Emancipation and Cotton—The Triumph of British Policy [pp. 509-526]

514
EMANCIPATION AND COTTON.
become her own. Spain had planted herself, since the Niger expedition, in the
island of Fernando Po, which commands all the outlets of the Niger and the rivers from Cameroons to the equator. Portugal, witnessing these movements, had
taken measures to revive her once fine and still important colonies in tropical
Africa. They included seventeen degrees of latitude on the east coast, from the
Tropic of Capricorn to Zanzibar, and nearly nineteen degrees on the west coast,
from the twentieth degree of south latitude northward to Cape Lopez. The Ima'm
of Muscat laid claim to the sovereignty on the east coast from Zanzibar to Babelmandel, with the exception of the station of the French at Brava. From the
Senegal northward to Algeria was in the possession of the independent Moorish
princes. Tunis, Tripoli,*nd Egypt were north of the Tropic of Cancer, and independent tributaries of Turkey.
Here, then, all the eastern and northern coasts of Africa, and also the west
coast, from the Gambia northward, were found to be in the actual possession of
independent sovereignties, who, of course, would not yield the right to England.
Southern Africa, below the Tropic of Capricorn, already belonging to England,
though only the same distance south of the equator that Cuba and Florida are
north of it, is highly elevated above the sea level, and not adapted to tropical
productions. The claims of Portugal on the west coast, before noticed, extending from near the British South African line to Cape Lopez, excluded England
from that district. From Cape Lopez to the mouth of the Niger, including the
Gaboon and Fernando Po, as already stated, was under the control of the French
and Spanish.
The only new African territory, therefore, not claimed by civilized countries,
which could be made available to England anywhere along the coast for her
great scheme of tropical cultivation, was that between the Niger and Liberia,
embracing nearly fourteen degrees of longitude. There she began her work,
making Lagos and Abbeokuta her principal points. In the mean time Dr. Livingstone, penetrating the interior from the south, gave great promises as to the
prospects of a large supply of cotton from the regions he traversed.
Pardon these details. They are necessary to the proper understanding of the
course pursued by England to retrieve her losses consequent upon her schemes
for the elevation of the negro race.
CONDITION OF THE COTTON QUESTION IN 1850.
Before attempting to show the result of the British efforts in Africa and elsewhere towards increasing the supplies of cotton to the English manufacturers
the exact condition of this question in 1850 must be given, as it will afford a
starting-point from which to estimate the true progress made by England in
her efforts to become independent of the United States for her supplies of cotton. The year 1838 brought about emancipation, and 1840 convinced the English people that, economically at least, it would be a failure. Hence the efforts
we have enumerated to relieve themselves from the fatal consequences that were
likely to follow. And what had the ten years of laborious exertion produced?
Let the London Econo?nmist answer:
':1. That our supply of cotton from all quarters (excluding the United States) has for many
years been decidedly, though irregularly, decreasing.
"2. That our supply of cotton from all quarters (including the United States), available for
home consumption, has of late years been falling off at the rate of 400,000 pounds a week, while
our consumption has been increasing during the same period at the rate of 1,440,000 pounds
per week.
"3. That the United States is the only country where the growth of cotton is on the
increase; and that there, even, the increase does not, on an average, exceed three per cent.,
or 82,000,000 pounds annually, which is barely sufficient to supply the increasing demand for
Its own consumption and for the Continent of Europe.
"4. That no stimulus of price can materially augment this annual increase, as the planters
always grow as much cotton as the negro population can pick.
"5. That consequently, if the cotton manufacture of Great Britain is to increase at all-on
its present footing-It can only be enabled to do so by applying a great stimulus to the growth
of cotton in other countries adapted for the culture."
This condition of things was forced upon the British manufacturers, because
the British free labor system could not compete with our slave labor system.