OUR EXPORTS OF WHEAT. 



15 



These statistics conclusively show that we exported, in the Free 

 Trade period, only 245 per cent, of the quantity and only 232 

 per cent, of the value that were exported in the Protective period ; 

 or, to state the case differently, we exported more by 271,219,633 

 bushels and $378,813,544 in the second thirteen years than we did 

 in the first thirteen. Besides, we had gained in average price 6.843 

 cents per bushel. More than that, the quantity and value of wheat 

 exported in the years 1862-74 are much greater than the quantity 

 and value exported from the beginning of the Government to July 

 i, 1 86 1, covering a period of seventy-two years. Even in the three 

 fiscal years, 1862, 1863, and 1864, we exported 8,501,918 bushels 

 more than during the entire period of thirteen years under partial 

 Free Trade. Taking 1874 by itself, we exported in that twelve 

 month 801 per cent, of the quantity, and 87! per cent, of the 

 value, exported between June 30, 1848, and July i, 1861, at an 

 average increase of 121 cents per bushel. It is very evident 

 from these facts that the policy of Protect ion to home industry 

 does not act repressively upon the farmer s export markets, as re 

 gards either quantity or price. Partial Free Trade certainly would 

 have done so, because that policy, by dwarfing the number and 

 extent of our manufacturing establishments, would have diminished 

 the number of persons in this country who were consumers without 

 being producers of wheat, and thus would have left a larger surplus 

 for export, which, as a more copious supply in the presence of a 



