Public Leger, Volume 1, Number 8, Richmond, Wayne County, 1 May 1824 — Page 2

(5 0

""Friendly to the best pursuits of man, Friendly to Thought, to Freedom, and to Peace." From Nile Weekly Renter, April 3. PRODUCTION & CONSUMPTION. In the debate in the house of representatives, on the 24th ult. Mr. Floyd said " Was it contended the manufacturers would themselves supply the farmer with a market I If all the 500.000 manufacturers of the U. States were put into one of the western districts, a circle of 60 miles diameter would furnish all they could consume. Could any body believe that we could take hands away from the agriculture of the country, to compete with the manufactures of Europe?" Having given this a first and second reading, I referred it to ua committee of the whole," .and beg leave to report as follows: Let us examine the facts that belong to the matters stated by Mr. Floyd, and see what results we shall produce, by a reference to official documents,or, what is more important, the common sense of things. We exported, during the year ending on the 30th September, 1823 "61,418 66&. beef (200 lbs.) ft. 12,283,600 2,805 homed cattle (at400tfu.) 1,146.000

5,5-29 this, pork (200 lbs.) 1, CUT, 15" lbs. bacon and lard 1 I 436 live hogs, say (at 1 50 lbs. ) tS,830 sheep (100 lbs.)

Animal

688,000

28,575,957

256,320 151,200,0K) 37.451,700 28,300,000

5,500,000

' 1.272fuh. wheat 60 Ibi. 75t S,7( bbR flour 200 lbs 745 buk. ludiin corn

241 v50l hbls Indian meal t ,665 !o. rye do, 4 344 dollars worth of rye and other

ci vun-ay atonU I ct. per pound 8,934,400 43, 700 bbfj. ship bread 3,584, .500 30; kees do. 247,952 37,i 4 1 bush, potatoes 1,48,640 101 ,3 65 tierces of ri-e 600 lbs. 60,981 ,000

Vegetable 297,945,512 Now these are all the articles of animal or vegetable food exported from all the U. States for a whole year, a little poultry excepted, of which there is no return; ami the aggregate is 326,531,469 lbs. of which 28,575,957 lbs. is animal, and 297,945,5 1 2 lbs. vegetable. The value of the animal food exported, may be put down at 5 cents per lb. and of the vegetable, seeing that so great a part of it is made up of flour and rice, at not less than 2 3-4 cents per lb. The value then of the whole export is thus ascertained 28,575,957 lbs. animal food at 5 cents 1,428,797 2D7,94rj,5l2 do. vege table do. 2 3-4 8,l9J,i3

9,622,300 The quantity as well as the value, are vciy nearly right but, as they are assumed for the simple purpose of making a comparison, it is no matter whether they are exactly correct or not. To prevent all possibility of dispute, I will suppose that only 500,000 people the number granted by Mr. Floyd, of the U. States, are employed in, or fed by, the product of manufactures, though satisfied that the amount is much greater; and on this, I shall build up some calculations which I think, will rattier surprise those who never have thought of the value of the home market. A very large part of these manufacturers are hale and hearty men, working in iron, leather, wood, wool,&x. &x. including a great host of wood-choppers, wagoner, &c. ice. too tedious to enumerate; and, one with another, will consume (or waste) one lb. of vegetable food each and 3-4lbs. of animal food per day.

!.OoU;.crson,at lib. for 365 days lb. n l .... J

x nt sanjt; y j.4

Thn

Total.

182 millions lbs. forxl, at 2 3-1 ctl. 137 millions )b. animal 1o. 5

0,000 horstst

at J6 90

13,700,000 So we see, by the force of plain practical arithmetic, that the support of the 500,000 manufacturer!-, of whom Mi. F. speaks so indifferently, consume about one half more than the whole amount of the export of the Agric ulture of the states of Main, N. Flour anl rice, mnkin raorr than two thirds of the wh ,c weight of hrnd atufTs i-por( l, ar' alxifi at om -thins more than thn nts t r r lb. bv hv. secret ;iry i,f the; trt-aury hnt fmuv of thn other articloi -x.ortf a w rp not worth o much, and thv av ratre is not far from thf officially eklimatc-d value of the whole. Sire note (A.) tPenrmlvanii, in 1C0O, bad more th'in one horse to every four person in the ?t ate 255,045 borers, 810,691 persons; but I allow or.h one hor. t,-v-ry ten persons, which, I am sure, i 1, .6 than they wouf.l need for all the purposes of transporting wood, roal materials and rooK and for the uc rl tl .. travelling to and fro on the business of h niany people to buy and ,dl ; and, beide, some would be neetlcd for many other purposes. The cot of maintaining a workinp horse is thus ascertained ...

