk were formerly smaller in amount than those of cotton, and in 1821 and 1822, only four to six millions yearly. But of late, some of them having been exempted from duty by Congress, and others more recently having become free by means of judicial constructions, and the demand for all of them having been also quickened perhaps by the progress of luxury, those imports increased in 1836, to twenty-two millions, and during the last three years, have been, on an average, quite twelve millions and a half.

Specie stands next in the list, the imports of it having, in the same period, been enlarged from three and five millions, to about twelve yearly; and those of coffee, from four and five millions to eight, though considerable portions of these are, as formerly, re-exported.

The imports of woollens have also in the face of a high duty, and an increasing manufacture of them at home, continued to be nearly seven millions annually, for the last twenty years; and in 1836, they rose to twelve millions.

But it is worthy of special notice, that with a population to clothe augmented since 1821, quite seventy-five per cent., the great imports of cotton and woollen have augmented but little. And if those of silk have increased three or four fold in amount, yet such is the enlarged demand for them, and the extended facilities for producing them here on a small capital, that without the aid of any legislative protection in most cases, indications exist, that the growth and manufacture of silk may be established in this country, wider and deeper than any former article under the highest tariff.

It is a striking fact, that a direct bounty on the growth of silk before the revolution, leading to a cultivation of it in Georgia and the Carolinas so as to denominate them "silk colonies," failed to accomplish as much as has recently been effected in almost every quarter of the country by increased skill, experience, and enterprise, in defiance of the reduction of some duties, the total repeal of others, and the absence of any bounty from the General Government. For further details on the preceding topics, reference can be had to the tables themselves. Some of the alterations in the trade of particular States and cities in the Union, as well as in our commerce with several countries abroad, are remarkable. First stand the exports from New Orleans. This city was not within the boundaries of the Union till several years after the constitution was adopted, and the exports amounted to only two millions in 1811. But in 1838, by having become the principal outlet of so many new and flourishing communities, the exports from it.

exceeded thirty-three millions, or six millions more than any of our oldest and largest cities or even States. In only the first quarter of 1839, they have in fact gone beyond eighteen millions of dollars. The immense growth and fine central position of New York, have affected its imports much more than its exports. The latter were in 1791, two and a half mil lions, or more than New Orleans twenty years after; and in 1811, were twelve millions, or six times those of New Orleans in the same year. But they have since increased only so as to average twenty-six millions during the last three years, instead of the thirty-three millions of New Orleans. Again: Mobile, a city not originally within the limits of the Union, and the seaport of a State not large enough to be organized as such till thirty years after the Government went into operation, is now the fourth in the Union in exports, shipping nearly one-half as much domestic produce as New York, and more than all, whether domestic or foreign, of the ancient, prosperous, and commercial State of Massachusetts. But from South Carolina, her rich and ample exports still exceed both the two last, and indeed all others in the Confederacy except the two first mentioned States. Passing to the imports, though New Orleans has increased nearly fourfold in the last twenty years, and presents an aggregate of fourteen or fifteen millions yearly, yet she is only the third, instead of the first in the Union. Some other cities possess capital and facilities to exceed her in respect to those, and to supply the smaller wants in the lighter kinds of foreign merchandise of these great agricultural States, most of whose bulky exports more readily seek the ocean at the mouth of the mighty stream on whose banks and tributaries they flourish. The imports into New York now constitute over one-half and indeed nearly three-fifths of those within the whole United States. In 1802, they were only a little more than onefourth of the whole. In 1821, they had enlarged to but twenty-three millions, while in 1836, they reached the astonishing aggregate of one hundred and eighteen millions. In the reduced business of 1838, they were nearly eighty-nine millions. Besides these changes in the imports, those of Boston alone among the old cities and States have indicated a continuance of them proportionate to what they were in 1802. Those of Philadelphia, while remaining similar in amount, have declined in their proportion to the whole, nearly one-half.

Those of Baltimore, lessened still more in both views; and those of Charleston, Norfolk, and Savannah, in a ratio beyond even hers.

But several of these cities have at the same time exhibited an increase in their domestic trade and manufactures, which has amply atoned for a diminution in their foreign commerce, though the details are omitted on the present occasion, as not being so appropriate for explanation here.

The countries abroad, with which our foreign commerce has been conducted, and the changes and proportions of it, are matters of no little interest, and of more immediate connexion with the finances. It appears that our exports, from being confined during a colonial State, almost exclusively to England and her dependancies, suddenly changed, and in consequence of the revolution and subsequent difficulties, increased to France, for the first ten years of the Government, to about twenty millions annually, or nearly double their amount to England. Since that period they have increased with the latter to near sixty millions yearly, and remained about stationary with the former, or at only one-third of that amount.

To Spain the exports are next in value, having increased from four to eight millions without including any part of Spanish America, now independent, and classed separately.

But it is a remarkable fact, that the imports from all those countries have remained stationary or declined. Our foreign supplies, as before remarked, have not increased but half as much as our exports, and those supplies are drawn by our enterprise and new marts and tastes from a wider sphere, extending indeed, more or less, to almost every portion of the habitable globe.

Thus from England, those imports formerly fluctuated from twenty-three to eighty-six millions annually, and during the last three years averaged only sixty millions: While from France they have usually been about half that amount. Some five or six millions less from Spain than France, and with China and India, about half as much as with Spain.

Connected with this subject, and further illustrative of results unfavorable to the interests embarked in our foreign trade, is the fact, that the tonnage engaged in it, having been in 1838, only 810,447, was actually less than what appears in the returns thirty years ago. In 1809, those returns exhibited 910,059 tons, and in 1810, no less than 984,269. The tonnage owned abroad, which is engaged in this same business, being lately unmolested by European wars, has also become six times in quantity, what it was twenty years ago. On the contrary, the rapid improvements in the domestic trade from 189,153 tons in 1794, to 1,086,238 in 1838, or an addition more than five fold, is an evidence of the greatly increased commerce at home, and the diffusion of it over regions much more widely extended.

J.

TREASURY DEPARTMENT,

December 2, 1839.

SIR: I have the honor to transmit, for the information of the House of Representatives, an estimate of the appropriations proposed to be made for the service of the year 1840, amounting to

Viz:

Civil list, foreign intercourse, and miscellaneous -
Military service, including fortifications, armories, arsenals,
ordnance, Indian affairs, revolutionary and other
pensions

Naval service, including the marine corps.

To the estimates are added statements, showing1. The appropriations for the service of the year 1840, made by former acts of Congress, including arming and equipping the militia, civilization of Indians, revolutionary clains, revolutionary pensions under the act of 7th June, 1832, claims of the State of Virginia, gradual improvement of the navy, and public debt 2. The existing appropriations which will not be required for the year 1829, and which it is proposed to apply in aid of the service of the year 1840, amounting to

$18,280,600 55

$4,981,344 19

8,213,610 74 5,035,645 62

$1,586,000 00

3,014,711 80

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