748 



FARMERS' REGISTER 



[No. 12 



During the three years immediately preceding 

 the French revolution, the averace annual exports 

 from the United States were 111,030 hogsheads, 

 and of manufactured 112,260 pounds. 



From the year 1793 to 1800, inclusive, the ave- 

 rage annual exports were 70,308 hogsheads, and 

 of manulacturcd, ahout 200,000 pounds. 



For the year 1801, the exports went up to 103,- 

 758 hogsheads, and of manufactured to about 

 2,000.000 pounds, but decreased the next year to 

 77,721 hniTsheads. and continued at near that ave- 

 rage until the years 1807 and 1808, when the Ber- 

 lin and Milan decrees, and the embargo brought 

 down the exports to less than 10,000 hogsheads. 



From 1809 to 1812, inclusive, the annual ave- 

 rage was, of exports, 66.659 hogsheads. 'I'he two 

 Eucceeding years, being those of the late war with 

 Great Britain, the exports were almost nominal, 

 beinir less than 4900 hogsheads. 



From 1815, the first year of peace, up to 1835, 

 the exports (with the exception of the years 1827 

 and 1832) have averaged about 90,000 hogsheads, 

 and 2,500,000 lbs. of manufactured tobacco. 



The years 1827 and 1832, the exports exceeded 

 those of all former years since 1792 to the pre- 

 pent period. The amounts beina: for the first, 

 100,025 hoirsheads and 2,637,411 lbs. and the lat- 

 ter 106,806 hogsheads, and 3,456,072 lbs. beincr 

 the larirest number of hogsheads exfiorted from 

 tiie United States since thai year, which amount- 

 ed to 112.428 hogsheads. 



In 1835, the exports were 94,353 hoirsheads and 

 3,8i7,S58 lbs. which may be taken as a fair ave- 

 rage of the past and present year. 



AlthoMi h the number of hoirsheads ex nr'ed :?^ 

 1792 and the years immediately preceeding, were 

 greater than lor the last ten years, yet, when it is 

 considered that the weight of the honshead is con- 

 siderably increased, as also the quantity of manu- 

 factured tobacco, it is believed that there is but lit- 

 tle difierence in the number of pounds exported 

 between the former and present period. 



Weight of Tobacco. 



In 1790 and for some years subsequent, the ave- 

 rage weight of a hogshead was about 1000 lbs. 

 At the present time, those from Kentucky average 

 about 1300 lbs. ; and, although the finer qualities 

 do not exceed, if equal, the former weights, yet, 

 much the largest quantity exported being coarser 

 and heavier, it is estimated that the average 

 weight of all kinds, fi-om Virginia, Maryland, 

 Kentucky, Ohio and Tennessee, is about 1200 lbs. 

 to the hogshead. This, in addition to the in- 

 creased quantity of manufactured tobacco, will 

 ehow but little difference in the amount of exports 

 between the former and present period. 



Prices. 



There has been a considerable diminution in the 

 prices of our tobacco fi-om the year 1800 to the 

 present time, with the exception of the lour years 

 immediately eucceeding the late war with Great 

 Britam ; durim^ which it sustained an average of 

 about $131 per hundred lbs. From 1800 to 1809, 

 the average price for those ten years was .^6 5 8 

 per hundred lbs. whilst, l()r the saiiK* number of 

 years to l'<35, inclusive, it has not been (piitc 

 ^5 1-8 per huiuired II s. notwithstanding thequan- 

 tity exported has been increaeed. 



Value of Exports, 



Prior to the year 1802 the value of the export- 

 ed tobacco has not been ascertained. But in that 

 year it amounted to ft6.220,000; in 1816, just 

 after the war, to $12,809,000; and in lS3o, to 

 $;8,250,577, of unmanufactured, and of manufiic- 

 tured .*i3.57,611, making an ag<rregate value of 

 S9,608,188. Thus, the value of annual exports 

 li-om the United States of this article alone, under 

 all the disadvantages of onerous foreign imposts 

 and restrictions, may be put down at near $9,- 

 000,000. 



With these facts before them, the committee do 

 not see that the depressed state ol" the tobacco 

 market can be attributable to the increased quan- 

 tity produced in, and exported li-om, the United 

 States. They must, therefore, look to other 

 causes for the present reduced price of that staple. 



Prior to the American revolution, all Europe 

 depended on us for supplies of tobacco ; but the 

 war cutting ofi' this resource, their attention was 

 turned to its cultivation, since which period it has 

 been more or less grown over the whole continent; 

 the quantity then, produced at the present time, 

 3'our committee have no means at hand of ascer- 

 taining. It is however, not to be denied that sui'h 

 is the inferiority of its quality, that it does not 

 come in competition with tlie tobacco exported 

 from the United States ; but, from the duties and. 

 restrictions imposed by foreign irovernments and 

 their agents, upon the American [yroduce, the 

 peasantry are compelled to use it, to the exclusion 

 of the latter, except to a limited extent. 



The duties and restrictions in ioreign markets 

 on American tobacco are enormous, and in many 

 ports in Eurofte amount to a t-»tal prohibition — 

 more particularly in England, France, and the in- 

 terior of Germany. If those duties and restric- 

 tions were so modified as to bear a liiir proportion 

 with numerous articles admitted into the United 

 Slates fi-om those countries, it is believed there 

 would be much greater demand tor American to- 

 bacco abroad, and the prices necessarily increased. 



Although the duties paid in Amsterdam, Rot- 

 erdam, Bremen, and other ports of Holland and of 

 Germany, on the Atlantic, are nearly nominal, 

 yet tobacco cannot be introduced into the interior 

 of Germany, which consumes the erreatest quanti- 

 ty, without paying a duty of 11 Prussian dollars 

 upon the hundred weight of manufactured tobac- 

 co, which is about equal to S7 40 American, and 

 upon unmanufactured, which generally goes in 

 hogsheads, of 5^ Prussian dollars, equal to about 

 S3 40 American, upon the hundred weight, which 

 is one hundred per cent, upon the hundred weight, 

 which is one hundred percent, upon the average 

 price of 100 pounds of tobacco shipped from the 

 United States. 



When it is considered that the consumption of 

 American tobacco in Germany and Holland is es- 

 timated at 53,000 hogsheads annually, (40,000 of 

 which are consumed in Germany alone,) which 

 are more than one-half the whole exports Irom 

 the United States, we cannot be wrong when we 

 attribute the present depressed state of the tobacco 

 m:irket to the duties and restrictions exocled abroad. 



The quauiitv of lolncco L^rnwu in France dur- 

 ing the years 1818, 1819 and 1820. (the only years 

 we have correct data lor,) averaged about 240,- 

 000,000 pound.", which, allowing 1000 lbs. to the 



