It is often meritorious to understate a fact assuring to one's advantage; but we are greatly surprised that
Mr. T. Butter
King, in his recent pamphlet published in
Europe, upon the trade and resources of the
South, should have put down our exports at the low figures of $150,000,000. If he had stated them at double that amount he would still have been short of the truth.
His understatement not only does not give us all the advantage and importance to which facts entitle us with the
European public, but it does us a positive injury for that public know that the exports of the late
United States were between three and four hundred millions; and
Mr. King's statement of Southern exports at only one hundred and fifty millions, places those of the south below those of the
North, and makes the
North, Instead of the
South, the great experting section of the
Union.
We do not know any statement that could have gone before the
European mind on Southern authority which is calculated to do us more injury.
The Southern export of cotton alone in the fiscal year ending June 30, 1860, was to the sales of $191,806,555, as officially reported by the
United States Secretary of Treasury.
Mr. King is a citizen of a cotton State, and yet states the total exports of the
South at forty-odd millions less than her actual export of the single staple.
The amount of Southern exports is, as to the greater portion of it, a matter of ascertained fact, beyond conjecture, and there is no excuse for ignorance on the subject.
We published a month or two ago, on our fourth page, from the
Atlanta (Ga.) Banner, a statement in detail of the exports of the
United States for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1866 The statement was prepared for that west by a distinguished citizen of that town,
the Hon. Howell Cobb, late
Secretary of the United States Treasury, and was compiled from the official returns on the subject, all of which are to be found in the last
Annual Report of the
Secretary of the Treasury of the
United States.
We shall repeat the statement from the
Banner.
The total exports of the ‘"growth, product, and manufacture of the
United States,"’ exclusively of gold and foreign goods re-exported, were for the year mentioned, $316,220,610. these consisted of three classes of articles first those produced exclusively by the free States, secondly, those produced jointly by the free and the slave States; and, thirdly these produced exclusively by the slave States.
In order that there may be no room for doubt or misconception, we publish in detail a strictly accurate statement of these exports, according to the foregoing classification:
Free States exclusively.
| embracing spermaceti and whale oils, whalebone, dried and pickled fish | $4,156,480 |
| 731,817 |
| 183,134 |
| Total free States | 5,071,431 |
Free and slave States.
| Products of the forest, embracing slaves and headings, shingle, boards, plank and scantling, hewn timber, other lumber, oak, bark, and other dye ashes, pot and pearl ginseng, skins and furs | 11,755,660 |
| Products of agriculture — of animals, beef, tallow, hides, horned cattle, butter, cheese, pork, (pickled,) hams and bacon, lard, wool, dog, horses, mules and sheep. | 20,266,265 |
| Vegetable food — wheat, flour, Indian corn, Indian meal, rye meal, rye oats, and other small grain and poise, biscuit or ship bread, potatoes, onions, clover seed, flax seed and hops | 25,656,494 |
Manufactures
| Refined sugar, wax, chocolate, spirits from grain, do. molasses, do. other materials, vinegar, beer, ale, porter and cider in casks; beer, ale porter and cider in bottles, linseed oil, household furniture, arranges and parts, and railroad cars and parts, hats of fur or silk, do. palm-leaf, saddlery.
trunks and valises, adamantine and other candles, soap, snuff, tobacco, (manufactured,) gun-powder, leather, boots and shoes, cables and cordage, salt, lead, iron, pig, bar, nails, castings of all other manufactures of copper and brass, and manufactures of drug stand medicines, cotton piece goods, printed or colored, white, other than duck, duck.
all manufactures of hemp, thread bags, cloth other manufactures of wearing apparel, earthen and stoneware, combs, buttons, brogans and brushes of all kinds, billiard tables and apparatus, umbrellas, parasols and sun-shades, morocco and other leather not sold by the pound, fire engines, printing presses, type, musical instruments, books and maps, paper and stationery.
paints and varnish, jewelry, real and imitation, other manufactures of gold and silver and gold.
leaf, glass, tin, pewter and lead, marble and stone, brick, lime and cement, India-rubber shoes, India-rubber other than shoes, lard, oil, oil cake, artificial flowers, and quicksilver | 36,454,644 |
Articles not enumerated.
| Manufactured | 2,307,031 |
| Raw produce | 1,356,806 |
| Total free and slave States | 96,826,299 |
Slave States exclusively:
| Cotton | 191,806,555 |
| Tobacco | 15,906.547 |
| reand turpentine | 3,734,527 |
| Rice | 2,507,399 |
| Tug and pitch | 151,095 |
| Brown sugar | 103,244 |
| Molasses | 44,562 |
| Hemp | 8,961 |
| Total slave States | 214,322,880 |
Recapitulation.
| fine States exclusively | 5,671,431 |
| Free and slave States | 96,826,299 |
| Slave States exclusively | 214,322,880 |
| Total | $316,280,610 |
Thus, the amount of exports, of the kind grows exclusively by the
South, was $214,102,880 This amount is to be augmented by that portion of the ninety-six millions of the first productions of the two sections which is fairly to be credited to the
South.
In this latter production, the official documents show that there were manufactures of cotton fabrics to the values of eleven millions of dollars.
The raw material of this exportation was the product of the
South, and was worth sixty per-
cent. of the value of the exportation, or six millions and a half.
This was the case with snuff and the
manufactured tobacco, and with a large class of manufactured articles of other descriptions.
Of the products of the forest, the
South furnished full one-half.-- Of the products of agriculture, and of vegetable food, the following is to be said: It is declared by some of the most intelligent Northern writers,
Mr. Kettell among the number, that the free States as a whole do not raise a surplus of provision and breadstuffs for exportation; that if the
Eastern and Middle States did not procure large supplies of these articles from
Virginia and other Southern States, they would consume all the surplus raised by the
Western States; and that Western produce goes abroad only to the extent that it is released for that purpose by Southern produce brought in and consumed by the
Eastern and Middle.
States in its stead.-- If this be so — and we believe the statement — the surplus grain and provision stuffs exported from Northern ports, should be credited as a Southern exportation and not as a Northern; and this consideration would give the whole expert of forty-five millions of the products of agriculture to the
South.
At all events, it would be a low estimate to credit half of the $96,826,299 of the joint exportation of South and North, or $48,413,150 to the
South; which, added to the $214,322,880 exclusively Southern, would give $262,736,030 as the minimum Southern exportation to foreign countries.
Her sales of cotton and other produce to the
North for Northern consumption, are variously estimated at from one hundred to one hundred and fifty millions a year; which would make her total exportation from three hundred and fifty to four hundred millions per annum.
In view of these facts, we are quite astounded at the understatement of
Mr. King, and we trust that our authorities here will instruct him to take an early opportunity to correct his mistake.