fcix poun.ls 01 -rain per day, at 1 cent per lb. is

for th- year, '2!!'0 lb. or

11-2 tons of hay, per annum, or its equivalent

at 10 dollars per ion ;

li6 M) It is presumed that a horse can bnrdly be kept for a les sum than this five hundred thousand borate, at 3,C9Qach, is $1,843,000,

Hampshire, Massachusettes, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Vermont, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri fifteen whole states ; with about one half of those of Maryland, Virginia and N. Carolina, taking them together and including the article rice, (see note B.) and more than seven eights of all the export raised by the free agriculturalists of the U. States! If the gentleman thinks that I have allowed the people more food than they consume, he may reduce their allowance fully one third, and yet the value of the eonsumption will exceed the value of the bread stuffs and meats exported! The price of both is estimated at the same rates, for the very good reason that, if the articles are not consumed at home, they must be brought to the sea-board for exportation, or be suffered to perish where they were produced, and,if the foreign demand would

! take off the surplus, the money-amount ! would be exactly the same. I But I have not done yet these 500.000 ! people,also,want something to drink ; and,

whether it is right or wrong, they will have I it: and according to what is believed to be I the average consumption of the United I States, they will use about 2,000,000 galI Ions of whiskey beer, or other liquors

slimade-outof grain. This is to be added to 1V15 400 1 ne vame f the agricultural produc ts con-

j ssuineu oy mem. And men, mere is llax, j and hemp, wool and cotton, chewing and smoking tobacco, and many other little ! items, which, if they were all put together, ; would make a very decent addition to the

sum total but quant, suf Being 'thus supported by official facts and reasonable calculations, I make the round assertion, and challenge Mr. Flovd

j to controvert it, that the whole iroihct of the agriculture of the U. S. exported, the articles of cotton and tobacco excepted, will not one half supply 500.000 people I with the food, drink, with the butter,c hecssc 1 lard and tallow consumed. I There is nothing like? coming to these detail to arrive at truth. Without think- ! ing, we fall into errors like that commitcd j by one of my friends, from the interior j who, if I recollec t rightly, had been for ej veral years a member of congress, as well 'as Mr. Floyd. I have told the anecdote : before, but it is worth repeating: at thebc- ; ginning of the late war, a great prize ship, ! impresed on her voyage from Jamaica to ; London, arrived at Baltimore, with nearly j 1000 hogsheads of sugar of the largest size, ' weighing about 2000 pound eat h. These I were ail exposed on the wharf, at one view

and, when my friend saw the mighty mass, ; he wondered what would be done with it thrrr ri ns enough to sujpty all thr xvorb) !" j Findingbirn filled with this notion, I took out my pencil and si c wed him that the 1000 hogsheads contained only about 2,000,000 pounds, which was no more than one fifth of a pound to eac h of the people of the U. S. He examined the calculation eagerly, he saw it was right arid jet, perhaps, felt as unwilling to believe it, as some will be to accept the facts stated above, though none will presume to say that they are exaggerated. That they are built upon plain, honest, unsophistic ated truth that the figures presented obstinately shew the merits f the matter, may be very simply demonstrated to the most common caI pac itj . Thus

1. I he 11 millions of dols. worth of bread stuffs and meats, (to say nothing about drink, &c) w hich I have allowed as the value consumed by 500,000 people, affords to each person only 28 dollars a year as the cost of his or her subsistence, or a little more than 50 cents per w eek. 2. The value of the animal food and bread stuffs exported from the U. S. say ten millions of dollars, all told, will allow for the support of 500,000 persons only 20 dollars each per annum, or 39 cents per week a rale, low enough, I should suppose, and at least one half short in its whole amount of the actual average cost of the support of any decent journeyman mechanic and his family, how ever economical they may be; and I am sure that Mr. Floyd w ill not think that 39 cents is too much for the subsistence of a free; person, for a whole w e ek. I venture to say, that his slaves cost him more on the average giving that value to the com

modities consumed by them which they would produce in the export market for them. The truth is,that a body of 500,000 manufactures, if collected in one spot, for their meats, bread-stuffs and drinks fire wood butter, cheese, lard, tallow hemp, flax, w ool and a hundred more articles which agriculture supplies or the agriculturalists possess, would consume or use, or cause? (0 be consumed or used, a value in the products of the farmers and planters at least tw ice as large as the value of all the domestic articles exported. (KrThis is capable of being demonstrated just as plainly

1 8vl, :O0.nO0 rj6,f75,nuo

3l9,'J76,O0o

5,00j.000

1,840,000

$11 90

This is at the rate of const itnptou accordiog to the quantity mpfoiedto be cade.

as the matters are above. The w hole value of our exports the product of the sea,

the forest, agriculture and manutactures,

was, (for the last year,) only '47,155,408 of which the amount of 26,628,192 was

in cotton and tobacco.

