Page images
PDF
EPUB

CHAPTER VII.

Amount of trade with the different quarters of the world-Balance of trade -Estimate of the quantity of certain imported articles consumed in the United States, at different periods.

HAVING presented an estimate of the amount of the trade of the United States with the different nations, with which they have any considerable commercial intercourse, we now give a general view of exports to each quarter of the world, from 1801 to 1812, accompanied with some remarks relative to the balance of trade, between the United States and the rest of the world, with an estimate of the quantity of certain imported articles, annually consumed, at different periods.

The following statement exhibits the value of merchandize, domestic and foreign, exported from the United States, to each quarter of the world, from 1801 to 1812 :

[blocks in formation]

Domestic. Foreign.

Years.

1801
1802 19,904,389 23,575,108 547,386,

Domestic. Foreign.
Dolls.
Dolls.
Dolls.
27,569,699 31,380,558 371,737 1,136,517

Dolls.

820,423

1803 25,939,111
1804 23,094,946 27,468,725 546,278
1805 23,640,776 36,341,320 612,683
1806 24,384,020 40,267,711 514,621
1807 31,012,947 38,882,633 497,769
1808 5,185,720 7,202,232 26,649
1809 17,838,502 13,072,045 703,900
1810 27,202,534 17,786,614 377,795
1811 29,552,442 8,727,011 581,815
1812 20,626,488 5,644,433 308,510

8,561,834 292,593

149,600

830,223

2,156,229

1,968,860

1,598,445

267,542

1,218,228

406,646

812,950

588,299

[blocks in formation]

1802

10,967,585

747,544 411,855 14,982,854
1803 636,106 148,004 15,338,151 4,734,634
1804 1,264,737 681,499 16,561,516 7,251,150
1805 1,359,518 1,726,987 16,774,025 12,954,483
1806 1,371,475 901,916 14,983,611 17,144,759
1807 1,296,375 1,627,177 15,892,501 17,535,303
1808 278,544 218,950 3,939,633 5,308,690
1809 3,132,687 1,472,819 9,732,613
1810 2,549,744

5,034,439

722,777 12,236,602

5,475,258

[blocks in formation]

It will be seen from this statement, taken from the custom-house books, that, in the most prosperous period of our commerce, when our exports amounted annually to more than one hundred millions of dollars, we exported to Europe, domestic produce of the value of more than twenty-six millions of dollars, and of foreign produce, more than thirty-eight millions of dollars; to Asia, domestic produce of the value of about five hundred and forty thousand dollars, and foreign produce about one million and nine hundred thousand dollars; to Africa, domestic produce of the value of about one million three hundred thousand dollars, and foreign produce, about one million four hundred thousand dollars; and to the West-Indies and American continent, domestic produce, about fifteen million eight hundred and eighty, thousand dollars, and foreign produce, about fifteen million eight hundred and seventy thousand dollars. The average amount of exports of domestic produce during the years, 1805, 1806, and 1807, was $44,863,198 and of foreign produce, $57,701,937. Of the whole value of domestic produce, exported during this period, about six tenths went to Europe, about four elevenths to the West-Indies and American continent, and less than one twentieth to Asia and Africa.

In the preceding chapter, we have, as far as practicable, given an account of the value of our imports, at different periods, with the

countries from whence derived. It would have been fortunate, had the custom-house books furnished us with the annual value of our imports, as well as exports.

This would have enabled us, with much more certainty, to ascertain the balance of trade, between the United States and other countries.

On the subject of the balance of trade, as it has been called, writers on political economy have very widely differed. Assuming different data as the basis of their calculations, they have come to different results. Some have considered the rate of exchange between two countries, as the best evidence of the balance of trade between them; others have considered the value of exports and imports as the surest criterion, by which to judge of the increase or decrease of the wealth of a country, while some have maintained, that the rate of the interest of money is to be taken into the account. A late celebrated French writer, in his able and learned inquiry into the various systems of political economy, speaking of the "necessity of endeavouring to find out a way to know the balance of annual income, and annual consumption," asks this question," Is there any such way, that can be relied upon, as certain and positive?" And answers it by saying "there is none." "We must, as yet," says he, “be contented with mere conjecture, built upon an augmented population, and particularly upon the increase of the industrious classes and towns, upon the good condition of agricultural buildings, upon the number of acres cleared, or enclosed, and upon the facility with which the public contributions are collected. To these conjectures, some add, those resulting from the rate of interest of money; but this conjecture is, in my opinion, erroneous and delusive.

