The Substitute Proposed by its Adversaries. Brown Feb. Feb. Sheetings: 1842. ’44. ............ 12% Drillings: Stark Drills.... Flannels: Canton............ Shirtings : Blenched Feb. Feb. Sheetings. 1842.’44. Waltham A...........13% 11% “ B........... 11% 10% “ W........... 14 Hamilton................ 16 13 8% 8% % 8% Stark Drills............. 9% 9% Sea Island............13% 12% Be it remembered that the price of raw Cotton In January, 1844, was fully fifty per cent, higher than in the corresponding month of 1842, and that Wool, of which Flannels are made, had risen nearly or quite in the same ratio. These goods, both Cottons and Flannels, are absolutely protected by the present Tariff against Foreign com. petition, securing to our own people the entire Labor and profit of producing them. What is the consequence? Does the price increase in proportion to the duty ? Look to the table, and judge. These are not picked articles. They are the kinds of goods sold by Messrs. Nesmith & Co. without selection or reservation. Other Cottons are ruled by the .same influences, and exhibit the same results, except the more costly Fancy Goods—de Laines, .&c. &c.—which all who' buy them know are much lower than formerly. There is not an article of Cotton fabric which has begun to be produced here since this .Tariff was enacted which is not cheaper now than it was prior to 1842. I challenge any man.todeny this. It is true that in the early part of 1843 common Cottons were cheaper than at present—the cost of the raw m ituri^i being fifty per cent, less, and the Business ।>i the C mntsy, not yet recovered from the depletion and depression of the Free Trade era, very contracted and feeble.— Prices are affected quite as much by the relation of Supply to Demand as by absolute cost; and in •the early part of 1843 the markets for goods were glutted, and many articles selling at ruinously low prices. It was a subject of general exultation among the anti-Tariff presses that a leading U. S. Senator, active in passing the Tariff, failed in extensive business as a printer of Calicoes in the Spring or Summer of that year, and that several manufacturing companies, unable to sell their goods but at ruinous rates, were brought to a dead stand or broken up. Now these same ■presses quote the prices of goods in that year as Free Trade prices, and argue from the subsequent rise (which was inevitable under any Tariff) that "the high duties have raised the price of goods! XI. The Profits of Manufacturing. Again: It has been widely asserted, and believed by the uninformed, that the manufacturers ■are making extravagant profits under the present ‘Tariff—some say twenty, others thirty, fifty, and a few go the whole hog, and put it at eighty per cent! But Hon. Nathan Appleton, himself a large owner of factory stock, and a man whose integrity is beyond suspicion," states that he has been engaged in making up carefully a table of the dividends of the several Manufacturing Companies of Lowell during the two years last past, and that the average of those dividends is less than six per cent, a year. I presume they, have been doing better of late than formerly, since Cotton has been rising bn their hands, and the market for goods has been large and active. But -should Cotton fall this year as it rose last, they would lose all they have gained. There are two I or three Companies—the Merrimac Print-Works at their head—which have valuable business con. nexions, dispose of their goods with little cost or loss, arid are able to hold on when goods can only be sold at a sacrifice, which have done very well, and these every body takes note of; but those which make nothing, and fail, (as at least one has failed in Lowell within the past year,) nobody I remarks ®r considers. I am assured by a leading manufacturer that the average of manufacturing dividends through the last'ten years has fallen be. low five per cent. At this moment there are factories in abundance which have stood idle through th e past year because they could not be run at a profit, and which can now be bought at half their cost. If those who assert that the manufacturers average twenty or thirty per cent, dividends did not know better, they would be into the business right speedily. There is no mystery, no monopoly, about the business; the best practical men can be engaged at fair wages to direct its several departments, and Labor is abundant, as well as Capital. Why, then, do not those who say manufacturers are making exorbitant dividends go into the business,? and either make money rapidly or at the worst do the public a service by reducing the prices of goods ? In truth, they know, as every body knows, that no such dividends a.s they talk of are made, save in rare instances ; just as now and then a Farmer doubles his little capital in a year or two, while the great mass make little and many are actually losing. They know that no exorbitant dividend can be realized in a calling open to universal competition—that the rate of profit in any business can only be'raised permanently by increasing the general productiveness of Labor and profit of Business throughout the Country. XII. Protection and the Cotton Manufacture. TABLE I. Comparative prices of Upland Cotton in the New- York Market; also coarse Cotton Domestic Goods, for each year (in the month of April) since the last War with Great Britain: Year. Up. Cotton, per lb. 3-4 Br. Sliirt’gs. 4-4 Br Sheet’gg per yard. per yard. April 1815.. 1816.. ........28 ..........21 ......... 28 1817.. ........281 . ...1..21 ......... 28 1818.. ........32 ......... 21 .......... 28 1819.. ........26 ..........19 ......25 1820.. ........16 ......... 121 . ..........’.18 1821.. ........131 . ..........121 . ..........17 1822.. ........15t . ..........13* . ........,17} 1823.. ........10i . ......... 11 ..........16 1824.. ....... 14 ......... 10 ......... 12 1825.. ........19 ..........10 ..........13J 1826........11 ........... 9 ..........12 1827.. ........9i . ........... 9i . ......... Hi 1828.. ........10 ........... 9 ........... ii 1829.. ....... 10 ........... 71 . ........... 9 1830.......... 9i - ........... 7 .............. 81 1831.......... 9 ........... 7i . ..........10 1832.......... 9 ........... 7 . ........... 8 1833.. ....... 101 . ........... 7 ;......... 9 1834.......... 11 ........... 6i . ........... 8 1835.......... 17 ........... 8 ..............9 1836.......... 18 ......... 7} . ......... 10 1837.......... 12 ........... 7 . ............9| 1838.. ....... 8 ......... 5 ........... 7} 1839.......... 14 ........... 6 ........... 81 1840.......... 8 ........... 5 ...........7 1841.......... 10 ......... 5 ...........61 1842.. ....... 8 ........... 4i . ........... 6 1843.......... 7 ........... 4 ...........5 1841..............81 .......... 5 ........... 7
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