and their Development. 143 



My aim in this paper is to show that an ample field exists 

 here for the further extension of our resources in raw 

 materials, and for the profitable introduction of manufac- 

 tures whose products can compete successfully with imported 

 articles. 



Under ordinary circumstances the balance of trade would 

 be in favor of England, which produces the most value in 

 commodities at the least cost in labor ; but in our very pe- 

 culiar circumstances, situated at the antipodes, though our 

 rates of labor are high, yet the long voyage of about fifteen 

 thousand miles of our raw materials to England, and the 

 similar voyage back to us of those materials as manufactured 

 articles, with the interest of money during these two long 

 voyages, and other detentions, with the double insurances, 

 the many commissions, storages and brokerages, and profits 

 of the various persons concerned — all these amounts, added 

 together, gives a natural protection to the industry of this 

 country. I say a natural protection, not a protection laid on 

 by Government, which will enable us to successfully compete 

 with England and other countries in our own market, by the 

 conversion of many of our own raw materials into manufac- 

 tured articles. 



Let us now consider the effect that would be produced on 

 these colonies by England being engaged in a war with 

 Erance, or any other nation whose fleet could interfere with 

 our commerce. 



At the present time we are dependent for our supplies of 

 almost every manufactured article on England ; and many 

 of these imports are our own raw materials returned to us in 

 a manufactured state. These supplies now come to us regu- 

 larly in ships, several of which arrive here every week. But 

 in time of war all this will be altered. Vessels leaving this 

 colony for England, and taking away our raw materials, 

 such as gold, wool, hides, bark for tanning, will not leave our 

 ports, as they do now, every few days, they will have to wait 

 till a number of them can sail together, and then they will have 

 to sail under the convoy of a ship of war, as they did in the 

 wars of the first Napoleon, when our colonies furnished to Eng- 

 land much less valuable articles than gold, wool, and hides. 

 And vessels conveying manufactured articles to us from 

 England, will have to arrive here in our ports after similar 

 long detentions in English ports, till many of them can be 

 got to sail together, and they will be similarly escorted by 

 armed vessels. 



