Direct Trade of Soutern States with Europe, No. 1 [pp. 208-226]

222 DIRECT TRADE OF SOUTHERN STATES WITH EUROPE.
the very nature of things, must inevitably defeat its own purposes.
It will hardly be stating the case too strongly, to say that at least
one-half of the incomes thus devoted to the increased production of
cotton, are devoted to over production, and that they are consequently
appropriated, not for the benefit of the cotton-planters themselves,
but for that of the foreign and domestic consumers of their great
staple. The principle of political economy laid down in the report
of the Select Committee, and from which this conclusion is deduced,
was known to practical men long before it was promulgated by any
writer on the theory of wealth. It is founded upon the universal
experience of mankind. If the supply of any article materially exceeds the effective demand, a competition is created among the sellers,
which depresses the price greatly beyond a due proportion to the
excess in quantity. In like manner a deficient supply creates a cornpetition among the buyers, which increases the price in a corresponding degree. So general is this principle, that we may safely affirm
that in any probable state of the demand for cotton, a small crop, if
not extremely small, will produce a larger aggregate income to the
cotton-planting States, than a large one. Between the extreme
points where high prices check consumption on the one hand, and
low prices check production on the other, there is a wide range for
the operation of this principle. There is no class of producers so
likely to suffer from over production as the cotton-planters. Widely
dispersed over an immense territory, without the means of consultation or concert among themselves, they cannot prevent the habitual
occurrence of excessive crops, unless they adopt a system which will
of itself have a constant tendency to prevent it. The basis of that
system should be the investment of at least a fair proportion of their
net annual income in some other profitable pursuit, instead of investing it in land and negroes; and we believe that there is no such pursuit that promises a more abundant reward to industry and enterprise
than the direct importation of foreign merchandise through our
Southern seaports. Where, for example, a man of known integrity,
capacity, and industry, with a moderate capital, shall be engaged or
disposed to engage in the business of foreign importations, what
more public-spirited and profitable appropriation can a planter make
of a portion of his surplus cal)ital than to invest it in this importing
concern, as a limited co-partner, under the wise enactments recently
adopted in several of the staple-growing States?
One-half of the net income of the cotton-planters, thus a)pplied for
a few years only, would furnish abundant capital for conducting our
whole foreign commerce.
Mlay we not confidently anticipate, therefore, that the planters,
who arc so deeply interested in the results of the great commercial
reform we are attempting to effect, and whose co-operation is so indispensable to its success, will put their shoulders to the wheel at
once, with a firm resolution to contribute every aid that may be required for the accomplishment of so glorious an enterprise?
Taking it for granted that all the difficulty anticipated on this score,
will vanish before the public-spirited enterprise of our capitalists, we
look forward with hopes equally sanguine, to the removal of the existing obstructions to the intercourse between our importing cities,