SOUTHERN AGRICULTURE, 1790-1860 301 



and intelligent planters " to take measures for counteracting these 

 efforts which were being made by the East India Company. "It 

 was then decided that so long as the American planters could 

 get 8 cents (4d.) per pound for their cotton, delivered at the 

 nearest market, they could afford to produce it, but that if a 

 supply from any other quarter could be obtained for less than 

 that sum, they must then turn their attention to the cultivation. 

 of other commodities." 



In i S49 several of the large planters on the Mississippi bottoms 

 estimated that they could grow cotton for 6 cents a pound, and 

 planters writing for A />\>:c's I\rricw declared that when they 

 were obliged to raise cotton for 5 cents, the business was ruin- 

 ous. The smaller planters must have had still higher prices if 

 they found production profitable. Except during the decade be- 

 tween 1X40 and 1850, cotton rarely sank below 10 cents a pound 

 on the New York and Liverpool markets, and this was deemed 

 sufficient, after deducting commissions and other marketing i 

 penses, to enable the planter to make a profit. Ten cents seems, 

 indeed, to have been considered the golden mean of cotton prices. 

 If cotton sank below this figure its production became unprofit- 

 able ; if it rose above 10 cents, labor became " too dear to increase 

 production rapidly." 



