control, except in their competition with each other. Being together interested to make money, and to make the most possible, they will not sell at loss, but only at profit. In the first place, then, all the difference between the cost of money and labor in the United States and those quarters—not less than 100 per cent.-is absorbed by the system of taxation where the goods are produced, and more too-far more, as a part of government policy, when it is known that there is no competition to operate against them, in the market where the goods are going. That system of taxation is enormous, and for Great Britain, was once described by Henry, now Lord Brougham, as follows: "Taxes on every article that enters the mouth, or covers the back, or is placed under the feet; taxes upon everything that is pleasant to see, hear, feel, smell, or taste; taxes on everything on the earth and the waters under the earth-on everything that comes from abroad, or is grown at home; taxes on the raw material, and on every new value that is added by the art and labor of man; taxes on the spices that pamper man's appetite, and on the drug that is administered to his disease; taxes on the ermine that decorates the judge, and on the rope that hangs the criminal; taxes on the rich man's dainties, and on the poor man's salt; taxes on the ribands of the bride, and on the brass nails of her coffin ;-at bed, or at board, lying down or rising up, we must pay. The school-boy spins his taxed top; the beardless youth manages his taxed horse, on a taxed saddle, with a taxed bridle, on a taxed road; and the dying Englishman, pouring his medicine, which has paid 7 per cent., into a spoon that has paid 15 per cent., flings himself back on his chintz bed which has paid 22 per cent., makes his will on a stamp which has paid eight pounds (sterling), and expires in the arms of an apothecary, who has paid 100 pounds (sterling) for the privilege of putting him to death. His whole property is then taxed from 2 to 10 per cent. in probate, and large fees are demanded for burying him in church. His virtues are handed down to posterity on taxed marble, and he is gathered to his fathers to be taxed no more." No, not so. For if the marble which perpetuates his name and celebrates his virtues, can last so long, he is taxed till the morning of the resurrection! Taxed for the privilege of coming into the world, taxed all the way through it, taxed on his passage out of it, and taxed EVER AFTER! This immense, comprehensive, stupendous system of taxation, falls, in varied and complicated forms, on the English producers of the manufactured articles consumed by Americans, and enters into the price of them as a principal part, when there is no protection to guard against it; and that price, in such cases, is higher, always, and much higher than it would be, if the articles could be produced at home, under a system of adequate protection. To all this must be added the profits of the commercial agents or factors, engaged in the sale of these goods, the charges of clearance, transportation, and entry, and a variety of expenses accumulated in such transactions between remote countries. Is it a matter of surprise, then—should it not be expected-in view of all these facts, that the same goods which can be produced at home, under protection, will be afforded to the consumers cheaper, while the laborers, and all the parties concerned in the business, are well paid, on the American system of wages and other values? Such, evidently, is the aspect of the facts, and the reasons are obvious— demonstrate the facts, which, being facts, need no other proof. The American consumer of foreign manufactured articles, therefore, which might be produced at home, under protection, though he obtain them free of duty, derives not the smallest fraction of benefit from foreign cheap labor; nor is he in any manner or degree taxed by protective duties which oblige him to supply his wants at home. He gets them cheaper. There may be, and doubtless are, exceptions to this rule, as, for example, in the infancy of a domestic production, which has received protection for the sake of starting it; or in the slow progress of another, the protection of which is inadequate, or too insecure by political agitation, to invite sufficient capital to give it strength and vigor, and to open a wide field of domestic competition. In some such cases, the prices may be augmented temporarily; not permanently, however, when the policy of protection is considered as settled. The moment a product of manufacture has received adequate protection, considered as secure, capital rushes into it, to fill the market, and reduce prices by competition to the lowest point of a fair profit. And all experience in the United States proves-the above-cited facts prove that all interests engaged in domestic manufactures, capital, wages of labor, prices of raw materials of home production, the wages of all the variety of employments which they create, pay of agents, carriers, and profits of merchants engaged in the trade, can all be sustained, and well sustained, on the American system of wages and profits, when the consumers obtain them at a lower rate than they would be afforded by importation. In the case of importation without competition, the consumers are in the power of foreigners, and of a foreign system of enormous taxation; ⚫ and they can not escape from the burden, in the shape of high prices, resulting therefrom. In the case of home production, under the American system of society, which costs little, and might be entirely sustained by protective duties alone, at the same time that they cheapen the articles protected, the consumers are rescued from the power of foreigners, and all parties engaged in supplying their wants are well paid, while those wants are supplied at a lower rate, and with a better article. If a person or party, here and there, may have to pay a little more for the supply of a particular want, in the first stages of home production, before competition enters the field, the benefits such a party receives from the general system, much more than counterbalance this alleged tax, so that, on the whole, it is not a tax. It is a great misfortune to this subject, that economists first, the schools next, statesmen third, the press fourth, and the public fifth, like a flock of sheep, that jump with a