Cotton trade

“ In 1818, the Presbyterian General Assembly passed resolutions unanimously on the subject of slavery, to which this resolution is mildness itself; and not a man could be found to say one word against it. But cotton became a most valuable article of export. In one form and another, it became intimately associated with the commercial affairs of the whole country. The northern manufacturers were intimately connected with this cotton trade, and more than two thirds raised in the United States has been sold in Great Britain; and it is this cotton trade that supports the whole system. ”

“ It has gone on increasing rapidly until the whole crop may now, perhaps, in a season of great product and great prices, amount to $100,000,000.” According to the estimates of the United States Census Bureau in its census of 1900, cotton production increased from 2,000,025 pounds in 1790 to 987,637,200 pounds in 1849, and 2,397,238,140 pounds in 1859. The enormous capital invested in this industry created a close community of interest between the planters of the South and the capitalists of the North; hence the influence of the cotton trade was felt in both sections. ”

“ Now, in 1887, 250,000 power-loom weavers are engaged in the cotton industry alone; while in most districts a hand loom is a curiosity as a relic of the past. The contrast is great, more especially so when it is remembered that during the same period the trade has been established in many foreign countries where nothing but handicraft skill was available at the early part of the period, but where now the number of mules and looms has grown, and is growing, so rapidly as to create out of former consumers important competitors in the export trade. ”

“ We commend this system to the attention of the 'Cotton Trade,' because they can safely advise immigrants to come to the healthy and well-watered 'uplands' of the South, with a fair prospect of growing cotton successfully without the constant drudgery which was once thought necessary for its production, and at the same time surrounding their little habitations with the luxuries and comforts which they have been accustomed to in their Northern and European homes. ”

“ Cotton took a position in national commerce equal in535 importance to that which it occupied in international trade. Not only did it furnish directly more than half of the total exports of the United States; it shared its prosperity with other industries, and influenced the development of every part of the country. Northern merchants made fortunes in handling and transporting southern cotton; the manufacturers of every district found in the South a market where people had plenty of money to buy goods which they were too busy to make ”

“ The supply of cotton from India is not on the increase, nor can be, except when prices rule high in England, or until rail roads shall be constructed into the interior, a work requiring much time and money. The renewal of the slave trade by the United States, on a large scale, would, of course, cheapen cotton in the proportion of the amount of labor supplied. ”

“ After all, I can but think that the whole future 'Cotton Supply' question depends in the main on the production of the Southern States of America. That grown in East India, China, Brazil, Peru, West Indies, Egypt, Turkey, and the Levant, is required to be sent back to those countries, for they all import in the aggregate more cotton in the shape of goods and yarns than they export, thereby showing that they do not raise a sufficient collective supply for their own wants. ”

“ But, practically speaking, we possess but two sources of supply, and both present such powerful obstacles to extended cultivation, that we are not surprised at the habitual uneasiness of those whose interests demand a continually increasing quantity. Those two sources are the United States and British India. It is true that Brazil, Egypt, the West Indies, and some other countries, furnish small quantities of cotton ”

“ There is a far higher remuneration than has ever been given by cotton yet in store for the laborer, the manufacturer, the South and the entire country. In the midst of the cotton plantations themselves there is a career for manufacturing development such as the world has not yet seen. With coal, iron and timber in perfection and inexhaustible, and water power everywhere, by what rule of political economy should the Southern people send their cotton, at an expense always deducted from its price, to distant sections and foreign countries to be spun and woven? ”

“ There is nothing in the history of commerce that can be compared with the increased demand for this staple, notwithstanding the restrictions by which this Government has limited that demand. As cotton, tobacco, and rice, are produced only on a small portion of the globe, while all other agricultural staples are common to every region of the earth, this circumstance gave the planting States very great advantages. To cap the climax of the commercial advantages opened to the cotton planters, England, their great and most valued customer, received their cotton under a mere nominal duty. ”

“ Should the export-duty be levied in the Cotton States, it may well be presumed that the burden will fall principally upon the planter, and give an additional stimulus to the growth of India, and a new incentive to the British Government to start the culture in other colonies.
The gentlemen of the South sometimes imagine that Old England, as well as New England, is entirely dependent upon cotton, and that society there would be disintegrated, if the crop in the Cotton States should be withheld for a single year. ”

“ If the English persevere and the natives turn their attention to cotton, there is no calculating what the production might in time amount to; but there is this satisfaction for the American planter, the consumption is rapidly increasing, and there is not much fear of a surplus for years to come. The culture of the plant, as I have seen it in Algeria and the East Indies, cannot come in competition with the negro labor at the South; but we may rest assured that the British are using every means possible to have it produced, and make themselves less subject to our Southern King Cotton. ”

“ This machine facilitated the separation of the seed from the fiber of the short-staple variety of cotton, which alone could be profitably cultivated in the uplands, and thus made possible a vast extension of the area of cotton culture.
The cotton gin came at an opportune moment for the Southern planters, since rice and indigo were declining in importance as exports, and their gangs of African slaves were likely to become a burden. They could now cultivate cotton under an extensive system of agriculture with large immediate profits. ”

“ They (the Southern States) have the advantage of cotton location, and, when they have secured new and improved machinery, will do any unrivalled business. They can save freights, buy cheaper and hire cheaper labor. They save buyers' commission, and warehouse delivery and cartage, sampling, classing, pressing, shipping, marine risks and freight and cartage to interior towns, which amounts in all to some seven dollars per bale. The Northern mills also lose from receiving cotton poorly ginned, containing a good deal of leaf and sand, which is computed at six per cent. ”

