Foreign trade, as before seen, may and will injure the country, if not carefully guarded by a protective system. Domestic trade can

There does not appear to be an agreement among our statistical authorities, as to the annual product of the industry and labor of the United States. On the basis of the census of 1840, Professor Tucker rates it at $1,045,134,736. But it must be seen, by the above official statement for Massachusetts, in 1845, that there is probably some defect in Professor Tucker's statement, which is partly accounted for in his classification, embracing only, as quoted in the National Magazine, November, 1846, p. 561, agriculture, fisheries, forests, mines, manufactures, and commerce. But, in senate document, 340, 2d session, 27th Congress, a report from the committee on manufactures of that body, submitted by Mr. Simmons, it is said: "We present a statement of the amount of the market value of the annual products of several branches of industry, as exhibited by the returns of the last census [1840]: The value of the annual products—

This statement of the annual product of the labor, industry, and arts of the coun try, is probably quite as large as facts would justify, though the secretary of the treasury, in his annual report for December, 1847, has raised it to $3,000,000,000. But this is extravagant, and without foundation, like many other things in that dreamy and unscrupulous document, the errors of which could scarcely be told, as repeatedly demonstrated on the floor of Congress, without disproof, or even contradiction, on the part of the secretary, whose position, in such a case, demanded a reply and vindication, if one could be made.

Among the many proofs brought forward in Congress, of the errors of this report, those presented in the speech of the Hon. Andrew Stewart, January 11, 1848, and in that of the Hon. John A. Rockwell, March 1, 1848, are very impressive, not to say astounding -sufficient to discredit the document entirely as a reliable source of information, not simply in his assumptions in defence of Free Trade, but in matters of finance indifferent to all parties. It was this latter class of errors which brought back the Hon. Albert Gallatin from the borders of the grave, to show, in his pamphlet on the subject, how glaring and alarming they were.

When it is considered what a variety and amount of the products of the country, and how many classes must necessarily escape the notice of the official agents of government, the estimate for omissions, in the senate document above referred to, may be regarded as moderate; and considering the authority of the document, as well as its approximation to the harmony of proportion, when compared with the official report of Massachusetts- not to speak of the growth of the country and the increase of its annual products since 1840-this statement may, perhaps, safely be regarded as not too large. We may receive it, then, as the exponent of the present annual value of the products of the industry and labor of the people of the United States. If, then, the aggregate annual products of the Union, of all kinds, be estimated at $2,000,000,000, and if the average annual export of the same be $100,000,000, it will be seen, that only about one twentieth of the entire product leaves the country, and that the rest is consumed or used at home. As

never injure, is always beneficial. The more of it, and the more active, so much the better. Foreign trade, as a whole, for a nation, is always a delicate operation, and for the benefit of any country, should be so regulated, as not to import more than is exported, taking all that goes and comes into consideration; and the exports ought to be something in excess. Whether they can be too much in excess, is perhaps a question. There is a natural limit. In Great Britain, the average annual balance in favor of home, is usually some tens of millions of dollars. This does not all appear from the usual display of her exports and imports. It comes in other ways; and if it comes, it is no matter how. Great Britain is the great capitalist of the world owes nobody but herself, and everybody owes her, and must at least pay interest, as we doexcept what we repudiate. Shame on this delinquency! It is the subsidies of Great Britain, and her compensations, extorted from vanquished nations, which constitute one great item of her income. For the last fifty years she has been perpetually draining the heretofore richest portion of the world-the East-where gold was piled up in heaps, and silver was as stones. Was not China beaten, and forced to pay?-the Seikhs, and forced to pay? The national debt of Great Britain, all owned at home, is no otherwise a difficulty with the government, than the financial task of raising more money to pay interest. The nation,- as a whole, is no poorer on that account. In the United States, under the tariff of 1842, the there are no certain data by which to determine what portion of this is the subject of home trade, it may, perhaps, be safely put at $1,000,000,000, less or more. The amount, then allowing $200,000,000 for imports and exports—is ten to one of that which is the subject of foreign trade. Its comparative importance, however, is indefinitely, but vastly greater, than would be represented by this difference. That which is exported, is the subject of one commercial transaction, but ever after dead to the country: whereas, a large portion of that which remains, enters into the substantial capital of the country, and becomes reproductive, in endless progression, and by a ratio not exceeded by the geometrical.