leader, have all consecutively, and in the end together, been accustomed to take for granted that all duties are taxes. Who can resist such a common error, and turn men's minds back to reason, when the very persons, statesmen, conductors of the press, and others, who know it is an error, are yet so much creatures of habit, as to call all duties taxes, without discrimination? Hence the advantage of their antagonists -both parties call the same thing by a misnomer. To allow that they are taxes is giving it up. There can be no argument after that, except in the following form, which is indeed unanswerable: "So that a thing is made and supplied at home, it matters little whether it costs more or less. This is broad ground, and needs some illustration, because, if true, it does away all the objection that can be offered to a protecting tariff. It makes all the difference to the country, taking in its rounds and interchanges of labor, whether a dollar is laid out at home, or abroad, in buying an article. When it goes to a foreign country to buy a thing, it is gone for ever, and becomes the capital or dollar of that country, after it makes one operation only. Whereas, if you lay out that dollar at home, in the neighborhood, or next village, or next state, or district, for an article, it remains in the country, and is still a part of the capital of the country. It does infinitely more than that, because it circulates and repeats its operation of buying an article perhaps one hundred - times, possibly a thousand times, and in its rounds serves the purposes of a hundred or a thousand dollars, as the case may be. In the grand rounds of its circulation, it touches as many springs of industry, as it does hands, and is all the time doing good. When it shall have done all this, or while it is doing it for the thing never ends it is still a dollar, and counted properly among the dollars or the capital of the country. Figures can't calculate the difference, therefore, in expending a dollar at home or abroad; even the geometrical ratio can't accumulate fast enough to realize this difference. It outstrips everything but the human imagination in its progress. If the article should cost 10 per cent. more than the foreign, it is ten times made up in this grand round we have alluded to by the rapid repetition of the thing. It is again made up in the way that prices tally, or adapt themselves to each other. If the seller of the article gets a little more, he in his turn pays a little more to the laborers, and they a little more to the farmers, they a little more to the hands, and so on all round the circle, until a perfect equilibrium is not only restored, but kept up between all, and all prices quadrate into a perfect system, that, in the rounds, can not make the least difference as to the cost or difference of price." [Notes on Political Economy by a Southern Planter.] This point is well illustrated by the following bills, from Hunt's Merchant's Magazine, May, 1841, which, it is there stated, are made out, as nearly as could be ascertained, according to the prices in that place, in the years specified. The Town of Londonderry (N. H.), To 1000 yards of broadcloth, at $4. 1820. CONTRA. By 4,000 bushels of apples, at 12 cents. By 2,000 bushels of potatoes, at 25 cents.. By 1,000 turkeys, at 50 cents.... By 1,000 bushels of corn, at 50 cents... Account balanced..... 1840. CONTRA. By 4,000 bushels of apples, at 25 cents...... By 1,000 cords of wood, at $3............. By 2,000 bushels of potatoes, at 37 cents.. By 1,000 bushels of corn at 75 cents. Balance in favor of the town. DR. $4,000 .$500 ..1,000 1,000 500 500 500 .$4,000 $4,000 DR. $5,000 ..$1,000 750 .1,000 750 $8,500 $3,500 Is not this plain-conclusive-even if prices are raised? Some may say, that this benefit does not reach all; that it is partial in its distribution, being a tax to some, while it is a help to others, which is the evil complained of. With such minds there is no reasoning. The above description is precisely the operation of the protective system, when, in some cases, and for a season, under a prohibitory duty, the manufacture of a protected article is starting, and before home competition has reduced prices, the prices are a little higher. The consumer, no matter who he is, is benefited in so many other ways, under a protective system, by cheapening most of the protected articles he has occasion to use; by giving him employment, if he lives on wages; or whatever be his calling or position, by making it better and more productive to himself, in a prosperous state of society, that it is impossible he should not participate in the general welfare, so as to more than compensate for this supposed burden, which, however, is only imaginary. When the duty is not prohibitory, the protected article is never dearer, but always cheaper necessarily, by bringing home competition into the field against foreign. The prices current in a foreign market prove nothing against this, however they may seem to do so; for the moment these protective duties are removed, as in the tariff of 1846, the foreign prices rise, just in proportion to the prospect of obtaining the American market, and when once they shall have gained it by breaking down the American producer, they will have their own prices, which will be higher than under a protective system. Even prohibitory duties reduce prices in the end, in the case of articles in general demand, if the system of protection be reliable, and capital dare venture into the business to a sufficient extent, as it always will, if protection is secure. Such are the superior qualities of American iron, for example, and such the exhaustless beds of its ore, that nothing is required but permanent, secure protection, to afford every manufactured iron article demanded by the wants of society, cheaper than they could be obtained from England, or from any other quarter. Many of them had already begun to be cheaper under the tariff of 1842. But it requires time, confidence, and immense capital, to perfect all the manufactures of iron; and while marching to perfection, the prices would be satisfactory, beneficial to the country, and beneficial to all parties. If iron manufactures are discouraged, and languish in this country for want of protection, England will take advantage of it, and raise her prices higher than they would have been under |