THE FARJVIERS* REGISTER. 



277 



3. The country is vviihout cood roads. There 

 nre no I'aciliiies lor cnrryinjj the cotton of Ceniral 

 India to the coast. Raised in Berar, lor instance, 

 it has 10 he carried to Bombay, GOO miles, on the 

 hacks of oxen, the journey occnpying 75 days, 

 and the cost ol' con»?eyance beiniT 80 per cent, on 

 first cost. And U not unlrequonlly happens, that 

 heavy rains overtai<e it on tiie way, so that larfre 

 quantities are annually destroyed or (rreaily da- 

 ma<:ed. The finer kinds, it is said, are far more in- 

 jured by the rains liian the inferior ; hence ano- 

 ther inducement to send common cotton. 



4. The col ton iso.ien seriously injured bj'- bf^.inn; 

 brought into the <To^'^''f"T)''f't yards, where, ifthe 

 owners cannot immediately pay the taxes, it is 

 buried in the ground, no straw or matting being 

 interposed between it and the earth. 



5. It is stated, that in Egypt and Pern, coUon 

 could not he grown at all, without the aid ol ar- 

 tificial irrigation. No good colion is imported into 

 Great Britain from warm climates, which has 

 not been irrigated. In India, as if to compel the 

 growth of common cotton, irrigated lands are 

 doubly taxed, sometimes trebly or quadruply. 



Mr. George Thompson thus sums up the difli- 

 culiies in the production of'cotton. 



" Now look at the difliculties in the way of grow- 

 ing cotton: First, the absence of proprietary 

 right in the soil. Here is the master-evil; here 

 is the great injustice of our administration in India, 

 depriving the natives of the soil of their riiiht to 

 that soil ; utterly despising them ; sweeping off 

 all the great landlords and ail the little ones to- 

 gether ; reckoning directly with the cultivator of 

 the individual field, and taking from him at least 

 45 per cent, of the gross produce of the soil. 

 Then, the heavy and fluctuating assessments : 

 then iheutterdependence upon the village bankers, 

 producing, as you have seen, carelessness in grow- 

 ing, in packing, and in cleaning tiie cotton. Then 

 the damage done to the cotton on its journej' from 

 the interior to the coast. 



" Then the insilfRcient accommodation, or rather 

 no accommodation at all, which it finds when 

 it. has arrived at the coast ; for you have seen, 

 that in Guzerat, though a part of India as well 

 managed, as any other part, it is tumbled in- 

 to a pit cowered with lumps of earth, and there it 

 lies to contract moisture, and it comes up in a slate 

 perfectly unfit to be packed and embarked for this 

 country. But again, there is the want of care, on 

 the part of the natives, I admit, in respect to soils 

 and situations ; then the non-introduction of fo- 

 reign seeds, which is a very important part of the 

 business ; then the want of the means of trans- 

 portation ; then the negligence and caprice of the 

 revenue ofTicers, who olien, through mere disin- 

 clination, refuse to assess tlie cotton, until it is very 

 much injured in its quality ; then the want of an 

 efficient system of civil administration, so that the 

 indiviilual who is injured can obtain no redress, 

 and must apply, if he does apply, to a man who 

 has rather an interest in oppressing him, than in 

 redressing hie grievances. Then the fact that 

 cotton is propairated for ages upon the same soil 

 and from the same seed. Add to this the insuf- 

 ficient care paid to the rotation of' crops. Then 

 add the (act that other crops are grown along 

 with the cotton crops, which interfere with the 

 .health and productiveness of the cotton." 



None of these hindrances, it will be observed, 



is inherent in the nature of ihe soil, or character 

 vl' the people. A wise government could remove 

 them all. Still, despite of their unhappy influ- 

 ence, the exportation of Indian cotton to Britain, 

 has increased, as we have seen, during the last 

 seven years, at the rate of 145 per cent., while 

 tluit of American cotton has advanced at the rate 

 of but 70 per cent. ! 



DESULTORY OBSERVATIONS ON JHE BANK- 

 ING SYSTEM OF THIS COUNTRY, AND THE 

 EFFECTS OF ITS DIFFERENT MODES OF 

 OPERATION. ADDRESSED TO THE CONSI- 

 DERATION OP THE AGRICTLTURAL. INTE- 

 REST. 



Continued from page 244. 



F. — Banks of circulation. 



imMrfat 

 benefits derived from the operations of %anks 

 of deposite and of discount, we now come, next 

 in order, to the consideration of the third great 

 operation of banks — that of issue, or circulation — 

 or of creating and supplying to the country a 

 paper currency. This, though always and uni- 

 versally a legalized operation of banks in this 

 country, is an illegitimate part of their business, 

 not necessary to their other proper and always 

 beneficial action, and which, in any degree of ex- 

 tent, if not always injurious to the community, 

 is certain to- become so by its excess ; and which 

 excess has never yet failed to Ibllow a commence- 

 ment of the privilege of creating and issuing pa- 

 per money lt)r private benefit. 



" A bank of circulation.''' says Mr. Raguet, in 

 his excellent 'Treatise on Currency and Banking,' 

 " is an institution established solely (or the pur- 

 ^pose of lending credit ; which is performed by 

 exchanging its promissory notes [bank notes] 

 payable to bearer on demand in coin, or giving 

 transferable credits on its books, also payable on 

 demand in coin, (or the promissory notes of indi- 

 viduals, payable at a future fixed day, the latter 

 paying a percentage per annum, equal to the in- 

 terest on a loan of capital, for the advantages 

 they consider themselves as enjoying by dealing 

 in the market with the credit of the bank instead 

 of their own." All the banks of the United 

 States, (except the sa^vings' banks,) are banks 

 of circulation, and combine that operation with 

 those of discount and deposite. And it is the 

 real profit to the banking interest, derived from 

 this powpr of creating paper money, and the 

 supposed benefit of its creation to the public in- 

 terest, which give to the existing banks all their 

 hold on public (avor. The other, and real and 

 important benefits of banking are scarcely thought 

 ofi in comparison to the delusive fascination of 

 prospective wealth supposed to be offered to (he 

 community by the creation and increase of paper 

 money by private individuals. It is this privi- 

 lege of issuing their own notes, not bearing in- 

 terest, as money, and the certain effect of such 

 issue in substituting and driving abroad the gold 

 and silver coin which formed the previous curren- 

 cy of the countrv, which give to the banks of 

 this country all their dangerous power and 



