The output of the iron works was sufficient within three thousand tons. The tobacco and hat manufacturers were exporting their surplus stocks. According to Tench Coxe's more careful estimate, the annual value of our manufactures, factory and domestic, was $198,000,000, of which four fifths was produced in Pennsylvania, New York, Massachusetts, Virginia, and Maryland. 212, 213. Bolles, II, Bk. II, Ch. IV. Nile's The Effects of Peace. - British statesmen began to real- Bishop, ize that their orders in Council, coupled with the conse- II, 146–160. quent war, had rid them of American rivalry on the sea, only to develop domestic manufactures to the point where the United States would soon be independent of Great Britain. Cobbett, the economist, declared, "We have before us the seeds of a great event, — nothing less than Register, the complete and absolute independence of America upon I, 164. English manufactures." A Parliamentary commission re- Nile's ported: "It clearly appears that those manufactures have Register, been greatly promoted by the interruption of intercourse with this country, and that unless that intercourse be speedily restored, the United States will be able to manufacture for their own consumption." IV, 105. Taussig, Tariff Hist. U.S., Ch. II. Bolles, Hansard's The conclusion of peace threw open our ports once more to foreign trade. English manufacturers, eager to regain control of the lost markets, sent in shiploads of cotton and woolens and iron manufactures, which they offered on the most liberal terms to their agents in this country. The II, 387–391. goods were taken on credit and disposed of at auction. The object was to undersell at any cost, and thus break down the infant industries. Lord Brougham justified the speculative character of this trade on the ground that "it was well worth while to incur a loss upon the first exportation, in order, by the glut, to stifle in the cradle those rising manu- 1099. factures in the United States which the war had forced into existence contrary to the natural course of things." The importations of 1815 from Great Britain alone amounted Pitkin, to $83,000,000, those of 1816 came to $155,000,000. The Statistical woolen mills closed down. Entrepreneurs like Scholfield 261.. were ruined. The price of wool fell in the domestic First Series XXXIII, View, Am. State III, 32, 52, 56, Am. State III, 168, 440-444. White, Memoir of market, and the surplus wool clip was sent to England. Many of the costly merino sheep were killed for mutton and tallow. The iron manufacturers of the seaboard put out their fires. All but five of the forty plants of Morris County, New Jersey, were prostrated. The works were sold at auction, and the employees scattered. Some furnaces and forges were kept running by the farmers, but the eastern industry as a whole was ruined. The iron foundries of Pittsburg were adequately protected by the expense of transporting these bulky goods across the mountains. Fifty miles of land carriage cost as much as the ocean freight from Sweden. But the bagging industry of Lexington, Kentucky, was unable to cope with English competition. Imported cotton bagging flooded the country at prices far below the normal cost of production. An outcry against this destructive competition was raised by the men who had invested their capital in the new industries. Forty memorials from as many infant industries and manufacturing centers were sent up to Congress in the session of 1816-1817. The cotton manufacturers of Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania petitioned for protection against the low-priced goods from England and India. The paper manufacturers and printers protested against the competition of Holland and France. The sugar planters of Louisiana, the cordage manufacturers of Massachusetts, the hat makers of New York, the gunsmiths of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and the proprietors of the hemp factories of Lexington, Kentucky, were no less insistent on protection. The merchants of New York City denounced the auctioneers and asked that a ten per cent tax be levied on such sales. The Pittsburg memorialists complained "that the manufacture of cottons, woolens, flint glass, and the finer articles of iron has lately suffered the most alarming depression. Some branches which have been for several years in operation have been destroyed or partially suspended; and others, of a more recent growth, annihilated before they were completely in operation. The tide of importation has inundated our country with foreign goods. Some of the most valuable and enterprising citizens have been subject to enormous losses, and others overwhelmed with bankruptcy and ruin. . . In the United States we have the knowledge of the labour-saving machinery, the raw material, and provisions cheaper than in Britain; but the overgrown capital of the British manufacturer, and the dexterity acquired by long experience, make a considerable time and heavy duties necessary for our protection. We have beaten England out of our markets in hats, boots, and all manufactures of leather; we are very much her superior in ship building; these are all the work of the hands, where labour-saving machinery gives no aid; so that her superiority over us, in manufactures, consists more in the excellence and nicety of the labour-saving machinery, than in the wages of labour.” Finance, The diverse interests of shipowners and purchasers were Am. State likewise represented. The merchants of Salem, Philadel- Papers, phia, Baltimore, and Charleston urged the reduction of the war duties in the interests of trade. Virginia, voicing 518. the interests of consumers, sent up five petitions against Am. State a protective tariff. War prices, double and treble normal rates, might bring high profits to the manufacturer and to the producer of raw materials, but they imposed a heavy tax on the outside public. Papers, Finance, Am. State Finance, Bolles, II, Bk. III, The Tariff of 1816. - Dallas, then Secretary of the Treasury, submitted to Congress (February 12, 1816) a report on the revision of the war tariff. He advocated unreservedly the protection of domestic manufactures. Domestic industries he classified under three heads. First, those firmly established whose products were ade- Ch. III. quate to the needs of the country, such as carriages, cab- McMaster, inet wares, cordage, hats, firearms, window glass, boots, IV, Ch. shoes, and paper. On these, the Secretary recommended duties practically prohibitory, on the ground that competi- Rabbeno, tion among domestic producers would soon lower prices. 146-183. Second, the infant industries not yet sufficiently developed to supply the demand, but in a fair way to do so, such as cotton and woolen manufactures of the coarser grades, iron, XXXI. Taussig, Tariff Hist. 27-36. Taussig, Tariff Hist. U.S., 46-59. tin, and brass manufactures, spirits, ale, and beer. On tion of Francis C. Lowell, coarse cottons were given a bushel) was continued, although the domestic product, 600,000 bushels per year, was far short of the demand, and the annual importation amounted to 3,000,000 bushels. It was urged that the saline springs of New York, Kentucky, and Indiana could soon supply the seaboard market if an adequate measure of protection were accorded. Specific duties of 10 cents and 15 cents per gallon were laid on ale and beer in the interest of the breweries, but more especially to increase the demand for rye, barley, and hops as a solace to the producers of those cereals. The high duties levied on distilled spirits during the war were but little reduced, and the excess of from 4 cents to 7 cents levied on spirits distilled from grain was maintained in the interest of corn growers. The rum interest, so prominent in the tariff debates of the first decade of Congressional history, was less influential now. The war duty on molasses was cut in half, but 5 cents per gallon was double the rate imposed in 1789. This tax on their raw material was protested in a petition sent up by the rum distillers of Boston in 1820. Speaking for a "very old manufacture," whose plants represented an investment of $1,000,000, and in the interest of the flagging West India trade, they deprecated any increase Am. State of the duty. But a new and diverse interest had arisen. Papers, The cane growers of Louisiana asked not only for a pro- III, 522. tective duty on molasses but on sugar as well. The planters had built ninety-one refineries at an expense of $3,500,000, and were producing $1,000,000 worth of sugar annually, and they secured consideration. The war duties on the various grades of sugar were reduced but one third. The tax on refined sugar held at 12 cents a pound until 1842. Finance, Bishop, II, 161. II, 363, 367, 394. Clash of Sectional Interests. The stronghold of the Bolles, campaign for protection was in the Middle and Western states. The manufacturers of New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania were supported by the farmers of Ohio, Dewey, Kentucky, and Tennessee, whose wool, hemp, and flax brought better prices in a protected market, and by the Ch. VIII. |