Mr. McCulloch's U. S. Treasury Report [pp. 146-165]

MIR. M~CULLOCHI S REPORT.
war used up, and four years' labor of a million and a half of
men, reckoning both sides, entirely wasted; yet no allowance
is made for all this loss by the Secretary.
Following his tissue of ifs, we deny that the yearly net product of this country, or that of any civilized country under the,su?,
is 25 per cent. upon its capital wealth. If there are any other
industries in this country but such monopolies as are suffered
to exist in New England, which net 25 per cent. to those engaged in them, we are ignorant of the fact. We know that
neither the uncultivated nor the cultivated lands throughout
the country increase in value at this rate; we know that farming
neither in the North, the West, nor the South, yields any such
profit, we know that no commercial occupation yields it, that
no laborer earns it above his expenditures; in short, that no
industry whatever, which is open, even measurably, to competition, affords 25 per cent. per annum net profit on the capital
employed in it.
If individuals generally cannot net 26 per cent. per annum
on the capital they employ in business, how can the capital
wealth of the country, which is simply an aggregation of the
capital wealth of the individuals who live or do business in it,
increase at that rate? If out of 30,000,000 persons owning
14,183 millions of dollars worth of property, only 3,000,000 persons owning but 1,863 millions of dollars worth,* can net 25 per
cent. per annum on their capital, while the rest cannot net over
7 per cent., by what means, outside of the Secretary's imagination, can the entire capital of the whole number be made to
yield an annual net product of 25 per cent.? And if it is not
of the net product, but of the gross product that the Secretary
is speaking, what relevancy has it to the argument, so long as
its relation to the net product is neither ascertained nor assumed, and seeing that a gross product may be a loss instead
of a gain?
B3etween 1850 andl 1860, wars and other disturbances in
Europe drove the population and the capital of European
countries to our own, and these causes largely added to our
population, and our wealth; but the same circumstances may
never exist again, or, if they do, may exist with mitigated
influence, and the results of course will tally with them and
the influence they may exert.
We are much mistaken in the estimate of the character of
our people, if, after clearly understianding the value of the
* The population of New England in 1860 was 3,135,288, and its capital wealth was, according
to the censuts, $1,863,848,T65. In the text we have assumed that 25 per cent. net profit wsas
earned upon the whole of this capital, but it is hardly necessary to remind the reader that but
a small portion of it affords such gains. Outside of New England, with a few exceptions here
and there, we know of no permanent investments of capital in this country which yield 25 per
cent. per annuma net gain.?
160