VALUE OF A PROTECTIVE TARIFF. 311 



figures from a pamphlet issued by the national bureau of 

 statistics. From this it appears, that the value of imports 

 of foreign goods last year, at their cost abroad, amounted to 

 716,000,000 dollars, of which the value of 211,000,000 

 was of free goods ; such as tea, coffee, hides, chemicals, 

 etc., leaving a value of 505,000,000 on which duties were 

 paid to the amount of 21 tj, 000, 000 dollars, an average of 

 42| per cent. Think of adding this amount to the foreign 

 cost, besides freight and other charges ! 



The exports of merchandise during this period were valued 

 at 733,000,000 dollars, of which the value of 552,000,000 

 were the products of agriculture, or seventy-five per cent, of 

 the whole. 



Of the whole amount of exports, only a little over one- 

 eighth, or 103,000,000 worth were manufactures, or less than 

 two per cent, of the total manufiicturing product of the country 

 for 1880. And to make up this sum, manufactures of wood 

 (meaning lumber) to the value of 19,000,000, of tobacco, 

 spirits, spirits of turpentine, sugar and molasses, and many 

 such articles have to be included. Now if the duties on the 

 total 716,000,000 of imports, free and dutiable, are 216,- 

 000,000, or an average of thirty per cent, on all, dutiable or 

 free, does not the country have to pay those 216,000,000 

 into the j^ublic treasury, in addition to the 733,000,000 

 value of merchandise sent away to buy them, and does not 

 this vast sum come out of the pockets of the consumers, by 

 the increased price of everything they have to buy? And 

 does not the chief burden fall upon agriculture, the most im- 

 portant interest of the nation, and upon agriculturists, who 

 are the largest class, whose products and labor have fur- 

 nished the bulk of those exports? 



In the old days of nullification, when there was much 

 strife and much intelligont discussion upon the effect of for- 

 eign imposts, when laid for protection, Mr. McDuffie of 

 South Carolina maintained the theory, the duties at that time 

 being on the average forty per cent, upon goods imported 

 from England, that if he sent 100 bales of cotton there to be 

 sold, ordering the returns in goods, when they arrived, he 

 had to o:ivc the United States orovernment 40 bales more to 

 pay the duty on the clothing, hats, shoes and blankets in 



