478 



MONTHLY JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURE. 



PopuLltinn in 1790. 

 319,728 



378,717 



Population hi 1840. 

 470,019 



737,699 



Increase in "iO yean. 



62.691 



214,412 



Maryland 7,040.000 



Massachusetts 4,640,000 



Maryland, on a basis of 407,350, in the year 1820, increased in twenty years but 

 62,669, of which 40,000 occurred in one city ; while Massachusetts, on a basis of 

 523,287 in 1820, went up in the same twenty years, to 737,699 ; having increased 

 214,412— besides supplying Maryland very freely with school-masters and school- 

 mistresses, and merchants and manufacturers. 



Now bearing in mind, that in Maryland and Virginia, the vehement denuncia- 

 tions of banks and corporations of all sorts, make the ladder on which young po- 

 iitical aspirants, (of whom the farmers are the hobby-horses,) mount first into 

 the Legislatures, and then into Congress, and then into offices at home and mis- 

 sions abroad ; bearing all this in mind, let us compare the policy and circum- 

 stances of the regions referred to, leaving you, reader, to judge how far free trade in 

 money and facilities for establishing banks and factories, have had influence on 

 the growth of population, and the cause of education ; in a word, on the social im- 

 provement and political power of these old sister States respectively. In Massa- 

 chusetts, be it remembered, the banks have never suspended specie payments. 

 Yet there, and in Rhode Island, almost any dozen people in any village may form a 

 Bank on complying with a few simple forms, and the people are left entirely free 

 to deal with them in money, as they would deal in potatoes or onions. Hence, as 

 we are well informed by a wealthy citizen of Massachusetts, well known in Bal- 

 timore, where he goes with his capital, to buy Maryland produce and sell Massa- 

 chusetts manufactures, any industrious, respectable man, can borrow money for 

 any industrial enterprise either from the banks or from individuals. Is it so in 

 the country of Maryland or Virginia ? 



The men who direct the banks in New-England and lend the money, are like 

 the borrowers— plain, industrious working-men. The shares of stocks are divi- 

 ded, in small amounts, among a great number of people. Almost every farmer 

 has a share in a bank or factory, or a turnpike road, or a railroad — generally a 

 little in all ; and the amount given to a Cashier or 'President in Baltimore, in- 

 cluding his house-rent, would pay all the expenses of conducting a Massachusetts 

 or Rhode Island Bank. Now look at the difference of population and banks, and 

 banking capital, in the four Slates. We only state the facts, and leave you — 

 kind and discriminating readers — to draw the inference, and to see the connection 

 between these things and the Agriculture of the four States— for now v/e will 

 draw little Fthode Island and the Old Dominion into the lines of comparison. 



Here it will be seen that even little Rhode Island, with her 100,000 inhabitants, 

 and less than a million of acres of land, has double the number of banks, and the 

 use of more capital, to give activity to her industry, than Virginia with her more 

 thana million inhabitants and near forty millions of acres, instead of less than one! 

 Nor, with all the denunciations fulminated against banks, and corporations of 

 all sorts, do we hear of any failures of Banks m Rhode Island. Instead of gene- 

 ral and sweeping condemnation against banks and corporations, by people who 



" Large aa was already the banking capital of Massachusetts, the addition of the present year (1848) ia 

 about two and a half tnillions. 



(9Jb) 