For the 500,000 manufacturers would give direct employment or support to a

great No. ot persons not engaged in agricul

ture suchashrick-makers,masons,carpcn-

j ters,tailors.& fifty other businesses not com

ing under the common head of manufao

1 . . ... . .

tu res; and how many would be engaged in

the transportation of food and materials to them, and in the carrying away and send-

ing abroad their various fabricks? e

j cannot calculate these things. But let us

take a little item by wav of specimen: the

I 500,000, as well in their factories as in their

families, would require at least 500,000

cords of wood fortuel perhaps the equivalent of a million of cords a year in coal and wood; however, say only 500,000 cords it will steadily employ 6C6 men to

fill the trees and chop this wood, and, if

their families consisted ot 4 persons each,

I themselves included, 2,664 persons would j be maintained by this labor. Suppose the average distance of carriage is no more j than five miles, about nine cords may then j be transported weekly, and would steadily employ 1,100 w agons and as many drivers, , with 4,400 horses; and, if the farmers received only 1 per cord for their wood, I they could" get 500,000 dollars a year, as j well as the profit that they might make in

the transportation ot it. Besides this, what would he the amount and the value of the wood required to build and repair 100,000 dwellings, shops and out-houses, and for the making of machinery, &c. Pause, and look at it! Another thing may he mentioned it is

! estimated that it would require 4.336,850

pounds of llax to make the quantity of sail

j cloth now imported, k, that this flax would J he worth 390,316 dollars. If then the laj bor of an agriculturalist be supposed as j worth 1 50 a y ear, we have the steady em- ! phnment of 2,600 farmers, and the subsistence of, at least, 10,000 persons in this ! small matter. In this manner fifty other j items might be produced to shew the natural &l immediate connexion which there i is between agriculture and manufactures. The interest of the one is that of the other. 1 It must be recollected that carpenters, wood-choppers, wagoners and llax-breakers j &c. &c. eat just like other people ! and so make additional demands for the products j of bread-stuffs and meats. j Here we see what is the homf market which the farmers want, which thev must have. This market may he kept up w ithj out the aid of a navy, w ithout expensive foreign missions,without foreign w ars about trade. It will as much eiisregard British ! orders in council v and "French decrees,'' ' 11.1 . 1

, as 1 elo llie interest ot the hutton makers ol

Biiiningham, or the calico makers of Man Chester. But a little more arithmetic may be use i hil to all dealing in such wholesale asser

tions. Mr. Floyd says that i sixty miles in

diameter would furnish all that the 500,

000 manufacturers in the U. States would

'consume." That is posihle,if there were

any sixty miles in diameter in the world

that ecu Id be wholly cultivated but such

a thing isjiM as possible as 4'to scale the

moon with a lamp-lighter's ladder.' And

if it were, how would it operate on the

great planting interest? A tract of land,

sixty miles square, contains 3,600 square

miles, each square mile contains 640acres,

and the amount of acres is 2,30 1,000. Now, according to Darby's table of the products of Louisiana, one acre of land gives 250 lb. of cotton, the 2,300,000 acrcs would, therefore, yield the almost inconceivable quantity vf five hundnd and twcnty-Jivc millions of pounds, being about or nearly five times the amount of the annual product of all the U. States! Indeed the 4sixty miles diameter," that the gentleman speaks so contemptuously of, would, if cultivated as he supposes, yield double the quantity of cotton and tobacco raised in these states, about which so much noise is made, and yet leave some spaces for hunt

ing grounds! The following brief notices arc respectfully submitted to the consideration of Mr. Floyd, by way of conclusion. I think that he will not hesitate as to the general accuracy of them. In 1810, though there were no returns of the value, of the hoots and shoes made in N. York, New Hampshire, Ohio, Kentucky, Georgia and the whole of the territories, the value of the leather made, and of the boots and shoes manufactured, amounted to 16,432,C03: This was much short of the real amount; for these things in Pennsylvania alone were valued at ,3J 26,107. If w e suppose that state to have man

