100 ARGUMENT OF THE UNITED STATES. 



If there were any evil, or inconvenience even, to be apprehended from 

 a confinement of the capture of the seals to the breeding places, it 

 might serve to arrest attention; but there is none. Much is said, in- 

 deed, in the Report of the Commissioners of Great Britain concerning 

 a supposed monopoly which would thus be secured, as is pretended, to 

 the lessees of the breeding islands which would enable them to exact 

 an excessive price tor skins; but this notion is wholly erroneous. 



The annual drafts made at the island from the increase of the herds 

 are not made for, and can not be monopolized, or appropriated, by the 

 United States. They are made for mankind everywhere, and find their 

 way to those who want them and are able to procure them wherever 

 upon the face of the world they may dwell. To the owners of these 

 islands, whoever they may be, they are intrinsically useless, except the 

 insignificant number which may be useful for food or clothing. Their 

 only value to them is as articles of commerce, as means by which 

 needed commodities may be obtained from others who may have a 

 superior desire for the benefits afforded by these animals. They are 

 furnished through the instrumentality of commerce to those who want 

 them upon the same terms upon which they are furnished to the citi- 

 zens of the United States. The human race thus perfectly secures to 

 itself the benefit which nature intended the animal should supply. 

 Nor can the United States exact from the world whatever price it 

 pleases for the product of the animal. It can not exact a penny more 

 than the world is willing to give; and this, as in the case of every 

 other commodity, is its just value. The cost of production, and the 

 operation of supply and demand will determine the price of this, as of 

 every other, commodity. Any other mode of capturing the animal for 

 the market is obviously and confessedly more expensive, and must 

 necessarily, other things being equal, involve an increased price, and 

 simply impose an additional tax upon the consumer. 



There are, indeed, instances of commodities in which the possible 

 supply greatly exceeds the wants of the world, and where, if the whole 

 product were thrown upon the market, it would become almost worth- 

 less, producing a sum much less than would have been gained had a 

 comparatively small part only been offered. In such cases, if the sources 

 of supply are a monopoly under a single direction, a large }>rofit may 

 sometimes be secured by an artificial limitation of the supply. It is 

 said that the Dutch once found an advantage like this from a voluntary 

 destruction of a large part of the product of the Spicp Islands. But 



