22 



inces, jet tobacco cultivation is limited to three of them, in order to avoid 

 over-'pi odticfion, as one of our consuls informs us. Yet under such restrictions 

 we see its product doubled in a single year. What may not its production 

 attain to, if our tobacco is advanced 50, or 100, or 200 per cent.? At 900 lbs. 

 to the acre, it requires but 487,777 acres to grow our great crop of 430 millions 

 of pounds. What more evident than that Austria could supply the entire to- 

 bacco consumption of Europe, having nearly 12,000 geographical square miles, 

 and a population of 35,000,000? But add to this capacity that of the southern 

 portions of Russia and Germany in Europe, and of Mexico and South America 

 in America, and can any one suppose that our foreign tobacco trade can be main- 

 tained under the proposed excise? 



The adjusting process consequent on the temporary shortness of our exporta- 

 tion in 1862 and 1863, in consequence of the war, has developed a European 

 production to furnish its own substitutes ; that is clearly seen in the circulars of 

 European tobacco dealers. 



G. F. Davis & Sons, London, (circular of August last,) speak decidedly of 

 the great danger of the substitution of continental. South American, and African 

 tobacco for that of this country. They say: "In no trade have the effects of 

 the American civil war upon the English market been more clearly defined than 

 in the tobacco trade. Since the commencement of the conflict between the 

 northern and the southern States, the trade of thi.s country in tobacco has un- 

 dergone a complete revolution. The quantity of American growth of that article 

 now used in the United Kingdom is not much more than one-half what it was 

 two years ago, and it is gradually decreasing; indeed, it is extremely problemati- 

 cal if the American consumption in this country will ever again reach its former 

 amount, for the growth of other countries is now so freely used that it threatens 

 to supersede' the American growth altogether." 



Robert Kerr &; Son, Liverpool, in November last, say: "After a succession 

 of frosts, perhaps earlier, more numerous and destructive to the tobacco crop 

 than ever before knoAvn, Ave see the great markets of the world stand stoically 

 indifferent, and barely maintaining old prices. In Great Britain, large stocks of 

 American, plentiful supplies, and increasing consumption of suhstitutrs, periodical 

 fears of peace, .and annual alarms of large crops (f all growths, sutKciently ex- 

 plain this state of affairs." 



Grant, Hodgson & Company, London, September first, refer to a largchj in- 

 creased consumjAion of continental tobacco, that has very materially interfered 

 with the American, and express a serious doubt that the present difference in 

 price can be supported Avithout diminishing consumj^tion. 



W. A. & G. MaxAvell, Liverpool, in November last, testify that the common 

 and medium grades of cutting-stemmed are quite neglected, "substitutes" con- 

 tinuing to interfere much Avith their consumption. 



R. S. Maitland & Company, in May of last year, say that manufacturers buy 

 "only from hand to mouth," notAvithstanding the prolongation of our war, "and 

 avoiding as much as possible the higher costing article of strips, they resort to 

 the various cheap growths, which have latterly displaced American tobacco to 

 such an important and increasing extent." 



D. A. Watjen & Company, Bremen, in their circular of September 29, 1863, 

 note a briskness in American tobacco, "there being evidently a disposition to 

 realize, in order to escape a further possible depreciation in the value of the 

 article." This depreciation is claimed to arise from "the late high value of the 

 article, which interfered with the consumption, and caused various substitutes to 

 be used." Facts have shown, they assert, that high prices increase production, 

 so far, at least, as Europe is concerned. 



In a previous circular they maintain that purchasers ai'e restricted to imme- 

 diate AA-^ants, in part because the continuing high range of prices affects consump- 



