8 



LMPORTS. 



1862. 1863. 1864. 



From Egypt $43, 584, 075 $59, 228, 105 $73, 963, 175 



India 85,479,015 131,859,990 169,359,855 



China 42,079,525 45,817,640 41,179,930 



171,142,615 236,905,735 284,502,960 



72,911,940 88,807,650 106,658,720 



Balance of trade 



ao-aiust Great Britain, 98, 230, 675 148, 098, 085 177, 844, 240 



Great Britain jnust buy her cotton from consuming irations. 



On this point we may here repeat the opinions expressed nearly a year ago 

 in the bi-monthly report for January and February : 



'•But there is another reason why the United States must become the cotton- 

 producer for the world. Commerce is the interchange of the surplus products 

 of different countries. No extensive or lasting trade can be kept up on any 

 other condition. The United States is the greatest consuming nation in the 

 world, because the condition of its masses is superior to that of any other na- 

 tion. At present, regardless of the struggle in which we are engaged, it is un- 

 wisely too much so. The excess of importations proves this, and the articles 

 imported in excess are not those essential to life, but its dearest luxuries. And 

 if with every patriotic motive to economy we thus recklessly consume, how will 

 it be, and how has it been, in times of peace and high prosperity ? 



"In exchange for cotton, the United States takes freely of the surplus pro 

 ducts of those who buy from us. The nations now supplying Great Britain 

 with cotton do not thus consume, and, as a consequence, it has to purchase it by 

 the exportation of gold. This is the cause that now creates the high rates of 

 interest in France and Great Britain, and the drain of our own gold. The 

 East Indies, Egypt, Brazil, and China are not consumers after our fashion. 

 Nor could they become such merely by possessing the cotton trade, but must 

 advance to our position in civilization, for it is the wants and luxuries of civiliza- 

 tion that make consumers." 



After these remarks on cotton, it will be unnecessary to dwell on the foreign 

 competition our tobacco and wool have to meet from those of other countries, in 

 the January and February number of this report it was shown that, in the 

 scarcity of American tobacco, the English and other markets had resorted ta 

 the " various cheap growths'' of the continent as substitutes, and that these 

 would drive out the American tobacco, unless sold at the lowest rates for which 

 it could be grown here. The quality, then, of these foreign growths is inferior ta 

 our own, but there seems to be less difference between them than between 

 American and foreign cotton. 



The production of wool has not yet assumed so great a magnitude as to. 

 make the United States a wool-exporting nation. When it was growing about 

 sixty million pounds annually, it was consuming an equal amount of foreign 

 wools in the form of foreign manufactured woollen cloths and yarns. Much of 

 these foreign wools is inferior to that grown in the Atlantic States, and the 

 question of the extent these cheaper wools should be admitted into the country 

 is eliciting much investigation. The financial condition of the country is now 

 such that these foreign woollen cloths and yarns cannot so readily compete with 

 our own manufactures, because of the duties that must be laid upon them. 

 Hence it is confidently believed, that there are the most encouraging incentives 

 to a largely increased wool product. Our sheep have increased, in the past 

 three years, from about fifteen to thirty millions, yielding about one hundred 



