DE BOW'S REVIEW: A MONTHLY JOURNAL OF COMMERCE, AGRICULTURE, MANUFACTURES, INTERNAL IMPROVEMENT, STATISTICS, THE PROPOSED CANADIAN RECIPROCITY TREATY-PROPRIETY OF EXTENDING ITS PRIVILEGES TO OTHER COLONIAL POSSESSIONS-THE MISSISSIPPI AND THE AMAZON, AND THE EXTENT OF OUR TRADE WITH SOUTH AMERICAN REPUBLICS, ETC. [WE are in favor of Canadian reciprocity, and therefore do not, upon that point, agree with the writer of the following paper, furnished for the Review; but, agreeing with him upon many other points, and believing his facts and deductions to be of interest and value, we publish them entire.-EDITOR.] occasional changes or modifications, and these are made or refused; but ill-advised legislation, in its broad application, is peculiarly the evil of republics. Lobbyism, the clamor of the press, and the argument of petition, are the levers which control our deliberative bodies; for, however well convinced a member may be of the injudiciousness of a measure, he will not dare to defy his constituency, even if he have the moral fortitude to resist the influences which daily beset him on his way to and from his seat. The subject of reciprocal trade with ness. The public welfare may demand the British North American Provinces has again been brought to the notice of the public, by the attention recently bestowed upon it at Washington. It is not our purpose at least at present-to discuss the merits of the question in detail, but to submit a few remarks that have a legitimate bearing on the measure. In popular governments, all laws are presumed to be the expressions of the popular will; and yet, such expressions are but the acts of a ruling majority, in which the governed concur. Hasty and ill-applied legislation is oftener a result, proceeding from deliberative assem- It is averred and we are not prepared blages, chosen by free suffrages, than to dispute the assertion-that there is a from bodies on which there are imposed large majority in Congress who are in fachecks, in the form of a power compa- vor of reciprocity with the Canadas. Be it ratively irresponsible to the people, and so; but the fact is no proof that one half supreme in itself. It is for this reason, the American people are in favor of the that in monarchical states, the record project. We cannot believe that the of legislative proceedings exhibit fewer southern and southwestern states desire interpolations, canceled acts, and re- any such exclusive reciprocal interstored pages, than do the journal of pro- changes with the provinces, or a nearer ceedings of republican councils. Laws intercourse than the nation now enjoys, are framed with more care, and are abo- unless the bill before Congress first unlished with more caution. Judicial tests dergoes material alteration. The Union generally confirm the judgment with is a kindred whole, and not an alliance. which they are created, and the exigen- Each member is independent, but it is cies of the time attest their wholesome- a family in which everything is, or should be, conducted with harmony to insure prosperity, and to perpetuate fraternal relations. In our own mindalthough we do not ask the reader to indorse the view-reciprocity with the British North American Colonies, without extending the same courtesy to the whole continent and its adjacent islands, would be a most pernicious proceeding, and fraught with social mischief. It will, if carried into effect, be introducing an invidious and distinctive element into our political creed, by avowing national preferences, while our treaties declare that all governments stand with us upon an equal and impartial footing. It will be saying to Europe-a quibble that has already obtained-that this favor we may show to Canada, because Canada is not a treaty-making power, which constitutes an independent nation; but it will be saying to the West India and South American dependencies the same thing, while we refuse to them like concessions. If we can dispose of this objection, which does not amount to an obstacle in the estimation of many statesmen, then we have taken the first step toward the object aimed at. But let us consider farther how such a convention will operate. It will have a tendency to confer benefits on one section of the Union at the expense of the other, by causing trade to flow to the lakes and the northern sea-board outlets, which ought to find its natural outlets at the mouth of the Mississippi and the Atlantic ports of the South. The project is the offspring of monopolies. It originated with gigantic corporations-with rail-road, steamboat, and canal companies, who construct their lines of travel at right angles with the great watercourses of the South and West, and make them converge to and concentrate at Montreal, at Boston, at New-York, and at Philadelphia. These artificial channels intercept the downward trade of the Mississippi and Ohio basins, and cause it to pour forward or recede back to the northern ports. They bring from the West the products of the soil and the workshop, and these find the same destination. Against all this we offer no word of objection, because we are not discussing the full merits of the question. We are simply averring, that if the measure be designed for the benefit of the whole Union, it is incomplete, and should be made more general and comprehen sive. If designed for a section, it will prove an evil, and should be defeated. As regards the isolated question of intrinsic value, there is too much importance attached to the trade of the British North American Possessions.