Europe being at peace, this artificial value of course fell. For some time efforts were made to sustain it. The European and American capitalists strove to keep up the prices until they could dispose of part of their stock. Cotton was purchased at a high price, by a foreign house in this city, to prevent the depreciation of an immense quantity which they held in Liverpool. English manufactures glutted our market, not, as Mr. Brougham supposed, to smother ours, but because the adventures were intended to be profitable, and the loss in depressed prices and bad debts was immense. These efforts to sustain value were at length found to be unavailing. Extravagant profits could no longer be realized-land fell with the value of its productions -capital, invested in articles of commerce, depreciated as the price of those articles sunk-every thing became depressed but our debts, and their relative augmentation became the natural consequence. We never felt what we owed till we lost the means of paying it. These debts are the result of extravagance, not merely in eating and drinking, clothing and furniture; but in conducting business, in pushing credit, and hazarding speculations. They were increased by the excess to which trade was carried on, immediately after the termination of the war; and the evil is now gradually diminishing by the only possible remedy-economy. It is to these causes, which operated many years before our distresses were sensibly felt, that those effects are to be attributed, and not to any estimated balance of trade.

This balance of trade, although an object of unceasing alarm to statesmen of a certain description, can never be detected by its actual presence. We are generally directed to search for it in the books of the treasury department; and if we there find our imports to exceed our exports, we are confidently assured that this mysterious influence is exerting itself hostilely to our interest. A simple illustration of the application of this theory, will show the wisdom of this mode of estimating national profit and loss. A vessel clears from Baltimore for Liverpool with a cargo of cotton, the first cost of which is ten thousand dollars: As we retain a sufficient quantity of the article for our home consumption, the surplus is useless to us: In England the cotton is sold, and the proceeds laid out in their manufactures, which are taken to Lima and there exchanged for copper, which is brought to this country and sold for 20,000 dollars. Now, the greater the profits of the voyage are found to be, the more the imports will exceed the exports;-and the balance of trade is thus made out to be against us, in the same degree that the voyage has added to the aggregate wealth of the country. The whale and seal fisheries, and the foreign carrying trade, in which no exports appear, and their returns are all profits, are proved, by this ingenious

theory, to be the most ruinous of all possible commercial adventures. We refer the reader to the perspicuous view of this subject, which the work before us contains. We extract his concluding remarks.

It would be an endless task to follow the capital of this country, winding its way through a thousand channels, borne on the wings of enterprise, and guided by profit, until it finally reaches that spot upon the globe, where it may be profitably vested in the articles which are most wanted in the United States, and where the best may be bought at the cheapest rate; or seeking through the medium of exchange, that nation, among the nations of the earth, to which the United States may at the moment be indebted. And is it in the power of any Secretary of the Treasury in the world; is it in the power of any man, to ascertain what becomes of the cargoes shipped from the United States, after they have left the country? to watch a thousand ships on every ocean and every sea? to follow every bale of cotton, barrel of flour, bushel of corn, or hogshead of tobacco, until it reaches the market, where the American merchant parts with it for ever? Is it in the power of man to collect from a million of traders the nett amount which each invoice produced in the foreign country? Until the American merchant parts with his goods, the property is still his, it still is a part of the property of his country. And is it not folly, after this property, under the direction of Americans, has been transferred from place to place for years, (probably accumulating some profit on each voyage,) and is at last received into the United States,-is it not downright folly, to make up our account with the world, and charge it against commerce, as augmenting the balance of trade against us?

In taking an enlarged view of the business of this nation with the world, there seems to be an absurdity in the very idea of a balance of trade against it. It is admitted by all that this is the most flourishing country in the world, and that its wealth is increasing, in a ratio to its capital, more rapidly than that of any other nation. When we see her doubling her population in twenty-five years, and probably more than doubling her wealth; when we know that she is receiving an annual increase of population and wealth from the old nations in the world, it is impossible to believe that an unfavourable balance of trade can exist.'

If the imports of a nation exceed its exports, it only shows that more property comes into the country than passes out of it. If this mode of doing business can be continued by us for a series of years, the conclusion is inevitable, either that the condition of those countries with whom we trade is such as to compel them to exchange with us in a manner highly to our advantage; or that we possess means of placing investments to our credit abroad, independent of the mere articles we export. Now, we maintain, that notwithstanding the clamour of distress and ruin daily rung in our ears, we do enjoy both of these advantages.

It will not be denied by the advocates for the restrictive system, and we are certainly ready to subscribe to the opinion, that if our territory were enclosed by an impassable barrier, we could still live, happy and prosperous. From the extent of our empire, the variety and fertility of our soil, the excellence of our government, and the activity and intelligence of our citizens, it cannot be doubted that we might supply ourselves with every thing necessary to our comfort and convenience. The only question is, whether it is not to our advantage to procure from abroad certain articles on better terms than we can make them ourselves. We come into the European markets with no other temptation to buy than the cheapness of the goods we inquire for. If we find we can obtain them at home at a lower rate, or of a better quality, we decline repeating the purchase. We are familiar with every market in the world. We know where we can trade to the most advantage; and frequently make several intermediate exchanges in articles we do not want, in order to secure the most gain on the articles we do want. Our southern states can supply the nations of Europe with articles they cannot raise, while the northern states furnish the West India islands with provisions and lumber. Quite different are the circumstances of the Europeans with whom we trade. Many of them, from the condition of their government and the state of their society, are compelled to work for the smallest wages that can support existence. Those nations are, or imagine they are, under a necessity of exporting manufactures. If a market cannot be found for their commodities, and the employment of their workmen is stopped, beggary and riots are the consequence. To guard against these evils, their wise statesmen protect manufactories by restrictions, bounties and drawbacks on excise. The effect of these regulations is, that the people of those countries are heavily taxed to support their manufacturers, and to enable them to sell their fabrics to us at half the price they could otherwise afford. The anxiety to procure a sale of their goods naturally leads to underbidding. Glass can be manufactured cheaper in Germany than in England; but we can purchase as cheaply at Liverpool as at Hamburgh, because the English manufacturer receives a bounty to enable him to support his business, and to pay a heavy excise, that is laid on the sales at home. When it is exported, a drawback is allowed, and we can then buy a Staffordshire tumbler as low as one from Bohemia, and at half the price an Englishman would have to pay for it.