"A high rate of interest is not always a proof of the declining wealth of a country; on the contrary, it is a proof of its prosperity, when this prosperity is progressive. The interest of money must always be very high in countries whose prosperity is progressive, because its agriculture and manufactures, increasing with its population, are always requiring fresh capitals, the demand for which necessarily keeps the rate of interest very high."

It is not, however, our intention to enter into a consideration of the various theories respecting the balance of trade. Whatever

doubts may have perplexed writers on political economy, on the subject of the increase or decrease of wealth, or the balance of trade, among the old nations of Europe, there can be none with respect to this country.

That the United States, since the establishment of the present government, and particularly until the commencement of commercial prohibitions, and the war between them and Great-Britain, have increased in wealth, as well as population, does not rest on conjecture. It is proved by the great increase of their exports and imports, by the increase of the duties on imports and tonnage, by the unexampled increase of their commercial tonnage, by the accumulation of wealth in all their cities, towns, and villages, by the establishment of various monied institutions, and of manufactures, by the great rise in the value of lands, and by various internal improvements. If we are to form an opinion of the increase of our national wealth, by a comparative view of our exports and imports alone, we shall be equally certain, that this opinion does not rest on conjecture.

It is true with nations, as with individuals, if their annual consumption exceeds their annual income; if the actual value of the articles imported into any country, and there cONSUMED, annually exceeds the actual value of the articles exported in payment for them, that country must become indebted to the amount of the difference, and if this difference be great, and continues for a number of years, that country must be proportionably impoverished. In determining, however, the increase or decrease of national wealth, by a comparison of imports and exports, we are in the first place to inquire how, or in what manner, this value has been ascertained: a second question may also arise, whether the imports are all annually consumed in the country, or whether a part of them go to form an addition to the productive capital. The modes of valuing exports and imports are different in different countries.

In England, the rates at which the exports and imports are valued, were settled in 1696. The value of all articles at that period, exported or imported, was fixed, and the value of all the exports and imports of that country has ever since been stated in their customhouse books at the rates then established. This is called the official value in the English accounts of exports and imports. In conse

quence of the great rise in most if not all the articles of trade, for more than a century past, this official value is much less than the real or actual value. The difference in some articles is very great, in most it amounts to forty, fifty, and sixty per cent. In 1807, the official value of the exports of British produce and manufacture was £24,550,724, but the real or declared value, as ascertained by the inspector-general of imports and exports and laid before parliament, was £39,041,854.

In the United States, as we have before observed, the value of exports is stated according to the average prices of the articles, at the places of exportation. In 1807, the average price of tobacco, for instance, at the places from whence it was exported was eighty-eight dollars per hogshead, and the value of all the tobacco exported during that year was calculated at that price. The value of the imports, so far as they are ascertained at the custom-house, (and they are ascertained only on goods subject to the payment of duties ad valorem) is determined by law, as follows, viz.-" by adding twenty per cent. to the actual cost thereof, if imported from the Cape of Good Hope, or from any place beyond the same, and ten per cent. on the actual cost thereof, if imported from any other place or country, including all charges, commissions, outside packages and insurance only excepted." From this, it will readily be perceived that the value of imports of the United States, as estimated in their custom-house books, must, generally, if not always, exceed that of their exports. In the preceding Tables, containing the exports and imports from 1795 to 1801, it will be perceived that the value of the latter exceeds that of the former in each year. In 1801, the value of imports (as estimated at the place of importation) was $111,363,511, and the value of exports only $93,020,573, making a difference of $18,343,938. In 1807, our exports were valued at $108,343,150, and the imports at $138,574,876 84 cents, making a difference of $30,231,726. The value of the imports in 1807, it will be remembered, was estimated from the prices at which the same articles when exported in the same year were valued at the custom-house.

Indeed, from this mode of calculating their value, and from the circumstance that American merchants have been, for many years, principally their own carriers, however paradoxical it may appear, it is

« ՆախորդըՇարունակել »