— The object, however, is not revealed in this. The southern and south western states have recently evinced a determination to do much of their own foreign carrying trade. Money is super-abundant, and to be productive it must be invested. The coffers of the moneylending powers overflow, and such as truly need cannot borrow. "Sardinia and Denmark," says the London Times, "are the only two borrowing states in Europe that could now raise even small amounts in our markets." And the market of England being overstocked, that paper adds: "Under these circumstances, it is plain, that when the next external rush of capital takes place, it will be to the United States." And no investment, that journal thinks, will yield as fair a per centage as in rail-road stocks. The North, with more available capital than the South, foreseeing the consequences that would ensue to its commerce, if the South established a railroad system of its own, has anticipated the crisis which the London Times foreshadows, and has, in this, sought to preclude the participation of the South. Rail-road companies have been formed, and bands of rail already stretch from Maine to St. Louis, from Chicago to NewYork, and cross and re-cross each other, until the whole scheme resembles an iron web, or a labyrinth. The northern sea-board cities have taken care to subscribe largely to these immense improvements, so as to command their termini; and then comes forward the projector, and his revelations are worthy of note. He says to England, "You possess more money than you require. Very well. We need additional capital to complete our works. We have had an eye to your interest, as well as our own. By our system of rail-road and artificial water-courses, we will be enabled to reduce the inter-transit duty on cotton, so that it can be landed cheaper in Liverpool, though shipped at New-York, than if exported direct from Charleston, from Mobile, or from New-OrleansThe reduction on the transportation of food and provisions will be on a corresponding scale." As a further induce Domestic and British Exports-Loan of Foreign Capital. 527 ment for the loan, he adds: "We will expected of us, will be made with a view receive your lumber by way of the to conciliate that power first. All this Hudson, or through the port of Portland, is well; but it goes either too far, or not and land it on your sugar plantations far enough. Our interests, as we have ten per cent. cheaper than it can possibly remarked, are cominon. We must be delivered there now by way of New- avoid all sectional feeling, and all exOrleans. We will do more. We will travagant deferences to foreign governsend you Canadian wheat, and thus de- ments-whether England or Russiaprive our own farmers of so much of a where the object is to enrich one portion market, for what does it matter to us of the Union at the expense of the othwhether we ship to Boston, to New-York, er, and to conciliate a powerful state beor to Philadelphia, so long as we derive cause it condescends to purchase a comequal benefit from the transportation? modity from us which it can neither Then, again, as Canada wants pork and produce nor obtain elsewhere. hams, the provinces will receive these Let us come to figures. The domescommodities without the payment of cus- tic exports of the United States amount toms' duties; and this will lower Cana- in value* to $196,689,718. Of this dian labor. We will go still farther. amount, England takes to the value of We will" But we will not pursue $105,121,921. Deducting $70,000,000 the thread of the argument. The next as the excess of her purchases of cotton we hear of this compromise of interests, over other nations, and $12,000,000 in is the advocacy of Canadian reciprocity gold and silver as a similar excess, there in the Congressional halls at Washington. is a balance left of $23,121,921. She The North has no wish to see the buys from us commodities to the value South assume an attitude of commercial of $23,121,921, all prime necessaries of independence. It has no intention, if it life and needful luxuries, which is less can prevent the alternative, of allowing than double the value of the prime nethe South to become its own burden-car- cessaries of life and luxuries which we rier, its own importer, and its own ex- export to the West Indies, the domestic porter. It cannot passively contemplate trade with which might be so greatly the withdrawal of the cotton, pork, to- augmented by a system of reciprocity. bacco, rice, or provision trade, which it The domestic export trade with the West now controls. While cotton continues Indies amounts in value to $12,600,875 to be the ruling staple of the continent, per annum, while the domestic export and England monopolizes the spindles trade with Canada does not exceed of the world, every national concession $5,835,000. Domestic and British Exports per Annum to all Parts of the World. perity, that to maintain and enlarge it, found. The products are the products we are almost willing at times to sow of every hemisphere; and the area the seeds of contention at home. En- of habitable country yet to be occugland, on the contrary, has her trade well diffused over the globe; and by bold enterprise, and the exercise of a lofty spirit, she has pushed her conquests of peace, until her domestic exports now average $360,000,000 per annum. The figures in the foregoing table are in point. We have on this continent, and in the islands adjacent, an extensive market for the interchanges of commerce, that needs to be fostered to be profitable.From the frozen seas of the North, to the Straits of Magellan, it is one vast and elongated continuity of plateaus, valleys, table-lands, and protecting mountains, of intersecting lakes, and navigable rivers—of rail-roads and canals-of contiguous cities-and of clustering isles. Every habitable zone is embraced within its extreme length, and heat and cold are regulated on isothermal as well as meridian lines. From latitude to latitude, every quality of cultivable soil is pied by