ANALECTIC MAGAZINE, AND NAVAL CHRONICLE. DECEMBER, 1816. ORIGINAL. A Statistical View of the Commerce of the United States of America: its Connection with Agriculture and Manufactures: and an Account of the Public Debt, Revenues, and Expenditure of the United States. With a Brief Review of the Trade, Agriculture, and Manufactures of the Colonies, previous to their Independence. Accompanied with Tables, illustrative of the Principles and Object of the Work. By Timothy Pitkin, a Member of the House of Representatives of the United States, from the state of Connecticut. Charles Hosmer, Hartford, 1816. 8vo. pp. 436. WE come now* to that department of our commerce which has received the denomination of the carrying-trade. From 1793 to 1815 the principal nations of Europe were so much employed in their belligerent affairs at home, that they had little time for looking abroad into the concerns of their colonies; and even had they found the requisite leisure, they must have been deterred by their maritime impotence-if they were unfortunate enough to be against Great Britain-from sustaining a profitable intercourse with their distant possessions. Yet such an intercourse was indispensible; and they were obliged, therefore, to employ some power which, by its political equi-distance and neutrality, might be enabled to carry on the trade without extraordinary hazard or expense. The United States were admirably calculated to secure that object; and they accordingly became-before the institution of commercial restraints-the carriers both of domestic and of colonial produce for almost every nation in the civilized world. Sometimes the trade was carried on directly between the parent country and its colonies; but, in general, it took a circuitous route through the ports of the United States. Sugar, coffee, spirits, cocoa, pimento, indigo, pepper, and spices of all sorts, were first brought to this country in either European or American bottoms; and then exported in our own vessels to the various ports of the other continent to which they were originally destined:—while, on the other hand, the manufactures of Europe-particularly of Great Britain-as well as the manufactures and raw produce of China and of the East Indies, were primarily imported here; and afterwards shipped in great quantities to the South American colonies of Spain-to the West Indies-and to some other countries of subordinate importance. drawers of But while the Americans were the voluntary water' for almost every other people on the globe, it must not be imagined that, in this circuitous decantation of one vessel into another, a profitable quantity of the contents did not fall into our own country. Besides the increase of commercial tonnage and the accumulation of individual wealth, the profits which flowed directly into the national coffers were by no means contemptible. In addition to the 3 per cent. on the general drawbacks, there was a considerable sum resulting from the forfeiture of drawbacks altogether, in consequence of non-compliance with the law respecting that subject; insomuch, that in the years 1805, 6, and 7, the duties which were received on exported foreign productions, --and which duties, of course, were not paid by American consumers-amounted to about one-ninth of the total duties collected during that period. Thus while the whole was about $45,000,000, the part drawn from the carrying trade amounted to about $4,000,000 on goods which paid duties according to official valuation, and about $1,000,000 arising from the 31 per cent. upon drawbacks or jointly to about $5,000,000. The exports of the United States during these three years, however, were more than twice as great as the average amount; and from 1793-when the carrying trade commenced-to 1814, when it had nearly ceased, the average duties collected in this department of commerce could not have formed more than about one-twentieth of the whole. But it is from the increase of private wealth that the United States have been chiefly benefited by means of the carrying trade. We have no data for calculating the precise national advantages derived from this source; but we may form a general idea of their amount by ascertaining the proportion which our trade in foreign articles bore to that of domestic produce, in years when both were equally exempt from restriction. During 1805, 6, and 7, the The value of goods paying ad valorem duties is legally ascertained, by adding 20 per cent. to the actual cost, if imported from the Cape of Good Hope, or from any place beyond it; and 10 per cent., if imported from any other place, in cluding all charges, commissions, and outside packages. Insurance is excepted. average yearly value of our domestic exportation was about $44,863,517, while the export of foreign merchandise for the same period was on an average $57,701,937 