838] 



FARMERS' REGISTER, 



703 



metliatc lejral adoption of this alternative; but 

 Ihey ileoni lliat it will be inexpedient to recom- 

 mend the addpiion of that which the public mind 

 is not prepared to sanction, until this subject shall 

 have received their further consideration. They 

 beg leave, jiowever, to recommend an 'fiiend- 

 menl to the law in relaiion to merchants' IToenses, 

 which is no other than a leiral exercise of inter- 

 nal police which exists in every state of the 

 Union ; some haviDg adopted its use for the pur- 

 pose of protection of various persons or branches 

 of trade, and others for revenue. In the statp;^-j.of 

 Virginia and North Carolina it has been a;'jjj'^ed 

 both as a system of revenue and a mer'-^n, of 

 niternal police, and may with advantage bi .-alter- 

 ed and amended to the great improvement of both 

 objects. In the year 1837 we had fifty-seven 

 wholesale merchants, as follows: — Norfolk 19, 

 Richmond 17, Petersburg 16, and Wheeling 5, 

 each for ihe consideraiion of §60 per annum. In 

 the same year we had eighteen auctioneers, to 

 w-it: Richmond 6, Norlblk 4, Fredericksburg 3, 

 Lynchburg 2, Wheeling 2. and Portsmouth 1, at 

 the sum of .*90 per annum. In the same year 

 there was granted to the 115 counties and 8 cities, 

 boroughs, &c. 3836 retail licenses at $20 per an- 

 num, all united producing a revenue of near 

 873,000. 



Your committee estimate that the retail dealers 

 purchased goods, wares and merchandise in the 

 said year, to the amount of g38,736,000 and esti- 

 mate the rates of their purchases as follows: 



Ko. of merchants. Am'' t. of purchase. Total amH. 

 25 who buy say 100,000 is 2,500,000 



3836 



838,736,000 



Of this amount it is believed that not more than 

 84,500,000 value of merchandise both Ibreisn and 

 domestic, were introduced into the stale alier the 

 manner of a direct trade ; and therefore a tribute 

 was paid to the indirect trade on the amount of 

 §34,236,000, which amount of supplies, if receiv- 

 ed direct, would not cost the merchants of our 

 ports more than §25,000,000. But this is not all 

 the indirect business, inasmuch as a very large 

 amount of articles purchased of the consumers 

 are purchased in other states by retail to the ne- 

 glect and injury of the retail dealers who have 

 paid the state for the privilege of furnishing the 

 citizens with goods by retail. 



Your committee beg leave to suguest the in- 

 quiry vvhether citizens who thus act^the part of 

 merchants to the injury of our own markets, and 

 the prosperity of the state, should not in justice 

 to the retail dealer, and to the revenue, pay some 

 equivalent in the form of a license. It is manifest 

 that the license law of this state was enacted 

 with the design that the retail dealers should pur- 



''. chase their supplies from the wholesale dealers 

 and auctioneers within the state ; and were they 

 to do sn, the revenue would he greatly improved, 

 as not less than five hundred wholesale dealers 

 would be sustained at this time who now pay re- 

 venue to other states. If by (lincriminaling li- 

 censes our trade were thus restored, the business 

 of the state would command abundant supplies ; 

 and a direct export and import business and trade 

 with the country would establish a sound condi- 

 tion of domestic exchanges, and save us from pa- 

 nic and alarm, when convulsions ensue consequent 

 upon the over-trading of otherslates. And manu- 

 facturers, mechanics and artizans would find a 

 prosperous home among us. It is notorious how- 

 ever, that our retailers purchase nearly their en- 

 tire supplies in other states, and from dealers who 

 contribute nothing to the support of our govern- 

 ment, nor does the profit of the business add to 

 our wealth or to the value of our town property; 

 but, on the contrary, we are impoverished, inas- 

 much as the profits drawn from our labor and 

 added to the capital of our rivals increase their 

 strength in the ratio with which we become 

 weakened and exhausted. 



It is obvious that the little trade which we now 

 enjoy is from our smaller retail dealers^ and 

 from them we derive benefit and they pay as 

 large a sum for a license as the largest class of re- 

 tail dealers: for example, those who purchase 

 from one to two thousand dollars per annum, pay 

 from one to two per cent, on the amount of their 

 business for a license, and our larger dealers who 

 purchase exclusively in other states pay only about 

 one-fifteenth part of one per cent, for theirs. — 

 Your committee, therefore, deem it due to justice 

 and patriotism to reduce the license of the smaller 

 class of retails, and especially those who pur- 

 chase their entire supplies in Ihe state, and re- 

 commend the enlargement of the san-.e paid by 

 dealers who purchase any portion of their sup- 

 plies in other states, to a sum not less than, 

 two hundred dollars, and the adoption of a new 

 classification of dealers is recommended, to be de- 

 nominated the Domestic Dealers, being such as 

 purchase exclusively within the state, and Foreign 

 Dealers, those who introduce and sell goods from 

 other states; and in this latter class we would em- 

 brace all commission merchants, factors and con- 

 signees who are the accesaries of the indirect in- 

 troduction and sale of merchandise. Your com- 

 mittee are deeply impressed with the opinion, that 

 this small amendment of our system of internal: 

 police, will immediately restore to our ports an ex- 

 port and import business, foreign and coastwise^ 

 to the amount of §30.000,000, annually ; and if 

 our merchants are found incompetent "to supply 

 the demand, those merchants who now enjoy the 

 business ofour retailers, will come from other states 

 and compete for the rich boon which so simple a 

 legislative remedy will wrest from them. JMake 

 our business worth competing for at home, and 

 competition will soon, very soon, be equal to the 

 demand. Your committee are incompetent to es- 

 timate all the advantages which would speedily re- 

 sult to our seaports and the towns of Winches- 

 ter, Wheeling, Charlestown, &c. as they would 

 coimmand the trade of the retail dealers of each 

 respective vicinity ; and it will soon be manifest 

 that under all the evils to which they might feel 

 subjected from an enlarged license, that their larger 

 operations would more than compensate, and 



