The King of Commerce. 629 
the British West Indies. They thus lost their outlet for 
their surplus provisions, and were also deprived of their 
accustomed source of supply for cotton, for cotton up to 
that period, except in Mexico, had only been grown on the 
Continent of North America, as an ornamental garden 
plant. Provisions in the new States, owing to the absence of 
a foreign demand, became plentiful and cheap, and cotton, 
owing to the absence of supply, became scarce and dear. 
This induced the Americans to cultivate cotton as a crop 
for their own use, when it was ascertained that the soil and 
climate of the extreme Southern States were well adapted 
for that purpose. The superabundance of African labour 
in the Northern and middle States, seeking employment, 
began to find its way to the newly-discovered cotton 
region, and the foreign demand for American cotton 
arising chiefly from the improvements in machinery, for 
which it is so well fitted, stimulated production. In a short 
time the States became exporters. Cotton was then worth, 
at Liverpool, about Is. 7d. per pound, exclusive of duty. 
Eventually, through the planter’s experience, skill, and 
good management, the cost of production was so reduced 
that cotton would pay its way if sold at Liverpool for 6d. 
per pound, and this, too, at an augmentation in the interest 
upon the capitalized labour of ten hundred per cent. Such 
was the condition of affairs in 1860, when the largest crop 
of cotton, that of 1859, ever grown in the American States, 
was disposed of upon the Liverpool basis of 64d. per 
pound. But the whole demand for that and the succeeding 
crop was not real. It was partially fictitious. The too 
rapid increase in the spinning force of the world has con- 
verted the raw material into the manufactured article to a 
greater extent than was necessary for the wants of man- 
kind. Southern statesmen, however, not knowing the 
weakness of quantity, over estimated the political power of 
their leading staple, and anticipating support from without, 
precipitated secession. This brought about the war, saved 
Lancashire from ruin, and caused the emancipation of 
4,000,000 negro slaves. We say, saved Lancashire from 
ruin, because the world was suffocated with cotton goods, 
and while the cotton mills had partial work during the 
conflict between the American States, which work was 
owing principally to a speculative demand for their 
products, the large stocks of yarns and goods, the manu- 
facture of previous seasons, that would otherwise be 
unsaleable, returned large profits. The question of the 
3 Ee 
