mate of potash; chloride of lime; chloride of soda; tartaric acid, chrome yellow, Prussian blue, Prussiate of potash, barilla, soda, carbonate of soda, magnesia. If congress should determine to abolish the duties on imported articles, not coming into competition with similar articles made or produced within the United States, the labor of the officers of the customs would be much diminished-and it is respect fully suggested, whether the contemplated law ought not to require these officers to keep a particular and separate account, accessible to the public, at each custom house, of the quantity and value of all merchandize imported, whether free of duty or subject to specific or ad valorem duties? The statistical information thus obtained would be of great importance to the manufacturing chemist, as well as to every other class of persons. The law might, with great propriety, also provide for a more prompt diffusion of the information thus obtained. Statistical facts are valuable in proportion to the promptness with which they are known. When delayed, they are more a matter of curiosity than of practical usefulness. A well organized system of statistics would not only be a guide to the statesman, enabling him to legislate on the intricate subject of trade understandingly, but it would inform the merchant on the important matter of consumption and supply, and save him from the many errors into which he is liable to be led, by reason of his unavoidable ignorance in this particular. Such intelligence often, and promptly, communicated, would, in a great measure, prevent the occurrence of that scarcity and consequent enhancement of price, which so frequently takes the consumer by surprise: and on the other hand, would guard against that excessive glut and consequent ruinous reduction of prices, which have done more to involve the enterprising merchant and injure the manufacturer, than all the foreign competition that can be combined against them. On behalf of the committee, ISAAC TYSON, jun. chairman. REPORT ON MANUFACTURES OF COTTON. At the convention of the friends of American industry, held in New York, in October last, a committee was appointed to obtain information and report on the production and manufacture of cotton. This committee was organised by the appointment of P. T. Jackson as chairman, and the following subcommittees, who were requested to make returns, as early as possible, to the chairman, of such facts and information as they should obtain on the subjects submitted by the convention. For Maine and New Hampshire, Lloyd W. Wells and John Williams. For Massachusetts and Vermont, Robert Rogerson and P. T. Jackson. For Rhode Island, James D'Wolf, James F. Simmons and Charles Jackson. For Connecticut, J. H. De Forest. For New York, E, B. Shearman, James Wilde and Richard P. Hart. For New Jersey, Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, &c. Daniel Holsman and Mark W. Collett. For Pennsylvania, Delaware and Tennessee, Lewis Waln and Alexander Brackenridge. For Maryland and Virginia, Columbus O'Donnell and James W. McCulloh. From the returns made by these several committees, the annexed report is made up, and is respect fully submitted. P. T. JACKSON, chairman. Boston, Feb. 11, 1832. REPORT. The committee to whom was referred the subject of the production and manufacture of cotton, have collected, by the aid of members of their body in the several states, the details which are submitted in the statements annexed. Circulars were addressed to every establishment within the knowledge of the committee, and from their replies the facts contained in their statements have been abstracted. It will be perceived, that information, collected in this manner, must command more implicit confidence than any estimates, but that it is liable to important omissions. Such are in this instance known to exist. In Vermont, returns were obtained only from the three western counties. No estimate has been made for the other nine, though from their geographical advantages, it is probable that considerable manufuc tories are to be found there. In the southern and western states, no less than thirty establishments have been reported to the committee, but kaving no accurate returns from those states, they have preferred to omit them altogether. Some reluctance has also been found among the manufacturers in ging all the details required of them. A great roportion of them have mistaken the intent of the question respecting the capital which they employ, and returned only that which was invested in fixtures. The committee have not thought it proper to alter the amounts so returned, but they will here take the opportunity of saying, that so general has been this error, that they have no doubt that onefourth to one-third might with propriety be added under this head to the total amount. Notwithstanding these imperfections, the result of their labors is highly satisfactory, developing an amount of industry in this manufacture, which exceeds the most sanguine expectations of the committee. The statements speak for themselves, and derived as they are from authentic sources might be submitted without comment. A few observations, however, appear to the committee to be important. From the best information which can be obtained, the cotton crop of the United States for the year ending