ufactured one eighth of the whole quantr the gross amount would be about S'2o.jJ,' p -000. It is perfectly safe to say that, at hv c" present time, the materials and labor c ployed in the leather trade, are equal tr' thirty millions a year. The saddlery ;tJ ,1 harness-making business, dependent on ti ! tanneries, cannot be valued at less th three millions more Virginia alone rM V turning 251,159 dollars of value, in 18iq i In the same year, the value of the 1', f ;, made in Pennsylvania was given at l,2go t245 dollars, which, probably, was nearly ' perfect return. There were no retuiv from several of the states, and, frornotln Ti the amounts were evidently short of X real sums. The annual value of this ufacture, at the present time, cannot ! less than twelve or thirteen millions u j llars a vcar say 1 2 millions. C ' Now it appears that the leather mnr j. iz factories in the U, States save more to t:e fv country than the whole export of co't.-a VY

and tobacco supplies together worth 1

Tin- late returns of the manufactures of the II States an-t-xri-eiliiicb imp, rfect . & their amounts an- not athledup; xtU mice the reforois had to tl oh ot 1810, whirl,, though imperfect, alftrd tome data ou Inch to calculate facts.

-i ,rv- 1 il... i 1-1

.),iu; uuu iiiai 111c iiiuiiuiatiure oihuf

in like manner, saves twice as much a the ' whole export of tobacco, 6.202,672,) prj duces. ( The glnss manufactory, (a small item.) 1 is worth more, as a saving, than the export of rice, as a gain. 4

It is oftentimes said that it is the inten-

tion of the fiiends ot the tariff to opprt-ss the agriculturalists. This cannot be,y no man u-ill opprsss himself. There ltz more agriculturalists in Pennsylvaniaoi K, who cultivate their own fields by their cVa hands or b) those of their sons, than the re are of such persons in all the states oppr ed to the taritTas a tax on agriculture; a;ij with the exception of some few merchar.ts

and shopkeepers, Penn. is unanimous for 'j the tariff. x These things arc substantially correct and the application of them is uas easj as an old shoe." L 0Since the proceeding at written.! ' read, for the first time, an article in the A, c York 4i Statesman wherein the leathti

manufacture is estimated at thirty million, and that ef hats at fourteen. Il seem? to shew something like reason in a thing,whea two persons, without concert, arrive so nearly at a common conclusion. Leather and hats are considerable articles of ex port; they have been, undesignedly, pre tected, and now meet foreign cornpetitica any v here, as our ships and seamen do. note A. Jftcr the aggregate had been detem incd by the rates given, for the purpose cf apphing such rates to artic les sent aim ii and those consumed at home, I tbr.njt. that, (just by wav of curiosity,) I wouU uncertain how neatK nn avernge tallied vh. the estimated amount of value, as reported by the secretary of the treasury, wLichis as follows: Beef, tallow, hidc?,horned cattle 739,000.

Deduct for tallow and

I C t i r c

hide

100,000 550.COO

Pork.bacon, lard, hogs 1.2D1 .322 Deduct lard! 60.000 1,231.3:2

bheep 15,029; wheat 5,663 Flour Indian corn 453,622; do meal 476,C67 live meal 91.957; other grain "C9.354 Biscuit 103,401, potatoes 37,241 Rice

co: 4,962.373 930,4 C3

1C1.S11 220,04-. 1,S20.?C5

9,917,S1 If the value or actual cost of the casks and other packages, in which these articles were exported, (and they are, of necessity, included in the general value.) the difference between my rough estimate ai i the tffjnal value will "hardly vary, cither way, in the sum of one hundred tliousar.i dollars. NOTE B. Mr. Colquhnun, one of the ablest anJ most correct statistical writers that ever lived, and who had access to all the oflirhl papers on the subjects considered bv him, informs us that the consumption of gr.iin, in (ireat Britain and Ireland, is annual!)' as follows: 9,1 70.000c r. wheat at 70s 6d .$32,32 1.2 0 6,335,000 barley 37 0 11.7 19.7 M

16,950.000 oats. 29 0 24,577.MX 636,000 rye 44 10 1,501,201 l,ftt;0,000 beans & pe. 33 10 3,61 1,: The ejuarter of whe at is C bushels seventy lbs. each or 560 lbs. That of barIcy, oats, rye and peas and beans will average not It ss than forty lbs. per buslit 1, er three hundred and twenty lbs. per qu;ir' ter. Then the weight of the bread-blufk thus ascertained

9,170,000 ejrs. wheat, at 560 lbs.

0,000 qrs. baric v,&c.

at 330 U s,

est

r 1 1.

V rc c' c

V, I

5,135,200,000 8,249,600,000

7:i0,irj7. ibs. 1'js. lard.

13,3C4,800,000

r tallow U,il) hidtf; t6,0C: ,071