FARMERS' REGISTER. 



[No. 9 



trade ; but provided always and surely, that all cor- 

 porations and individuals who may pursue the 

 trade of bankinsr, shall be held as strictly respon- 

 sible for the performance of all their obligations, 

 as are those who are engaged in other trades. We 

 care not to what extent banks may be put in ope- 

 ration in Virginia, (and without charge of bonus, 

 or any other share ol" their profits on the part of 

 the state, as monopoly- giver,) so long as proper 

 care shall be used, (as is expressed in the report 

 of the convention,) that ''provision be made 

 against the abuse and perversion of their powers.^'' 

 We proceed now to give the several reports 

 above referred to, together with the resolutions of 

 the convention, founded thereupon. 



Report and resolutions on the causes of the decline 

 of the direct foreign trade, and the means of 

 remedy. 



The committee who were instructed to consider 

 and report upon the object of this convention, re- 

 spectfully report, that they have carefully consi- 

 dered the important questions submitted by the 

 convention lor their examination. In the prose- 

 cution of their inquiries mto the latent causes of 

 our commercial decline, they have avoided all 

 questions which involve subjects of party prefer- 

 ence or political disagreement. Such discussions 

 might not, indeed, be wholly irrelevant, but they 

 believe that there is sufficient common ground 

 upon which every fi-iend of southern commerce 

 may consistently stand, without touching subjects 

 of party dissension, or trenching upon the lines, 

 which divide the public sentiment at the present 

 day. Your committee, therefore, without slurring 

 over any inquiry, which they deemed essential to 

 a correct understanding of the important questions 

 confided to them, have confined their notice to 

 those plain, simple and conceded truths, which 

 only require to be stated to secure the assent of all. 



Commerce is but the exchange of property, and 

 however diversified and intricate some of its ope- 

 rations may seem, they are merely designed to fa- 

 cilitate such exchanges. The existence of trade 

 between any two countries, is evidence that nei- 

 ther can sufficiently supply itself from its internal 

 resources, with those things that may gratify the 

 wants of its people. No nation would be guilty 

 of the supererogation of sending abroad to obtain 

 what it was already abundantly possessed of; as 

 no individual would seek his supplies beyond the 

 hmits of its own domain, if he could always find 

 there whatever might satisfy his real or his fancied 

 wants. 



The same necessity which impels a nation to 

 seek abroad those things, which its own industry 

 cannot supply, would prompt it to obtain what it 

 wanted from the nearest and most convenient 

 point; nor is it probable that iis trade would ever 

 be diverted from such a channel so long as its 

 own products could be advantageously exchanged 

 for those of such neighboring community. An 

 individual residing in the town of Hampton, would 

 scarcely submit to the delay and ex|)ense of ob- 

 taining from ihe city of Richmond any article that 

 he could purchase upon as good terms in Norfolk 

 Borough; and when he had effected his purchase 

 in Norlblk, he would be still less disposed to bear 



the unnecessary cost of its transportation to Rich- 

 mond before receiving it at his own home. In 

 the case supposed, the interests of the purchaser 

 would be as injuriously affected, where the ex- 

 penses of this circuitous conveyance were paid by 

 the seller, as they would be where he is himself 

 immediately subjected to the increased cost; for, 

 it is obvious that the seller, by undertaking to pay 

 the charges of such an indirect transportation, 

 would be unable to sell his goods at as low a price 

 as he otherwise might be, exactly the amount 

 which he is to pay for their conveyance. 



Having shown that "a direct trade is the natu- 

 ral channel of communication between nations," 

 the committee do not deem it necessary to enter 

 into any argument to prove that the trade which 

 supplies the people of Virginia with foreign goods, 

 imported into the northern ports, is not a direct 

 trade. To those who are at all acquainted with 

 the geographical relations existing between us 

 and those by whom this trade is conducted, such 

 an argument would be a mere waste of time. 



They proceed to consider the more important 

 inquiry, whether any and what part of our con- 

 sumption of foreign merchandise, is supplied by 

 means of this indirect communication. Upon this 

 point, information has been obtained of as precise 

 a kind as the nature of the case will admit; and it 

 places in a striking light the disadvantages to 

 which this and the other southern states are sub- 

 jected, fi-om the present condition of their trade. 

 Were there not the most mdisputable evidence of 

 the fact, it would scarcely be credited, that when 

 the total imports of the United States amounted 

 to ^126,521, 332, the imports of Virginia amount- 

 ed only to the sum of ^837,325; while of the total 

 exports, estimated at $104,336,973, those of Vir- 

 ginia amounted to near five and a-half millions of 

 dollars. Of the above amount of imports, those 

 of New York alone exceeded $73,000,000, while 

 the imports into North Carolina were less than 

 one-fourth of a million. Those of Massachusetts 

 amounted to $17,672,129, while South Carolina 

 imported but to the value of $1,787,267. Those 

 of Pennsylvania to $10,479,268, while Georgia 

 received little more than $550,000, and Alabama 

 less than $400,000. 



In further illustration of this branch of the sub- 

 ject, the committee present the following extract 

 from the able report submitted to the late conven- 

 tion at Richmond, by their committee, the state- 

 ments and estimates of which, were based upon 

 the latest ofBcial returns, and are believed to be 

 entirely accurate. It will be seen that they are in 

 close accordance with the statements presented 

 above. "On examining the official returns it will 

 be found that the exports from this state, on an 

 average of the three last years, terminating on the 

 31st December last, amounted to $5,265,461, and 

 the imports to $816,887, the former being to the 

 latter, nearly as thirteen to two. For the same 

 period, the average exports of all the staple states 

 amounted to $72;i07,039, and their imports $22,- 

 303,656, while the exports of the other states for 

 the same period amounted but to $29,316,019, 

 and their imports to $116,908,721, making the ex- 

 ports of the staple states compared to their imports 

 as 7 to 2, while the exports of the other states are 

 to their imports as 1 to 4." 



The report, after adverting to the fact, that the 

 official returns do not give the coasting trade, and 



