8 



from 1851 to 1860, inclusive, the average price was 9} cents, and tinder these 

 more remunerative rates this product assumed tlie greatness it had attained in 

 18G0. We also showed that this advance of price greatly limited the export 

 trade, its increase in the last named decade being but 6S,G38 hogsheads, or 6,^^G3 

 in each year ; and that it was the greatly increased home consumption that sus- 

 tained these improved prices between 1850 and 1860, thereby elevating this 

 agricultural product to what Mr. Burke justly characterizes it, as being "one of 

 the mf^st fruitful elements of national wealth that ever blest a nation." Its 

 export amounted to $'^0,000,000 annually. This favorable change we see was 

 brought about by an average advance on the price of tobacco leaf of 3| cents 

 per pound. The bill proposed to tax it 20 and 30 cents per pound. 



Who, then, dies not see the utter prostration that must instantly overwhelm 

 the grower of the leaf when a tax of 225 per cent, is proposed to be levied upon 

 it 1 By what right, too, shall the growers' labor be taxed and the manufac- 

 turers' labor be untaxed ? Nay, the bill goes far beyond this in its injustice ; 

 it proposed to give the latter a bonus of 25 cents per pound for all of the manu- 

 factured article exported. 



The proposed export duty would have been useless against stich an internal 

 tax, and such' a bonus, for these would have destroyed all exportation of the 

 leaf. With such a destruction, and with the vastly decreased home consump- 

 tion occasioned by this enormous tax upon it, who does not see how unprofitable 

 must tobacco production have become 1 A monopoly of the entire growth of the 

 leaf would be given to the manufacturer, and this associated trade at New York 

 would dictate such prices as its own interests prompted. What would these be ? 

 We will find the answer in the continuation of Hume's remarks upon the effect 

 of the monopolies given by Elizabeth, lie says : 



"These monopolists were so exorbitant in tbeir demands that, in some places, they raised 

 the price of salt tVoui sixtceu pence a bu>hel to Iburtceu or fifteen shillings. Such high 

 protits naturally begat inn uders upon their conuiierce; and in order to secure themselves 

 against eucruachmeiits, the patentees were armed with high and arbitrary powers from the 

 council, by which they were t-uabled to oppress the people at pleasure, and to exact money 

 from such as they thought projier to accuse of interfering with tlieir patent. The patentees 

 of saltpetre having tiie power of entering into every house, and of committing what havoc 

 they pleased in stables, cellars, or wherever they suspected saltpetre might be gathered, com- 

 monly extorted money from those who desired to free themselves from this damage or trouble. 

 And while all domestic intercourse was thus restrained, lest any scope should remain for in- 

 dustry, alniot eveiy species of foreign commerce was confined to exclusive companies, who 

 bought and sold at any price that they thearselves thought proper to ofier or exact." 



The grower of tobacco, when stripping, twisting, packing, and pressing it, 

 must be watched lest he take a chew or fill his pipe. Upon the delivery of every 

 hogshead he must, under penalty of its forfeiture, swear that he has neither 

 taken such a chew nor filled his pipe. Government is not to be defrauded out of 

 its thirty cents per pound, nor are the " prerogatives of the manufacturer to be 

 shamefully infringed," and therefore both the government and the manufacturer 

 are to be armed with like high and arbitrary powers that the English council 

 conferred on the patentees of the monopolies under Elizabeth. If manufac- 

 turers, as is alleged by Mr. Burke, now illegally and fraudulently sell one-half 

 of the manufactured tobacco, in violation of the existing law, who does not see 