a population as dense as that of Europe, is greater than the whole of Africa. Bathed on one side by the Pacific and on the other by the Atlantic, the continent looks out on Europe and Africa and Asia on the East; and on Asia and Oceanica on the West. What destiny awaits this continent, none can tell; but this we may safely predict, that it will be through an American population and over our own soil, that the nations of the world will hereafter have intercourse and hold intellectual converse. We conclude this division of the subject by drawing the reader's attention to the subjoined table. It is prepared from official statements of the domestic trade of the United States with the countries named, the domestic exports of Great Britain thereto, the population and square miles thereof, and the number of souls to each square mile. We shall continue the subject more in detail hereafter. Pop, to sq. .7,200,000....1,100,000.. 2,200,000 7 $2,260,000 9 223,302.... 149,856.. 1,256,000 1,250,000. 774,000.. 1%. 854,779.. 2,380,295. 1,600,000 330,000. .1,600,000... 927,000. 480,000.... 256,000. .7,560,000. ..2,300,000. 135,000.... 136,000. 310,000.... 72,000.... 4% Commercial Value of the Mexican Gulf and the Mediterranean. 529 to Africa. If we can establish this point, then it must at once be admitted, that, as a matter of expediency, recipro city with the Canadas should be immediately followed or preceded by reciprocity with South America and its territorial appendages and islands, and with the West Indies, and the isles of the Pacific contiguous to the continent. That which should first be considered, as regards the commercial value of a sea, is its physical character, the protection its harbors afford to shipping, its form or configuration, the natural features and productiveness of the countries which bound it, its currents and climate, but mainly the number, navigable condition, and courses of the rivers that fall into it. Secondly, accessibility to the great ocean highway, distance to be passed over in going and returning; distances to be overcome in visiting from port to port; and, finally, contiguity to the markets of the world. The Red Sea, comparatively speaking, is of no commercial value it is hardly sought as an interoceanic communication with the Mediterranean. It has no great rivers falling into it It drains no valleys, no basins, no lands, that might send forward their products to be borne upon its bosom to ready markets. Along its banks no cities have risen to maritime opulence; commerce would perish if planted there. Its waters are received from a mysterious source, and come and go but to feed the Indian ocean. Few vessels ride upon it, or are urged by its winds; and only such are impelled over its surface as bear the slaves of Massonah to Egyptian harems, or African pilgrims to the shrine of Mecca. How different would its uses be, if, from the hills of Abyssinia, the shores of the Persian Gulf, the valley of the Nile, or the basins of the Euphrates, an Amazon, a Mississippi, a Hudson, or an Orinoco, poured into it, and united the trade of three continents. Commerce and navigation have changed their principles and character with the revolutions of time, of states, and the spread and progress of population and civilization. Around the name of the Mediterranean there lingers a classic association, and we venerate it for its past services, when on its bosom rode the argosies of the world, and the trade of both hemispheres located on its shores. Cyprus and Syracuse, Carthage and Utica, Memphis and Tripolis, Antioch and Smyrna, Alexandria and Ptolemais, Tyre, Sidon and Joppa, are names as familiar for their commercial grandeur as for the glory of their arms, their conquests of peace, or the wealth, on which their civic greatness was founded.But the commerce of antiquity, great as it was for the time or era, was nothing in comparison to the trade of a single city a few hundred years later. And great as was this latter trade, what was it, in all its vigor, to the trade of London, or Liverpool, or New-York now? The commercial magnitude of the ancient Mediterranean ports cannot be traced in their ruins; but one thing we are assured of, that the cities of the Adriatic and the Mediterranean, together, do not afford employment for as much tonnage as does the port of New-York alone. But this has little to do with the question of the commercial value of the Mediterranean. Cities may crumble on its shores, its bays may fill with mud and vegetable aggregations; and states decay that once ruled it. All this may evince a degeneracy of people, a want of enterprise, the operation of unwise laws, a corrupting government-it may be a result of devastating wars, or a transfer of commercial power and dominion consequent upon the spread of population, and the discovery of new mediums of supply, and new channels of intercourse. But the countries remain. The rivers that poured their floods into the Baltic, into the Propontis, and into the Egean, and which supplied the Mediterranean on the North, flow on still. The great arteries of three continents, the Danube, the Euphrates, and the Nile, which drained their valleys a thousand years ago, drain them now. It is because commerce has changed its principles, and navigation its character, that the Mediterranean is not what it was. Discovery has swept past the natural order and development of things. It has created necessities, and it has surmounted former obstacles. We traverse the ocean with steam and travel the earth with iron horses. Speed is everything, whether in the plow or the anvil, the common wagon or the rail-road carriage, the sail-rigged ship or the leviathan steamer. The Mediterranean is a sea of seasof peninsulas and headlands-of archipelagos and deeply-indented bays. A |