yearly; showing an annual difference of nearly $13,000,000. But as these were years of extraordinary commercial freedom, they exhibit a fallacious view of our general exportation, both foreign and domestic. Of the latter we took a progressive survey in our last Number; and the commencement, fluctuation, and decline of the former, from 1791 to 1814, is very well exhibited in the following table:- 1800 56,432,516 38,597,479 501,982 3,146,445 8,967,828 441,3125,970,590 18,718,477 635,849 4,925,518 16,076,848 1801 97,565,732 45,106,494 3,153,139 7,012,155 17,159,016 1802 61,061,820 36,501,998 5,422,144 3,878,526 14,906,081 1803 23,223,849 10,294,693 2,991,430 367,177 74,964,366 48,312,7135,703,646 695,135 5,351,524 9,377,805 4,765,737 1804 1805 123,031,272 46,760,2947,559,224 2,425,680 15,201,483 1806145,839,320 47,001,6624,111,9836,846,758 19,016,909 1807 143,136,905 42,122,5734,207,166 8,540,524|| 18,971,539 1808 28,974,927 7,325,448 1,709,978 1,896,990 1809 45,248,128 24,364,099 4,722,098 2,029,336 1810 47,038,125 31,423,477 5,946,3361,286,010 1811 18,381,673 10,261,442 3,057,456 2,221,462 1812 13,927,277 10,073,7222,521,003 1813 7,347,038 6,568,527 5,889,669 8,438,349 8,815,291 752,148 3,591,755 99,660 108,188 368,603 41,409 During the peace of Amiens (which, our readers will recollect, was concluded in the fall of 1801, and continued about eighteen months) the articles of foreign production were carried directly to their respective places of destination; and, accordingly, the exports of the United States for that period were more than commonly small. But when war was renewed, in 1803, they not only rose to their former magnitude, but increased at a prodigious rate through every succeeding year, till they were suddenly abridged in 1808, by the imposition of commercial restraints. During the three years immediately preceding the adoption of this system, the average export of sugar, for example, was nearly 140,000,000 lbs. or about 140,000 hhds.; the freight of which, in the two different voyages, (since the whole was brought into our own harbours preparatory to its exportation abroad) must have employed about 70,000 tons of shipping, and cost between 3 and 4,000,000 of dollars. For the same period our total yearly importation of sugar was about 200,000,000 lbs. on an average, of which twelvethirteenths, nearly all, in short, was brought in American bottoms. In 1807 alone, our import was 174,940,709 lbs. of brown, and 45,397,570 lbs. of clayed sugar; the greatest part of which was brought from West India islands and American colonies. Previous to 1808 our exports of this article were principally destined to France, Holland, Hamburgh, Bremen, Spain, and Italy; but since that period they have been chiefly carried to Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Russia. The same is true in respect to coffee; of which, during 1804, 5, 6, and 7, our yearly export exceeded 45,000,000 lbs., and our total import fell but little short of 60,000,000 lbs., on an average. The Dutch East Indies, the Dutch, French, and Spanish West Indies, are the countries whence our greatest supplies of coffee are derived. Holland received of both these articles almost twice as much as any other country. But though sugar and coffee were the chief, they were by no means the only, articles of foreign production which we imported and exported for other people. During 1805, 6, and 7, we exported, upon a yearly average, about 3,423,585 gals. of wine, 1,600,301 gals. of spirits, 2,151,385lbs. of tea, 5,937,645lbs. of cocoa, and 5,292,791 lbs. of pepper, besides small quantities of paints, lead, and manufactures of lead, iron, fish, and other articles of less importance. While we were thus carrying about the valuable articles of colonial produce, we took good care to import in return a profitable quantity of other merchandise. In 1807, for example, we imported goods paying ad valorem duties to the value of $58,655,917; of which only about $17,000,000, or between one-third and one-fourth were again exported. During the same year, goods free of duty, were exported to the value of $2,080,114. From Europe, $50,915,135; from Africa, $108,607; from Asia, $6,392,592; and from the West India islands and American colonies, $1,239,583 worth of these two species of merchandise were brought into our own harbours; and the proportion which was again exported, went principally to the West Indies, and to the Spanish American colonies. This, however, was an extraordinary year; and to ascertain the average sums we should be obliged to abridge these figures by more than one half. This completes the detail of our exports. It remains to exhibit a view of the imports of the United States, together with a history of our commerce with the various parts of the world, as well as of its increase since the adoption of the federal government. |