1840.] SENATE— No. 36. 151 



Under these circumstances, whether we undertake to manufac- 

 ture or to produce raw silk, we can at present make no very 

 safe calculations for the future of what the price of labor will be ; 

 or what will be the value of the article after it is produced. The 

 attempt, therefore, to produce silk on any large scale, as well 

 as the attempt to manufacture silk, even sewings, must at the 

 present be an undertaking full of uncertainties, but one can 

 hardly say, of doubtful result. The absence of all duties, 

 upon foreign fabrics, exposes us, also, to all the caprices 

 of foreign labor, capital, and cupidity, and the ebb and flood of 

 foreign markets are felt equally upon our shores. Within the last 

 few months, as I have remarked, the prices of many articles of 

 silk have experienced a decline of more than fifty per cent. 

 The best of sewing silk which not long since commanded nine 

 dollars, now sells for six. Ribbons and lutestrings are even 

 much more reduced. 



Some persons, on this subject of the profits of the silk cul- 

 ture, have had their imaginations raised almost to a white heat, 

 and have thought that the product of raw silk in the northern 

 states, might soon be made to equal the product of cotton in 

 the southern portion of the Union. Certainly they do not 

 mean in pounds, but in the value of the article produced. But 

 is it not obvious that any such increase of the product of the 

 article would proportionately reduce the price, though this 

 would again be affected to a degree by another element, which 

 must come into the calculation ; and that is, the increased use 

 of the article which would follow any considerable reduction 

 of its price. This would not, however, raise the price, because 

 its free use depends on a low price, and bears a direct relation 

 to the diminution of the price. There is, however, no suffi- 

 cient reason to think that raw silk can maintain its present 

 price in the country, certainly not in the face of any con- 

 siderably increased production. The present price of raw silk 

 from Smyrna is not much above $4 per pound. Bengal silk is 

 lower. 



But our silk is said to be much superior to the India silk, 

 as it is said, likewise, that silk raised in the norihcrn provinces 