The same is true of other countries. The internal industry of France, for 1842, was estimated at 8,000,000,000 francs, and her exports at 1,065,400,000 — the exports being less than one eighth of the productive industry of the country. And in relation to Great Britain, the great commercial nation of the world, whose manufactures have been nurtured for centuries, and whose commercial marine is by far the greatest of all other nations, the Hon. Edward Everett, while our minister at the court of London, stated, at an agricultural meeting in Derby, England, in 1843, Earl Spencer in the chair, that, although the commerce between Great Britain and the United States was twice as great as between England and any other country, yet the whole of the products passing to and fro, was not worth so much as the oats and beans raised in Great Britain, as proved by their own agricultural statistics; and that the entire value of the products employing British navigation, all the world over, was not equal to that of the grass grown in Great Britain.

balance in our favor had got to be some six or seven millions average-just enough to save us from commercial bankruptcy in foreign trade. But in domestic trade, there is no such delicacy-no such danger. The more work there is done on an estate, the better; and the United States is only a large freehold.

The coasting trade, as appears from official documents, employs about half the tonnage of the country. And when the short and frequent voyages of this part of our commercial craft are considered, as compared with the part engaged in foreign commerce, the business it does in the home trade must be many times greater than the foreign.*

From the official records of Massachusetts, it appears, as stated by Mr. Hudson, in his speech in Congress, June 29, 1846, that—

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not

"The number of vessels which entered the port of Boston alone, in 1845, from other ports of the United States, beyond the bounds of Massachusettscounting fishing-craft, nor the wood, lumber, and hay coasters, from Maine-was 5,481, with an aggregate of 900,620 tons, or nine tenths of all the registered tonnage of the country. Of these, 170 were from New Orleans, 39 from Mobile, and 35 from Florida - making 244 from the gulf of Mexico. These 244 vessels, with a register of 118,600 tons, brought into the city of Boston, from the quarters mentioned, cotton, flour, corn, hemp, hides, feathers, lead, beef, pork, ham, lard, sugar, molasses, staves, tallow, wood, and tobacco, to the amount of $9,500,000— not to speak of grass-seed, castor-oil, linseed-oil, beeswax, furs, peltry, beans, peas, wheat, corn-meal, whiskey, buffalo-robes, copper, iron, leather, butter, and a great variety of other articles of domestic growth, amounting to millions. This includes only the freight from the gulf to Boston. If we add the freight from Boston to the gulf, and all the foreign products which were transported both ways, which are not included in the above estimate, it would amount to more than one fourth of our whole export to all foreign parts. The internal trade which comes to the Atlantic through the Hudson river, is equal to nearly half of our foreign commerce. The freight brought to the Hudson, in 1845, by the Erie and Champlain canals, was valued at $45,454,000, and the amount which entered these canals, at Albany and Troy, amounted to $55,454,000— showing a total of $100,908,000, being more than all exports to foreign nations, for the same year, of the growth or produce of the United States. The transportation on the New York canals, in 1845, was 1,977,565 tons, being but 3 per cent. less than the whole amount of American tonnage which entered our ports the same year, from all foreign ports."

The following extract from an article in Fisher's National Magazine, September, 1846, by Lot Clark, Esq., of Lockport, on the New York canals, is pertinent here:"The tons of products and merchandise moved on the canals the past year, were 1,977,565; the total tonnage clearing from all the ports of the United States, coasters and all, in the year 1844, as appears from the report of the secretary of the treasury, was 2,010,924 tons; the difference only 43,359 tons. The tonnage entering all the ports of the United States, was 1,977,438 tons, being twenty-seven tons less than the tons of movement on the canals. If we compare values, the contrast is not less striking. The value of all the products and merchandise carried on the canals the year past, as appears from the trade and tonnage report of the commissioners of the canal fund, was $100,629,859; the whole amount of all the exports of products and merchandise from the United States, as appears by the sec

To have a just idea of the short-route trade, constantly going on, one has only to observe the active movement of the people throughout the country, on errands of business. Nearly all this activity is trade. Bargains, or exchanges, all which are trade, are constantly going on between neighbors, for reciprocal benefit. It is stated in the National Magazine, that "on the Erie canal, for a number of years after it was finished, for the whole distance between Albany and Buffalo, the amount of merchandise carried through, was only about 2 per cent. of the whole; that about 3ths of the receipts were for goods or persons going but a portion of the distance, and retary's report for the year 1844, was $99,715,179; difference in favor of canal commerce, $914,680. Again, if we compare the tons moved on the canals with the tonnage entering and arriving at the port of New York, from and to all parts, we find how much greater is the canal navigation: In 1844, the tonnage cleared from New York, foreign and domestic, was 498,254 tons; and of all that entered that port was 576,480 tons; total, 1,074,734 tons; being in all, 902,831 tons less than was carried on the canals. Again, the total value of all the exports from the city of New York, clearing from that port in 1844, to all places, was $32,891,540, while the value of the products carried to the tidewater on the canals the past year, was $45,452,321; so that whatever comparison you institute, you find that this internal navigation is by far the greatest interest of the state." It appears by Executive Doc., No. 19, 30th Congress, that the enrolled and licensed tonnage of the lakes, for 1841, was 56,252 tons; for 1846, 106,836 tons; and that the money value of the lake commerce, for 1841, imports and exports, was $65,826,022, and for 1846, $123,829,821; being an annual average increase of 17 98-100 per cent. The total amount of merchandise, in tons, for 1841, was 2,071,802, and for 1846, 3,861,088 tons; being an annual average increase of 17 27-100 per cent. The British tonnage on the lakes is about half that of the American. To the above should be added the passenger trade, which Mr. Barton, of Buffalo, says, was not less than 250,000 persons, to and fro, in 1846, amounting, at $5 for each passenger, to $1,250,000. The lake commerce, increasing for ten years subsequent to 1846, as for five years preceding, at 17 per cent., will amount, in 1857, to upward of $170,000,000, net, or to $340,000,000 for imports and exports. It should be observed, that sixteen of the lake ports are not included in the estimates for the above results, not being known.