“ There seems to be a vague idea floating in the public mind of the South that, somehow or other, cotton is to enable us to do, if not entirely, at least to a great degree, what other nations require armies and navies to accomplish for them. Because cotton-wool is essential to the industry of certain people, and because we are the chief growers of cotton-wool, therefore, say these political dreamers, we can so treat cotton, in a diplomatic way, as both to enforce obedience to our revenue laws at home and secure respect to our citizens abroad. ”

“ Protection was of course contributory to the growth of the American cotton industry. It may be remarked incidentally that the New World, including the West Indies and the Chinese empire, take the bulk of American exports, which for so large an industry are inconsiderable. The imports have always been well in excess of the exports. ”

“ It only remains for us to refer summarily to the factors of supply. It is practically certain that the South will continue to produce the bulk of the world’s cotton. During the Civil War, when cotton was over $1.00 a pound, persistent efforts were made all over the world to develop cotton growing, but in vain. The Gulf Stream on one side, and a vast continent on the other, produce climatic conditions for cotton culture not duplicated anywhere else in the world. ”

“ This does not apply to the border States; but before closing these letters, I will prove conclusively, by the census and other statistics, what, from long residence in the South, and from having traversed every Southern State, I know to be true, that cotton is now raised there most extensively and profitably by non-slaveholders, and upon farms using exclusively white labor. Indeed the cotton raised on small farms in the South where there are no slaves and exclusively by free white labor, commands a price from five to ten per cent. greater than the slave grown cotton. ”

“ The heaviest importation of cotton goods was in laces and such other things as are specialties of foreign manufacture, in many cases hereditary trades, or trades dependent upon cheap, trained female labor, such as is not available in America. America uses nearly 6,000,000 bales of home-grown cotton every year in her own factories, and supplies not only the home market with manufactured goods, but manufactures more than $30,000,000 worth for foreign sale, in competition with the great spinning and manufacturing countries of Europe. ”

“ It will be found that cotton growing will be followed steadily only in those countries where it can be made more profitable than other pursuits. Where indigo, coffee, tobacco, sugar, or breadstuffs will bring better prices, or suit the climate, soil, or conditions of a people better than cotton, cotton-culture may be forced for a few years by the power of high prices, and the necessities of a resolute, intelligent and persistent manufacturing people. ”

“ But still she produces at least four million bales of cotton, and great changes are now in progress: railways are pervading the country; canals are being dug for irrigating, and irrigation quadruples the crop, while it improves the staple; and the diversion of a few districts from the ordinary crops, with improved tillage, will increase the production to an indefinite extent.
The latest intelligence from India apprises us that in one large cotton district the American planters have at length succeeded, and American cotton is now growing there on one hundred and forty-six thousand acres. ”

“ The vital and momentous question of cotton production, manufacture, and exportation, is involved in this subject. Shall we continue to supply the markets of the world with this indispensable commodity, the raw material and the manufactured products; or shall we become importers of the greatly inferior article from the East Indies at prices largely enhanced, with the consequent destruction of our manufactures and the [Pg 732] loss of eight millions of exports of American goods with all the prospective increase of this important branch of the national industry? ”

“ It is apparent, then, that nothing short of extended free labor cultivation, far distant from the seaboard, where the products will bear transportation to none but Southern markets, can fully secure the cotton interests from the contingencies that so often threaten them with ruinous embarrassments. In fact, such a depression of our cotton interests has only been averted by the advanced prices which cotton has commanded, for the last few years, in consequence of the increased European demand, and its diminished cultivation abroad. ”

“ The cotton crop brought high prices, the records of cotton production and export in the years before the war were soon reached and surpassed, and the cotton culture continued to grow down to the end of the century. There have been years since 1890 when the price has fallen so low as to leave little profit for the producers; and it has often been suggested that the South was suffering from an over-production of its staple crop, and would fare better if it grew less cotton and more of other crops. ”

“ The American, short stapled cottons can be cultivated as easily and with equal certainty of success in these districts, but are actually discouraged, though they succeed well, as being more troublesome and expensive to clean, and much less valuable, both as an article of export commerce, and for domestic consumption among themselves, than the Bourbon cotton. ”

“ Some have not done well owing to defective management. But others are working day and night. The importation of raw cotton has quadrupled in the last three years, while that of cotton on the seeds has doubled. A million dollars worth of the most improved British spinning machinery was laid down last year, and much attention is being given to the cultivation of the cotton plant, although, owing to the typhoons, with indifferent success. ”

“ The intense pressure of population on the soil causes a keen demand for cotton lands, and speculators take advantage of the limited supply to engross large areas, and sublet them in plots to tenants who agree to bring them the whole produce. The profits are supposed to be divided equally, but the landlord of course retains the lion’s share. The raw cotton is sold in open market, and is either exported in the pod or purchased by capitalists owning cotton-cleaning mills.726 Speaking generally, the prospects of the cultivator in the rich valley of the Zarafshān are not very promising. ”

“ In the article of cotton, which is our great manufacturing staple, America has the inestimable advantage of growing the raw material—an advantage which never can be counterbalanced, as, even if we were to obtain our supplies from some other quarter, the expenses of freightage must still continue to be great. In fact, to all appearance, our supremacy in the conversion of cotton is already doomed. That branch of industry rests upon no substantial basis. ”