soo 



FINANCES OF THE UNITED STATES. 



Jute mannfactnres 89 



Locomotives and machinery in Paterson, N. J., 



average 93 



Machinery, cotton and woollen, average 60 



Machinery, general average 60 



Machinists' tools 68 



Paper hangings Machine tenders and block cut- 

 ters 50 



Hand printers 72 



Laborers 63 



Printing Composition 45 to 50 



Saddlery and harness 62i 



Ship-building. 71 



Silk trimmings, etc nearly 100 



Stwcotyping 50 



Umjrellas and parasols 47 to 50 



Woollen goods Miscellaneous 67 



Carpetings 85 



The following estimates of the increased ad- 

 vance in wages (18 61-' 6 6), in the cities and 

 States below named, were carefully made at 

 the instance of the Commissioner of Revenue, 

 by intelligent and reliable gentlemen : 



Advance In wastes from 

 BRANCHES OF MANUFACTURE. 1860 to 1868. 



Per cent. 



In all the manufacturing establishments in the 

 town of Chester, Penn., the estimate average in- 

 crease is 



In Canton, Stark Co., Ohio 



In the city of Worcester, Mass 



In the city of Baltimore, Md., carpenters 



Plumbers and tinners 



While In all branches of industry, including 

 laborers as well as mechanics, the general 



average increase is 



In the State of Ohio, where the large majority con- 

 sists of /arm laborers, the average is 



In Massachusetts the increase in mechanics 1 wa- 

 ges is 



While that of all employes in this State, male 



and female, and including farm laborers, is.. 



In Western New York, the increase of wages of 



skilled farm laborers has been seventy-six per 



cent ; for month and day laborers, from fifty to 



sixty per cent. ; for mechanics' labor, from fifty 



to one hundred per cent. 



By the census of 1860, the average monthly 

 wages of those employed in all branches oi 

 manufactures, was, of males, $27.10, and of fe- 

 males $12.50 ; while by the census of New- 

 York in 1865, the average monthly wages in 

 the whole State was, for males, $44, and for 

 females, $20 ; being an increase of sixty-two 

 per cent, for males, and sixty per cent, for fe- 

 males. The average advance in the rents of 

 houses occupied by mechanics and laborers in 

 the great manufacturing centres of the country 

 is estimated to have been about 90 per cent. 



The effect of this great increase of prices has 

 been a decrease of production and consumption, 

 and a partial suspension of the development of 

 the country. Thus a comparison of the industry 

 of Massachusetts at the two periods of 1855 

 and 1865, in the articles of cotton goods, calico, 

 woollens, paper, rolled and slit iron and nails, 

 clothing, leather, boots and shoes, mackerel and 

 cod fisheries, it appears that the decrease in the 

 number of hands employed at the latter period 

 is about 11 per cent. Some of this decrease 

 may have arisen from labor-saving machinery. 

 But the gold value of the industrial products 

 above specified, at the latter period as com- 

 pared with the former, showed a decline of 

 nearly 3 per cent. The cotton manufactures 

 of the two periods, other than calico, show a 

 decrease in the number of hands employed of 31 

 per cent., and in the quantity of raw cotton 

 used 56 per cent., while the diminution of pro- 

 duct was 47 per cent, and the average value of 

 the cotton goods per yard, showed an increase 

 in gold in 1865 over 1855 of 75 per cent. The 

 following table presents further details : 



Corresponding illustrations are furnished in 

 other parts of the country. Thus at Pittsburg, 

 Pa., the value of the manufacturing products of 

 the city in 1859-60 were $42,805,500 in gold, 

 and in 1865-66, $64,280,069 in currency, which 

 at an average gold premium of fifty per cent, 

 shows nearly similar results. 



In consequence of the great advance of the 

 prices of all labor and materials, the products 

 of American industry were exposed to a most 

 unfair competition, both in the home and foreign 



markets, with the products of other countries 

 made from untaxed raw materials, having the 

 advantage of cheaper capital and lower wages of 

 labor. In nearly every department of industry 

 the possession of the home market has become 

 seriously interfered with, while the ability to 

 compete with foreign nations in foreign markets 

 is restricted to the sale of a few articles in 

 which the American producer is largely fa- 

 vored by natural or accidental advantages, as 

 in the case of cotton, petroleum, etc. The fol 