October 1, 1931, amounted to 1,058,847 bales. Of this wa s grown in the Atlan tic states 486,103 bales of 306 lbs. 148,747,5 18 In the south western & wetern states 552,744 bales of 411 lbs. 227,177,784 lbs. 375,925,302 Bales 1,038,847 The amount of cotton consumed in the United States, it will be observed, is more than one-fifth of the whole cotton crop of the United States. And the value of the product, allowing that it is increased four fold in the process of manufacture, must be four fifths of that of the cotton crop, and equal in value to that of the whole export. Another view is more striking. According to Pitkin's statistics, the export of cotton from the United States, so late as 1819, was only 87,397,645 lbs. and the whole consumption of Great Britain the same year was 428,000 bags. If these figures be correct, our manufactures now consume seven-eighths as much as was exported twelve years ago, and nearly one half as much as was then consumed in Great Britain. Nay more, they consume one third as much as Great Britain does now. Indeed, the progress of the cotton manufacture in the United States, under the protective policy, is believed to be without a parallel in the history of commerce. So extraordinary did its early development appear to British apprehensions, taught to consider their own country as possessing a monopoly of science, art, industry and skill, that the following language was applied by a very intelligent writer in Edinburgh to report on this subject, presented to congress in 1816. "The great extent of the cotton manufacture in the United States, stated in the preceding report, is more like what the sanguine views of the parties had contemptated, than what had been actually achieved. Indeed, it would have been impossible, even in a country with an extensive population and established manufacturing habits, to have reared in the time a manufacture of the magnitude they mention. But whatever prosperity it had attained was put an end to by the restoration of peace with England, and this, notwithstanding the heavy tax levied on foreign cotton goods. That the failure of these attempts, however, was not occasioned by any defect in the plan or general conduct of the establishments, we know from a gentleman who visited the principle cotton works in America in 1816. He found the machinery in many of them of excellent construction; and those who had the charge of them were men who had been bred in this country and who were possessed of both skill and judgment. But the circumstances in the state of America which we have mentioned were so adverse to the nature of the un dertaking as to render success in the opinion of these persons impossible." Fortunately, the predictions of our trans-Atlantic friends, like most of the visions of the philosophers of free trade, have not been verified by experience. The cotton manufacture continued to extend itself, and has triumphed over every obstacle. The export of cotton from the United States during the five years immediately preceding the war averaged about 57,000,000 lbs. and it is evident that the culture could not have increased during the continuance of the war. We have no data whereby to estimate with precision the quantity consumed at home previous to the tariff of 1816. It will be a large allowance if we compute it at one sixth of the cotton crop of the United States. This would give about 11,000,000 lbs. It is now 77,000,000 lbs. an increase of six hundred per cent. in sixteen years. Let us compare this with the progress of the manufacture in Great Britain, a progress which has justly been a theme of national exultation to every writer on the subject. The average annual consumption in Great Britain from 1781 to 1795 was 10,941,943 lbs; from 1805 to 1810, 76,601,775 lbs. giving an increase identical with ours, but requiring a period of thirty years. It is now estimated in the London Price-Current for January, 1832, at 245,000,000 lbs., an increase of 220 per cent. in 22 years. Taking the same 16 years, from 1816 to 1832, the British in crease was from 93,920,055 lbs. to 245.000,000 or 160 per cent against 600 per cent. in this country. The greatest increase in any five years since 1790 in the United Kingdom is 56 per cent. In the United States it is 100 per cent. in the last four years, notwithstanding the check which the manufacture received in 1828 and 1829. "The articles, whose prohibition we pray for, are made of very inferior materials, and are manufactured in a manner calculated to deceive rather than to serve the consumer. No part of the produce of the United States enters into their composition. They are the work of foreign hands on a foreign. material. Yet are they thrown into this country in such abundance, as to threaten the exclusion of its more useful and substantial manufactures. They injuriously affect the industry, not only of the manufacturing but of the agricultural states, and they cause a continual drain of specie. The prohibiting their importation, except for exportation, would, we apprehend, be attended with salutary effects upon the cultivators and manufactures of the staple of the south. We discern no particular in which their importation for consumption can for a moment be thought generally beneficial, unless the revenue they afford, may be so considered. This being derived from an ad