By the same document as above, it appears, that the steamboat tonnage for the Mississippi and its tributaries, for 1842, was 126,278 tons; and for 1846, 249,055 tons. A Cincinnati memorial to Congress, of 1842, supposes there are 4,000 boats of other kinds (not steamboats) on these waters, with an average of 75 tons each, amounting to 300,000 tons. These are the flat-boat craft, which do not return; but it is supposed that two series of these boats are used in a year, raising their tonnage to 600,000, as stated by the document before us. The average of the steamboat running is put down at ten trips a year, which makes their joint freights 1,262,780 tons; which, added to the above 600,000 tons by other kinds of boats, amounts to 1,862,780 tons for 1842. The yearly expense of this craft, building and repairing, is stated, for 1846, at upward of $20,000,000. The average annual increase of tonnage on these waters, from 1842 to 1846, was 24 3-10 per cent. The net money value of this trade, for 1846, through, way, passenger, and all, is stated at $183,609,725; or exports and imports between places, $367,219,450. The latter is the true expression of the movement.

either received or discharged at intermediate points between Albany and Buffalo; and that, although there is a new world open at the west since that time, and the amount of intercourse and busiRess has become immense with the seaboard, yet, it is true at this moment, that the local business is still superior to the through business on that canal." The same, or like, is alleged of the passenger trade on the Hudson. From every point of the United States, where there are people, more start on business for five miles than for ten; more for ten than for twenty; more for twenty than fifty; and so on. This shows, that the great amount of home trade is imperceptible and incalculable.

It can not but be seen, that this internal and coasting trade-of which the facts cited in the note are only very limited and restricted examples-running on lines which cross each other at all points, making a complete network of the whole land, to facilitate exchanges, must be vastly comprehensive, and not less important.*

It will be observed, that we have said little of our sea-coasting trade, except in the case of Massachusetts. We have not the sources of information at hand. But it is a great trade— many times to one of all our foreign commerce, as evinced by the daily arrivals and departures of coasting craft in our ports. They come and go in clouds.

Adam Smith has well said on this subject: "An inland country, naturally fertile and easily cultivated, produces a great surplus of provisions beyond what is necessary to maintain the cultivators. Abundance renders provisions cheap, and encourages a great number of workmen [artisans] to settle in the neighborhood, who find that their industry can there procure them more of the necessaries and conveniences of life than in other places. They work up the materials of manufacture which the land produces, and exchange their finished work, or what is the same thing, the price of it, for more materials and provisions. They give a new value to the surplus part of the rude produce, by saving the expense of carrying it to the water side, or to some distant market; and they furnish the cultivators with something in exchange for it, that is either useful or agreeable to them, upon easier terms than they could have obtained before. The cultivators get a better price for their surplus produce, and can purchase cheaper other conveniences which they have occasion for. They are thus both encouraged and enabled to increase this surplus produce, by a better improvement and better cultivation of the land; and as the fertility of the land had given birth to the manufacture, so the progress of the manufacture reacts upon the land, and increases still further its fertility. The manufacturers first supply the neighborhood, and afterward, as their work improves and refines, more distant markets." In this way he goes on to account for the growth of all the manufacturing towns of England. Is not this remarkable doctrine for one who is relied upon for a system of economy directly the opposite of this ?

But again he says: "The inland, or home trade, the most important of all— the trade in which an equal capital affords the greatest revenue, and creates the greatest employment to the people of the country," &c.—" A capital employed in the home trade, will sometimes make twelve operations, before a capital employed in the foreign trade has made one. If the capitals are equal, therefore, the one