Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 25, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 July 1891 — Three-Cornered Trading. [ARTICLE]

Three-Cornered Trading.

The West Indies and South America sell us from three to seven times as much goods as we sell them. These goods, over and above our exports to those countries, are paid for by European nations in their manufactured articles, anu we square matters with Europe by shipping our farm products and manufactures there in payment of our debts in the West Indies and South America. We swap debts, but in swapping there is always a certain per cent, lost in charges for biils of exchange, and through this cumbersome, three-angled transportation. Freights aro lowest and trade consequently most profitable where there are ready cargoes for both ways. A regular steamship lino is, in fact, dependent upon this regularity of cargo going and coming As matters stand much of the traffic is done by the socalled tramp steamers, which go everywhere, according as they can get cargoes. But wljy this three-cornered shipping? Why not the direct trade entirely? In answer to that question, the protective tariff must be called into the witness box. The tariff duty on raw materials prevents our manufacturers from competing in many kinds of goods in foreign markets, and there is no large demand for our farm products in West Indian and South American countries, they being themselves agricultural countries. Besides, the tariff prevents a large movement of European gobds into our markets, and as Europe takes enormous quantities of our cotton, corn, wheat, flour, meats, etc., cargoes moving out are always much larger than those coming in. Hence European ships which take away our farm products are only too glad to carry cargoes of manufactured goods to the West Indies and South America, and then take in cargoes of sugar and rubber for New York.