THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



179 



sion of the regular course of trade, and if per- 

 mitted to continue, which it was impossible it 

 should have done, would not have enured even 

 to the benefit of Mr. Sands's purchasers, who 

 would have been supplied by Barreda with the 

 worst guano he had. 



The complainants about the high price of gua- 

 no seem to lose sight of some important facts. 

 Granting that the article is monopolized, and 

 that every advantage will be taken of that fact 

 that can be, it does not follow that there will be 

 no limit to exorbitancy. Except in the case of 

 monopoly of articles of paramount necessity — as 

 quicksilver for instance, which was monopolized 

 by the Rothschilds until more recent discoveries 

 of that mineral have liberated the trade— -the 

 "monopolist has to consider what is the highest 

 price, it will be safe to charge ; since if he ex- 

 ceed that limit, as he easily may, either from 

 mistake or greed, he fails to sell. Here then is 

 a motive to reduction in price; and superadded 

 to this there was in Barreda' s case an uncertain 

 tenure of office, which rendered it his interest to 

 sell as largely as possible. That he has not 

 greatly exceeded proper limits may be inferred 

 from the fact that the sales were large even at 

 sixty dollars per ton; larger, in fact, than they 

 ought to have been,^is some commercial men 

 now say the price of wheat was last fall. 



But the rise in price was certainly indepen- 

 dent to some extent of the monopoly, and of the 

 enhanced price of wheat. Until within little 

 more than a year past guano has been brought 

 into the United States mainly as a return cargo 

 in bottoms trading to California. Going out 

 freighted, but for the opportunity that guano af- 

 forded, many of them would have had to return 

 empty or to make a still larger circuit to obtain 

 a back load. Hence moderate freight charges. 

 But since California has come to produce for 

 herself most of the articles that in her infancy 

 she took from the Atlantic, very few ships, com- 

 paratively, trade thither, and as a consequence 

 most of those that go for guano now go out in 

 ballast and charge much heavier freights. Be- 

 sides this special reason, guano, like every other 

 article, must feel the fluctuations in freights ; 

 and if from any cause there is a general advance 

 in them, such as the carrying trade experienced 

 in the late European war, it will cost more to 

 transport it from Peru to the United States. To 

 this effect, then, must be attributed a good deal 

 of the rise in price. Another cause no doubt ia 



the general depreciation of the precious metals, 

 and the consequent rise in the level of prices. 

 And a third may be a disposition to extort more 

 from those who were thought able to pay more. 

 But the facts in this latter attributed cause 

 would seem to acquit Mr. Barreda of any unu- 

 sual amount of extortion ; for when wheat had 

 risen from one to two dollars per bushel, guano 

 in the same time had risen from forty five to, 

 say sixty d ollars per ton, so that he, with the 

 above causes to justify him as far as they maybe 

 allowed to go, has only advanced 33 per cent, in 

 the face of an advance in wheat of 100 percent., 

 or in the ratio of one third only. In fact it is 

 less than that ; and strictly speaking guano is not 

 so high now as it was several years ago. 



Assuming, for the sake of illustration, that a 

 ton of guano wil! make 70 bushels of wheat, 

 in a good season, then at forty five dollars per 

 ton, and one dollar for {he wheat, the profit on 

 the outlay is 55 per cent. But at sixty dollars 

 per ton, and two dallors for the wheat, the profit 

 is 133 per cent. It is true that sixty dollars is 

 too high for guano on account of the fluctuations 

 in the price of wheat, and the uncertainty of the 

 crop, and the price must fall. 



Whether the proposed guano convention can 

 reduce it to the desired limit by imposing re- 

 strictions, any better than individuals can by 

 consulting their own separate interests, is very 

 questionable ; and the policy of the effort 

 therefore debateable. So also is the propriety of 

 Virginia's going into that convention. The use 

 of guano, as is well known, is most profitable on 

 the least fertile lands, the benefits diminishing 

 in proportion to fertility. Of such infertile 

 lands, Virginia has a larger share than any other 

 state likely to be represented in that convention. 

 In many sections of .this State guano is the main 

 reliance for the wheat crop; in other more cir- 

 cumscribed districts, and in other states, as also 

 in Great Britain, it is used only as an adjunct to 

 other manures, or as a means of giving the wheat 

 a good start. The relative necessities of the 

 sections then, are very different; and the sacri- 

 fices to be exacted are by no means equal. The 

 region which increases to crop by four or five 

 bushels per acre, and ensures a stand of grass 

 perhaps in addition, cannot pay as much for 

 guano as the region which could make little or 

 no wheat without it, nor will it lose as much by 

 a failure to obtain a supply. Supposing that 

 prohibition may be the effect of the requested 



