F A R M E R S' REGISTER. 



[No. 8 



will be so much clear gain to the planter, and to 

 the country. 



It is a well establi-jlied principle in political 

 economy, that an excess ol" supply beyond ihe ef- 

 ficient demand, diminishes the price ot' an article 

 more than in proportion to the excess, and that a 

 deficiency of supply increases fhe price in a cor- 

 responding degree, For example, it is believed 

 that if the present cotton crop of the United States 

 should be only 1, 200,000 bales, it would produce 

 a lar<rer aggregate sum to the planter, than if it 

 should prove to be 1,500,000 bales, the price being 

 more enhanced, than the quantity would be dimin- 

 ished. It was upon this principle that the Dutch 

 East India Company, actually burnt one half of 

 their spices, that they might obtain more for the 

 remaining half than they could have obtained for 

 the whole. Let us pursue a still wiser policy. In- 

 stead of burning our surplus, let us direct the cap- 

 ital and industry that produce it to other profitable 

 pursuits, which will open new sources of wealth, 

 and at the same time increase the value of those 

 already in existence. In connection with this view 

 of the subject, the policy of raisinir every supply 

 which the soil will produce, cannot be too strongly 

 recommended. By whatever specious reasons a 

 contrary policy may be countenanced, experience 

 proves them to be fallacious. If every planter 

 would raise his own supplies of various produc- 

 tions of the soil, and of the animals which feed 

 upon those productions, it would fend greatly to 

 limit the excess of production of our great staples, 

 and increase at the same time Ihe independence 

 and the income of the agricultural class. 



The committee will now proceed to examine, a 

 little in detail, the relative advantages of the 

 southern cities lor the business of Ibreiijn importa- 

 tion, compared with those of the northern cities. 

 In the first place, house rent is much higher in the 

 latter than in theformer,a very important element 

 in the calculation, In the second place, freiuht is 

 habitually higher from Europe to the northern, 

 than to the southern cities, for the plain reason 

 that ships coming to the south lor cotton would 

 have to come in ballast if they were not freighted 

 with merchandise. All the other elements that 

 constitute the cost of importation, are believed to 

 be as cheap in the southern as the northern cities. 

 It is thus demonstrable that foreign merchandise 

 can be actually imported and sold in the former at 

 cheaper rates than in the latter places. When to 

 this we add the expenses of trans-shipment at New 

 York or Philadelphia, the loss of interest, the 

 freight and insurance to the southern cities, and 

 the expenses of landing and storing there, it will 

 be apparent that the merchants of the south and 

 south-west will find it greatly to their advantage 

 to make their purchases ol" fbreinrn merchandise in 

 our own cities, in preference to New York or Phil- 

 adelphia. The same course of reasoninji will 

 show that our cotton can be exported directly 

 from our own seaports, with similar advantages 

 over the more circuitous route of the northern 

 cities. 



It seems, therefore, perfectly clear to the com- 

 mittee, that our capitalists who shall enter into the 

 business of importing /breign merchandise, can- 

 pot fail to realize ample profits, and yet supply the 

 merchants of the interior on terms more advanta- 

 geous than they can obtain from the northern im- 

 porters. They have every natural advantage in 



the competition, and are invited by every motive, 

 public and private, to embark in the business, and 

 reap the rich harvest that lies before them. It can- 

 not be doubled that the merchants of the interior 

 will give them a preference, since, to the motives 

 of interest, those of patriotis^m will be superadded. 



Among the measures which will most elfectu- 

 ally promote the great object which has brought 

 this convention together, none are more promi- 

 nent, in the estimation of the committee, than the 

 completion of theoreat works of internal improve- 

 nient, by which the southern Atlantic cities are to 

 be connected with the valley of the Mississippi. 

 In aid of the individual capital and enterprise en- 

 gaged in these works, it is believed that the pat- 

 ronage of the states interested, might be wisely 

 and beneficially bestowed. Their completion 

 would greatly promote the system of direct impor- 

 tations through our own sea ports ; and these im- 

 portations would equally promote the completion of 

 the works in question. They are parts of one 

 great system, and will mutually sustain each other. 

 W Georgia and South Carolina, with that harmo- 

 ny and concert of action which the inseparable 

 identity of their interest so strongly recommends, 

 would bring their individual energies and resources 

 to the completion of those lines of communication 

 connecting their Atlantic cities with the navigable 

 waters of the west, the day would not be distant 

 when our most ardent hopes and sanguine antici- 

 pations would be realized. 



The committee beij leave to suggest to the con- 

 vention, another measure, which m their opinion 

 would be eminently conducive to the great object 

 we have in view. One oftheobstacles in the way 

 of establishing a system of direct importations, is 

 the want of the requisite capital applicable to that 

 object. The country, it is believed, contains a suf- 

 ficiency of capital, if motives could be presented to 

 give it a proper direction. To etiect this, the com- 

 mittee can suggest no measure which in their 

 opinion would be so effectual as a law limiting the 

 responsibility of copartners to the sums which they 

 shall put into the copartnership. A large portion of 

 the capital to which we must now look tor carrying 

 on the business of direct importations, is in fhe 

 hands of planters, and men of fortune who have 

 retired from business, who would be willing to put 

 a portion of their surplus capital into importiug 

 co-partnerships, under the management of men of 

 character and capacity, but would never consent 

 to make their whole fortune responsible for the suc- 

 cess of fhe undertakino;. If they actually contri- 

 bute a certain amount of capital, and fhe public is 

 apprised that their responsibility extends no fur- 

 ther, it is obvious that the credit of the concern 

 will rest upon the substanial foundation of thecap- 

 ital paid in. Nothing can be more fair, as it re- 

 gards fhe public, and nothing would so effectually 

 direct the capital and enterprise of our citizens 

 into channels where it is so much wanted. The 

 committee think it would be expedient to memo- 

 rialize the legislatures of the southern and south- 

 western states on this subject, and recommend to 

 the convention fhe appointment of committees for 

 that purpose. 



Another measure which would greatly facilitate 

 the establishment of a system of direct importa- 

 tions, would be the formation of a connection and 

 correspondence between some of our banks and 

 some of those in England, by which each should 