valorem duty, and the cost of the Indian cotton fabrics of the coarser kinds, being there very inconsiderable, a small sum pays the duty on a large quantity. We are satisfied the revenue would be more than compensated for any supposed loss, arising from the prohibition of their importation, by the increased use and consumption in the American manufactories of the articles subject to high duties, and necessary in the manufacture of cotton. Besides, the cherishing these manufactures will be attended with increase of populaWe shall be admitted to have fairly proved that tion. There will be more labor and greater earnthe progress of the United States in this manufac-ings, more consumption, and thus greater contributure stands unrivalled. It may be attributed to the tion to the national wealth." enterprizing spirit, to the industry and ingenuity of our countrymen, aided by the immense advantage of producing the staple at home This advantage has enabled us to apply the finer kinds of cotton to heavier fabrics than had before been attempted. It is well known that the quality of cotton which is used in this country is much finer than that in general use in England And in this lies the fallacy of a comparison of prices of cotton in the two countries, that the quality is entirely different. It would be a curious illustration of the doctrine of free trade, if cotton should be cheaper in Liverpool than New York, under the pressure of town dues and dock dues, commissions, duties, and a double rate of freight. In fact, cotton of the quality which we require is cheaper by about two cents in the pound in this country than in England. And the manufacture This memorial suggested, so far as we know, the first idea of a minimum duty on cotton cloth. It was prayed for, in express terms, as a prohibition. The wise and patriotic legislature of that year granted the prayer of the petitioners, and the consequences have been infinitely advantageous to the prosperity of the country. Our manufacturers have been enabled to supply the whole of this vast continent with goods of excellent quality made of our native cotton. The coarse and flimsy fabrics of the east have disappeared. Had not the domestic ma nufacture been thus providentially encouraged by the enlightened statesmen of that day, what would have been at this moment the condition of the cotton growing states? The cotton crop of the United States 68,000,000 lbs. It is now 1,038,847 bales averaging 361 86-100 lbs., or 376,000,000 150,000,000 The increase since 1916 being in is stated to have been below 15 cents. It will be alleged that the goods made at home would have been made in England if the tariff had not been passed, and that the price of that part of our cotton which is exported is sold at lower prices, because Europe cannot afford to buy more than we will allow her to pay for by her fabrics. To this latter objection, it is a sufficient reply, that at this very moment we import more than we can pay for by our exports. This is proved by the extensive shipments of specie, and by the high price of exchange on London. extended to them shall be continued. The effect of a reduction of duty will be to drive back the capital and machinery employed in these upon the coarse fabrics, which are already produced to the full extent of consumption. It is not with manufacturers as with merchants. There is an elasticity about commerce which enables it soon to accommodate itself to any changes in the national policy. If one branch of trade becomes unprofitable, others will be pursued. The tonnage of the United States has increased more rapidly since the tariff act of 1824, than for an equal number of years preceding it. There is reason to believe that the increase of 1831-2 will be found to have been greater than that of any one year since the peace. Any derangements, therefore, in the course of trade, which were produced by the tariff, have been adjusted. Our ships and seadirections. The coasting trade, which Adam Smith men have found advantageous employment in other pronounces to be far the most profitable branch of national commerce, has extended itself prodigiously. Capital once invested in buildings and machinery cannot be withdrawn. The business must be pursued, or the ruin is immediate and irretrievable. There is no such thing as receding. A duty of six and a quarter cents a square yard, the committee admit, would have been amply sufficient for the protection of the coarser ther has been imposed, and under the sanction of goods, had no other ever been imposed. But anothat other, an immense impulse has been given to the industry of the country towards the finer fabrics. Repeal it now and every spindle will be turned to the production of coarser goods, and the result will one branch than in the other. It may be proposed be no less disastrous to the capital employed in the to alter the scale of duties with a view of having mittee believe that such a measure would produce a them bear more lightly on coarse goods. The comderangement in trade, without any possible advantage: that it would lead to extensive frauds upon the revenue, and in its nature could not be effectually enforced. To the former, we have already replied, that the kinds of goods which constitute the staple manufacture of this country never were made elsewhere at ail, and your committee