The laws for the support of national industry are very prevalent in Europe; and as far as our interests are concerned, we hope may long continue in full vigour. English statesmen now do not hesitate to acknowledge that this policy is injurious to the

nation; but it has become so interwoven with the institutions of their government, that the evil there is probably incurable. The effect of these regulations is, to fill their warehouses with goods at a lower price than they could be otherwise afforded, which we purchase or not as we find it to be our interest. If those countries allowed the importation of the manufactures of their neighbours, the price of similar articles would be equalized; but as they do not, those prices must necessarily vary, and we have consequently the advantage of selecting the cheapest. These considerations clearly show that the advantages of traffic are all on our side, and will enable us to import more than we export. That ability, however, has increased the operation of another and more powerful cause.

Some writers are in the habit of considering merchants merely as the common carriers between the different branches of productive industry, adding no more to the capital of a country than the mail does to that of the banks between which it conveys exchanges. Mercantile profits are commonly regarded only as fortunate speculations, which intelligent capitalists have it in their power to secure, and as so much wealth taken from the manufacturer or consumer. The correctness of this opinion we shall proceed to examine.

The grand engine of American commerce is its mercantile marine-decidedly superior to any in the world, in skill, in courage, as well as in the knowledge and sagacity by which its operations are guided. Its employment is partially directed to the immediate exchange of our commodities for those of other countries, but this forms a small part of the benefit it yields to the nation. Even here, however, it secures to our own citizens the profits of freight, and enables us to pay for importations to a greater amount than we could afford if foreigners transported the same articles. Independent of that advantage, an immense amount of capital is employed in marine industry, which is liberally rewarded in Europe and Asia, and has annually added largely to the foreign balance in our favour. The cod, the whale, and the seal fisheries require the exportation of no other cargo than professional materials and skill. The returns are either beneficially employed at home, or profitably invested abroad. So adroit are our citizens in this business, that the French government pays a bounty to our whale ships sailing from the ports of that country, and even allow them to procure a register. The southern territory, which England has lately discovered, has for many years supplied our eastern navigators with seals. The freedom of our commerce, and the intimate knowledge our merchants possess of the state of every market, and of the productions of every nation on the globe, secure to them the first, and con

sequently the best harvest in every new species of traffic. The importance of the trade to the northwest coast of America first occurred to a commercial house of this country, who did not hesitate to hazard an expedition in that quarter, with an outfit amounting to twenty thousand dollars. Shipping cotton from India to Great Britain was first attempted by our countrymen, who found the negotiation highly lucrative. It has been asserted that the introduction of that article into England has injured our export trade; but we believe the remark to be unfounded, as the staple of our own cotton is so superior, that the other can never be substituted for the same fabrics. We have also realized large sums in the direct trade between Canton and Holland and other parts of Europe, because we understand the business better than those people, and can make quicker voyages. Our author has the following remarks on the subject of our commercial enterprise-besides those of the last extract.

'None but a supernatural being can trace the course of American capital, until it finally returns to the United States in gold, silver, produce, manufactures, or bills of exchange. Suppose a merchant of New-York sends his ship to Charleston, and there loads her with a cargo of cotton and rice, which he sells in Amsterdam for $50,000: now let us follow some few of the thousand directions, which this capital may take. The vessel may there receive on board a cargo, or specie, and proceed to Valparaiso; the capital may be employed in trading some months on the coast of Chili and Peru; it may be then vested in copper or specie, and the ship may proceed to Canton; there she may be loaded with a cargo of teas, nankeens, and silks, and proceed to Hamburgh, where the cargo is sold. Then another expedition may be commenced with this same capital, and another voyage may be performed round the world; and this may continue for some years, until the last cargo is sold in Hamburgh again, and the proceeds remitted to London; upon which place the American merchant may draw for it, or direct the amount to be vested in United States six per cents, or United States bank stock.

Again, a vessel may be loaded in New-York with corn, flour, staves, candles, beeswax, tobacco, rice, cotton, beef and pork, and may proceed to Gibraltar, Leghorn, or Trieste; in the Mediterranean, perhaps at Trieste, she may be loaded with a cargo of German linens and glassware, and proceed to Buenos Ayres; there she may take in a cargo of hides, and return to the Mediterranean, say to Leghorn. At that place the American surpercargo may sell his cargo, and purchase bills on London, of another American agent, who may happen to be there. The latter takes this American capital and proceeds with it to Smyrna, where he vests the amount in opium, which he carries to Canton, sells and vests the proceeds in a cargo of teas, &c. and returns to the United States, or to Europe, as the case may be.'