COMMERCE OF THE UNITED STATES. 



105 



Exports from the Untied States. 



The basis of this large trade has been the in- 

 creased quantities of domestic products that 

 have been exported from the United States, 

 which are as a whole an agricultural nation. 

 The Eastern and Middle States are indeed 

 manufacturing and commercial, but the great 

 wealth of the country consists in its vast tracts 

 of fertile land, open to the enterprising settler 

 almost without cost. Labor actively supplied 

 by immigration, and applied to that land, has 

 drawn forth an annually increasing surplus of 

 raw productions and food, influenced by the 

 growing numbers of the people, the increase 

 in labor-saving machines, and the improved 

 means by which distance is measurably an- 

 nihilated, arid transportation to market cheap- 

 ened. The great agricultural TTest has fur- 

 nished food, and the great agricultural South 

 has furnished tobacco, rice, and raw materials 

 in quantity and abundance that have interested 

 the commercial world. The Northern and 

 Middle States have been supplied with this 

 food and these materials to build up a system 

 of manufacturing goods, for which, und*r cover 

 of protective laws, they have found an amply 

 remunerative market among the people of the 

 two agricultural sections, whose surplus products 

 have employed eastern vessels in the foreign 

 trade, have paid for whatever of foreign lux- 

 uries the growing wealth of the country has 



required, and have furnished the whole revenue 

 for the support of the Federal Government. The 

 manufactures, rapidly as they have multiplied, 

 have not more than kept pace with the grow- 

 ing demands of the home market, leaving little 

 for export. On the other hand, the surplus of 

 domestic produce has continually grown in 

 magnitude, until in 1860 it was eight times as 

 much as in 1821, and three times as much as 

 in 1839. 



Population Foreign Good* annually consumed per 

 head, and the Dutut annually collected on them. 



Total . . . 



?5.S1 -.049.825 jl.23^,456,369 6 



The average duty on the whole amount las 

 been 21 per cent. The consumption per head 

 gradually advanced from 1842 to 1853. since 

 when it has been nearly stationary. This fact, 

 in connection with the known prosperity of 

 the country, indicates how greatly domestic 

 manufactures have been developed to the profit 

 of the Xorth. 



The following is the official table of the lead- 

 ing articles that were exported in 1861, as 

 compared with those of 1860, before the se- 

 cession, and in 1840, previous to the great 

 change which took place in British commercial 

 legislation in 1842. by which her markets were 

 opened to American provisions, that had been 

 before prohibited. The figures show in what 

 particulars the great decrease in the business 

 of 1861 took place: 