firmly believe never can be It was urged, and with great weight, against the made so advantageously as at home. It will be ob- tariff acts when first proposed, that material changes served by statement D, that of the coarse and heavy in the policy of nations should be entered into with fabrics to which the attention of the manufacturers great caution; that a clear case of public expediency was in the first instance necessarily directed, the should be made out; that such changes are always price had fallen in the 14 years from 1816 to 1830, attended with individual loss and embarrassment, two thirds, while that of the raw material had de- and that government should interfere as seldom as clined, notwithstanding the immense increase of possible with the course of individual trade. These production, only one half. This result is entirely to arguments your committee believe to be just, and be attributed to the increased skill of the manufac- they apply with a ten-fold force to the vital change turers, and to competition among themselves. It which is now proposed in the system of the country. may be affirmed and rigidly proved that this particular fabric can be, at this moment, made at a less price in this country than in any other. Of what necessity then, it may be asked, is the protecting duty of 83 cents a square yard? We answer, Ist. that if the position here advanced be correct, the duty so far as these goods are concerned cannot operate as a tax, and that the effect of repealing it would be to excite a foreign competition, which, however ruinous to the importer, who would ultimately be driven from the market, would in the meanwhile produce great confusion and distress at home. 2d. That the cotton manufacture has doubled itself within five years, extending gradually to the finer goods, which require more skill and less of the raw material, and which consequently are less protected by the existing system of a minimum duty. As competition increases, it may be expected that finer and more elaborated textures will be attempt ed. We affirm that the pledges of the manufacturers have been fully redeemed by the existing low price of coarse goods, the only ones contemplated in the enactment of the tariff of 1816, and that the same result will follow in fine goods, if the protection now The committee have turned their attention with great interest to the influence of the cotton manufacture upon the moral habits and character of the operatives. It is well known, that in the old world, no class of the working population is more degraded or worse educated. In this country, the committe have the pleasure to say, none is more respectable and intelligent, or better educated. In Europe, manufactures are established in large cities, the business is followed from parent to child, and wages are so miserably low, that few families can be supported withpoverty is, that children are set to work at a very out parochial aid. One consequence of this abject tender age, and have no time allowed for education, literary or moral. In the United States manufactures are dispersed through the country. The operatives are, to a considerable extent, females who come into the factories, after having acquired their education, who stay there but a few years, and whose liberal wages enable them during those few years to lay up considerable sums of money. In many factories, the proprietors have instituted savings banks, to encour. age the economy of the operatives, by enabling them to deposit such portions, however small, of their earnings, as they could spare, the proprietors allowing a moderate rate of interest, and being responsi ble for the safety of the capital. In one factory, which has made a return on this subject to the committee, where the wages amount to about sixty thousand dollars per annum, the fund thus laid by has accumulated in four years to the sum of twenty-six thousand four hundred dollars, or about eleven per cent. on the whole amount of wages paid. It will be observed that no less than thirty-nine thousand females find employment in the cotton factories of the United States, whose aggregate wages amount to upwards of four millions of dollars annually. This immense sum, paid for the wages of females, may be considered as so much clear gain to the country. Before the establishment of these and other domestic manufactures, this labor was almost without employment. Daughters are now emphatically a blessing to the farmer. Many instances have occurred within the personal knowledge of individuals of this committee, in which the earnings of daughters have been scrupulously hoarded to enable them to pay off mortgages on the paternal farm. In almost all the factories, from which returns have been received, three months in the year are allowed to all the children employed, for the purpose of education, and in the more considerable ones, schools are supported at the expense of the factory, at which the children of all the persons employed in or dependent upon the establishment are permitted to receive regular instruction throughout the year, without charge. In conclusion, the committee would remark, that the number of persons returned as depending upon these establishments, gives but a very inadequate view of the amount of industry encouraged and remunerated by them. Reed-makers, picker-makers, shuttle