I. The immense wealth she acquires by this system; and II. The astonishing increase of power it has secured her. I. We shall, on the first point, confine ourselves to the four great manufactures, linen, cotton, woollen, and leather, and make no doubt, the statement will astonish our fellowcitizens, and remove all doubt of the correctness of the eulogiums we have hazarded on the British political economy. According to Colquhoun*, the annual proceeds of the cotton manufacture are The woollen The linen The leather Total 29,000,000l. 26,000,000 15,000,000 15,000,000 85,000,000l. Thus a gain is secured to the nation of 63,000,000 of pounds sterling, or above 270,000,000 of dollars annually. This at once solves the mystery of the wonderful" power and resources" of Great Britain, and establishes beyond controversy the wisdom of its policy, which is, in every respect, let us observe, the antipodes of the doctrines of Adam Smith in the Wealth of Nations. What stupendous facts! What a lesson to the legislators of other countries, particularly the United States! We possess the capacity of raising the raw material of the cottou manufacture, the chief of the four kinds above stated, to an extent commensurate with the demand of the whole world; and we could, with ease, if proper encouragement were offered, produce the materials of the other three, in sufficient quantity for all our purposes. * Treatise on the wealth, power, and resources of the British Empire, p. 91. II. The second point, to which we wish to turn the attention of our fellow-citizens, in order to establish the soundness of the system of political economy, respecting her manufactures, pursued in England, is the wonderful increase of power it has secured her. For twenty years she was the main support of a war of unexampled expenditure, against the most gigantic combination of power, and the most formidable monarch, that Europe has beheld for a thousand years. From her resources alone it arose, that he did not arrive at universal empire. She not only preserved herself from the loss of her own possessions, but conquered colonies and dependencies of her enemies, of great extent and immense value. Her revenue for the year 1812, was about 63.500,000*: and in the same year her expenditure was above 112,000,000.t During the whole of this war, she was not obliged to borrow money from any other nation; but made large loans to several. She subsidized some of the first-rate monarchs in Europe. Her enormous debt, which, according to Colquhoun, amounted at the close of 1813 to above 900,000,000.‡ is wholly owned by her own subjects, except about 17,000,000l. purchased and owned by foreigners. It is no impeachment to the merits of her system, that her paupers amount to above 1,500,000, and her poor tax to 6,000,000l. sterling, equal to 26,000,000 of dollars.§ This lamentable feature in her affairs, arises partly for the labours of the working class being superseded by machinery, and partly from the wasteful and ruinous wars she has maintained, which alone have prevented the country from being an earthly paradise. Since our recent war, she has been enabled to lay this country under heavy contribution, so that there is an enormous debt due her, notwithstanding she has possessed herself of a very large portion of our bank and other public stocks, in payment for her manufactures, which will yield her a great and permanent income, at the expense of the United States. * Colquhoun on the wealth, power, and resources of the British Empire, p. 258. † Idem, 261. Page 273. He states, however, in this page, that 236,000,000, of this debt have been redeemed. § Idem, 125. To her support of domestic industry alone, she chiefly owes these capacities and advantages, and the inordinate power she possesses. Were she to abandon her system, and adopt that of Adam Smith, she could not fail, in a few years, to be reduced to a level with Spain and Portugal. All her treasures would be drawn away to the East-Indies, France, Germany, &c. We shall close with a comparison between her policy and that of the United States, on a few plain and simple points: The annals of legislation and revenue cannot produce a stronger contrast between the most profound policy and its direct opposite. Thus we see that Great Britain, possessing machinery which increases her powers of manufacturing at the rate of two hundred for one, does not rely on it for the protection of her domestic industry; but interposes the powerful shield of prohibition and enormous duties, to preserve them from danger; while the United States, which had, at the close of the war, a great number of important and extensive manufacturing establishments, and invaluable machinery, erected and advantageously employed during its continuance, and although blessed by a bounteous heaven with a boundless capacity for such establishments, have, for want of adequate protection, suffered a large portion of them to go to decay, and their proprietors to be involved in ruin, the helpless victims of a misplaced reliance on that protection! The comparison might be pursued to a very great extent: but we trust there is enough stated to enable our fellow-citizens to account for the prostrate situation of our affairs. No two nations ever carried on intercouse on terms more entirely destitute of reciprocity: and hence our citizens on the banks of the Missouri are clothed with fabrics manufactured in England and Hindostan, while thousands of useful men, women, and children, capable of furnishing superior goods, at equal prices, are literally pining in wretchedness, in our towns and cities, for want of employment, and many of them driven to mendicity, to support a miserable existence! and while our country is impoverished, to support the manufacturers of the East Indies and every part of Europe. And why (let us solemnly ask) does this lamentable state of hings exist? Because, in the language of Adam Smith, "foreign countries can furnish us with commodities cheaper than we ourselves can make them;" and we have thought it "better to buy from them, with some part of the produce of our own industry!" Every prudent merchant, farmer, or planter, commencing his career of business, will naturally inquire into the plans acted on by those engaged in similar pursuits, before he determines on his own. Those dictated by wisdom, tested by long experience, and attended with success, he will study as guides by which to regulate his conduct. Those emanating from folly, sinister views, or empiricism, he will regard as beacons to warn him to beware. This conduct, indisputably wise in private life, is imperiously the duty of those on whom rests the high responsibility of regulating the career of nations, particularly in their infancy or youth. This is a duty which no enlightened or honest legislature will ever neglect. We trust therefore, that a calm and candid observation of the fatal consequences of adopting the doctrines of Adam Smith, as well as of the transcendent benefits, public and private, resulting from the English system, which is in undeviating hostility with that of the doctor, will serve to display the true policy which this country ought to pursue, in order to fill the high destiny which appears allotted to her in the course of human events; and induce the legislature of the Union, to devote that attention to the protection of domestic industry, without which the United States can never hope to be really independent, or to enjoy that degree of prosperity and happiness which God and Nature have placed within their grasp; and which cannot be neglected without a most culpable dereliction of our duty to ourselves, and to our posterity, on whom the folly or wisdom of our councils will operate when we are consigned to the peaceful grave. NO. IV. Philadelphia, April 26, 1819. We have presented to your view, fellow-citizens, a cursory sketch of the admirable and beneficent policy of Great Britain* on the all-important and vital point of fostering and protecting domestic industry-a policy, we repeat, and wish steadily borne in mind, in direct hostility with the doctrines of Adam Smith, which rank among their supporters so large a portion of our citizens. *Objections have been made to our statement of the prosperity of England resulting from her protection of domestic industry, grounded on the oppression she exercises on, and the abject state of, some of her dependencies. This does not in the least militate with our view, which went to prove, from indisputable facts, that the protection of domestic industry in the island of Great Britain, had there produced as great a mass of wealth and prosperity as had ever existed. Her wars, which greatly impair that prosperity, and her treatment of her dependencies, have not the most remote connection with our theory. |