OUR MARKETS, THE HOME AND THE FOREIGN. 



four wheat crops 997,858,900 bushels. During the same period we 

 exported 84,252,004 bushels of corn, and 1,111,685 barrels of 

 Indian meal, the whole being equal to 89,254,587 bushels, or only 

 2.17 per cent, of the product, leaving the remainder, or nearly 98 

 per cent., to find buyers and consumers in the United States. Of 

 wheat, in the same time, we exported 136,516,386 bushels ; of flour, 

 12,193,795 barrels; of bread and biscuit, 46,209,780 pounds: these 

 three forms of the grain representing 198,688,751 bushels, or 19.91 

 per cent, of the product, so that fully four-fitths of it remained in 

 this country to supply the local demand. Such facts conclusively 

 show that the home market, not \^ foreign, is first in order of import- 

 ance ; is the one which offers the most numerous and reliable op- 

 portunities for effecting exchanges ; and is the one capable ot the 

 largest development. To expand, sustain, and prosper that market 

 are prime objects of the Protective policy. 



It is a favorite dogma of the Free Traders that a high tariff 

 erects barriers to commerce, and restricts both imports and exports, 

 thus tending to scarcity. This, however, is nothing but a theory, 

 and is a libel upon the facts, as we shall prove. Below, in contrast, 

 are two tabular statements of exports and imports, compiled from 

 the official reports, covering the last twenty-eight fiscal years : 



These official statistics emphatically contradict the Free Trade 

 dogma. During the Protective period we find a vast expansion of 

 both exports and imports; not the alleged restriction. The total of 