and bobbin-makers, card-manufacturers, leather dressers, paper-makers, and a host of other artificers with their families, are as strictly dependent upon the cotton factories, and would be as much deprived of bread by the withdrawal of protection, as those who are enumerated as residing upon the premises, whilst the farmer, who before was earning a scanty subsistence, now finds a market for every portion of his surplus produce, and thus acquires a revenue beyond his immediate wants, the true source of independence and wealth. No one who has witnessed the prosperity which visibly extends itself around the manufacturing districts, the air of increased comfort and improved cultivation, will hesitate to attribute it to their influence. Nor are the mechanical arts and agricultural industry alone fostered. The village steeple is an unfailing companion to the water-wheel, and the liberal professions, and all the arts which minister to the wants and comforts of man, find their best remuneration amidst the popula tion which the enlightened policy of the government has gathered around it. The committee in these remarks have rigidly confined themselves to the subject assigned to them, that of the cotton manufacture. They are fully aware that there is no claim for precedence of one branch of domestic industry above the rest. The great interests of iron, woollens, leather, coal, &c. will receive attention from their several committees. And, after all, the mechanic arts, extending as they do to an infinite variety of productions, and spread over the whole face of the country, enlivening with their industry every town, village and hamlet in the United States, give food to more individuals, and are more essentially dependent upon commercial protection, more vitally connected with the American System, than any other interest except the main pillar of national strength, the Agricultural. P. T. JACKSON, chairman of the committee. Boston, Feb. 11, 1832. STATEMENT B. Machine shops. The consumption of cotton in the United States was computed in the New York Price Current to have been for the year ending 1st October, 1827, 103,000 bales. It is now 214,882 bales,-thus more than doubling in four years. The number of spindles being now 1,246,503, this rate of increase would require upwards of 300,000 spindles, new machinery, to to be built yearly. In addition to this, repairs are constantly required, and occasionally entire renovation. It will, therefore, be an estimate very much within the truth, if we assume that the machine shops of the United States are capable of turning out 250,000 spindles per annum. We have returns from several of the largest machine shops, from which we derive the following estimates for the capital, labor and materials required to build these 250,000 spindles, with preparation and weaving, including also the gearing of the cotton mills: Capital $2,400,000. Men employed 3.200, at $7 50 average wages,aggregate $1,348.000. Annual value of product $3,500 00. 16 2,400 "chaldrons of sea coal. 66 3,200 64 Starch used 429,625 lbs. 16 66 ་་ 46 of paints and oil 48,000 of ash plank and pine of soapstone The following table presents the actual cost of the cotton used in the manufacture of yard-wide sheet ings, made of No. 14 yarn, and weighing about 3 yards to the pound, and also the price received for the sheetings. The cost of the cotton, being in eve y instance, the price delivered at the factory, and the price of the sheetings the nett value at the nearest seaport. 1817 cotton 28 cts. sheetings 25 cts. is per lb of cloth, after deducting the cost of the raw material 48 cts. Other materials, domestic, value $109,100. The permanent committee believe that the facts stated below may be usefully added to the valuable report of the committee on the manufactures of cotton, for a better understanding of the whole subject. (1) Exports of cotton from the United States. In 1791, only 189,316 lbs. in 1794, 1,601,760 lbs. 1798, 9,350,005 lbs. 1800, 17,789,803 lbs. The value of cotton was first officially given for 1802, and we shall commence a general statement with that year-abstracted from the treasury tables; the value per lbis the avarage of the whole, sea island and other. Yrs. Pounds. 1802 27,501,075 5,250,000 19,009 Jan. 22 pence. 1803 41,105,623 7,920,000 19,002 Feb. 16 1804 38,118,041 7,650,000 20,000 Dec. 21 1805 40,383,491 9,445,000 23 003 Dec. 23 1806 37,491,282 8,332,000 22,002 Dec. 19 1807 66.212,737 14,232,000 21,004 Jan. IS 180% 12,064,366 2,221,000 18,004 Dec. 35 1809 53,210,225 8,515,000 16,000 Dec. 22 1810 93,874,201 15,108,000 15,009 Feb. 21 1811 62,186,081 9,652,000 15 005 Feb 15 1812 28,952,544 3,080,000 14,000 1813 1814 1815 - 19,399 911 2,324,000 17,806 479 2,683,000 82,998,747 17,529,000 1816 81,747,116 24,106 000 1817 85,649,328 22,628 000 1818 92,471,178 31,334,258 33,008 1819 87 997,045 21,081,769 23,009 1820 127,860,152 22,308,667 17,007 1821 124,893,405 20.157.484 16 001) 1822 144,675 095 24,035,058 16,006 1823173,723.270 20,445,520 11,007 182442,369 663 21,947,401 15,004 1825 176,449,907 36,846,649 20,008 1826 204,535 415 25,025 214 12,008 1827 294,310,115 29,359,545 1828210.590,463 22,487,229 10,007 1329 264,837,186 26,575,311| 10 000 1930 299,459,102 29,674,883 9,009 9,009 8 a10 6 a 8 7ža 91 Salo 6 a 92 6a 71 5 a 6 52a 6 7-8 64a 7 5 7-8a7 1-8 |