No. 216.] 379 



health, if at all, by the slowest possible process. There is anothet 

 incident to their position which has its origin in the currency of the 

 United States, which more than any other circumstance, tends to 

 render their industry unproductive, and prevents the accumulation of 

 wealth which they reasonably anticipate from the many advantages 

 of capital and labor which they enjoy. The price of their great 

 staple — 'Cotton — -is determined by the European market, that taking 

 the bulk of the product. The European price is fixed by the curren- 

 cies of Europe, which, being as before observed, much less than our 

 own, reduces the price of their staple to a point below that which 

 would result if the currency of the market corresponded in dimen- 

 sions to the currency of the country in which it is produced. On the 

 other hand the cost of production, embracing the interest of capital 

 and all the expenditures of the planter, are determined by the currency 

 of the United States; it is obvious that this circumstance is highly 

 disadvantageous to southern interests, especially to that portion 

 engaged in the growth of that article. This will be more intelligible 

 if we consider, that price is the value of a commodity expressed in 

 the denominations of the currency-— and that the currency of a 

 country, being absorbed by its dealings, the quantity which can be 

 appropriated to each transaction must bear the proportion to the 

 whole, which the value of the article transferred bears to the value 

 of all the articles to be transferred. If therefore, the bulk of the 

 currency is large, ^nce will be high, or in other words, the amount 

 of the currency appropriated to the transfer will be large, if on the 

 contrary, the bulk of the currency is small, the price will be low, or 

 the quantity appropriated to the transfer will be small. 



No greater fallacy exists than the supposition that there, is any 

 real measure of value in the civilized world which corresponds to 

 the measures of length and weight by which a given quantity of 

 value is indicated equally in all countries, like a given quantity of 

 cloth or cotton. If gold only were used in all countries as currency, 

 great inequality would still exist, arising from various causes; but 

 since the introduction of currencies of credit, which to some extent 

 exist in all the countries of Europe, and which constitutes almost 

 entirely that of the United States, the want of equality in the measure 

 of value is greatly increased, or in fact totally destroyed. The inte- 

 rest of the South is therefore obviously to encourage the manufac- 

 tures of the North, till they, instead of Europe, become the consumers 

 of the bulk of their product and govern its price, which will then 

 be determined by a currency corresponding to the currency of the 



