304 RESOUKCES OF CALIFORNIA. 



CHAPTER IX. 



OTHER BRANCHES OF INDUSTRY. 



§ 227. High Wages. — There are two great difficulties in the 

 way of the productive industry of California, the high prices 

 of labor and the high rates of interest. These may be bless- 

 ings to certain classes of individuals, and perhaps even to the 

 population generally, but they render it impossible for Califor- 

 nia to compete with foreign manufacturers in many branches 

 of employment. The great distance of our state from Europe 

 and Atlantic ports — San Fi'ancisco is about nineteen thousand 

 miles from New York, by the route followed by the sailing 

 vessels ordinarilv — and the hio^h freio:ht on merchandise, is a 

 great protection to our home industry, and the Federal tariff 

 gives us a further protection on many articles ; but neverthe- 

 less, a large proportion of the manufactured goods consumed 

 heie are imported from abroad, and probably will be for many 

 years to come. We have no secondary coal in the state, and 

 cannot expect to smelt iron ore, or to make cutlery or fine 

 articles of hardware. Some cotton is produced on the shores 

 of China and is now ship2;)ed to England ; perhaps we may at 

 some future day be able to import it raw and manufiicture it 

 here, but of this there is no certainty. We cannot hope to 

 obtain much cotton from this side of the Pacific, for the west- 

 ern slope of the Xorth American continent is not suited to 

 cotton growing. Xow^ coal, iron, and cotton are the raw ma- 

 terial for a large share of the most profitable manufactures of 

 our age. We shall produce a large quantity of fine m'ooI, and 

 it will in time be spun and woven here with a profit. Lum- 

 ber is so bulky tliat it cannot well be imported from abroad, 



