Then, again, as to the carrying trade exclusively enjoyed by the North, which surely cannot be claimed as a matter of superiority:

cotton.

The sailing vessels under the head of enrolled are to a considerable extent engaged in the transport of As a general rule a registered ton will carry three bales. A great deal of cotton is subject, however, to several distinct transports. It is delivered at the South ports by steam and other boats, thence sent to North ports to be shipped to England or to manufacturing towns. This movement so governs the shipping trade, that whenever the quantity has been stimulated beyond one ton to a bale produced in the aggregate, there has been invariably reaction and depression. In 1820 the shipping was large because there existed remains

of the trade during the French wars, and the tonnage lost, condemned and sold had not then been fully marked off from the official registers. Since then the account has been accurately kept. The quantity built was small up to 1830, when the proportion of one ton to a bale existed. From 1835, when the same proportion was apparent, there was little variation in the quantity built per annum, and the proportions of shipping to cotton held good up to the large crop of 1843, which immediately gave an impulse to the business of shipbuilding; and tonnage increased annually up to 1846, when the amount had again reached the proportion of one ton to a bale. In that year, however, took place the Irish famine, causing a demand for ships all over the world for transport of grain. This demand was aided by the Mexican war, for which Government required much transport service. The shipbuilding reached 3,318,075 tons in 1848, in which year those two elements had ceased to act, and there was a heavy depression in the trade since the tonnage exceeded the proportion of one ton to a bale. In 1850 and 1851 and in 1852 the proportion was recovered, but then took place the revolution in shipbuilding, caused by California. Clipper ships became the rage, and the gold trade carried the tonnage far beyond the regular cotton proportion. The result

was the same as before. A terrible depression overtook shipping, and building, which had been carried to its greatest height in 1855, when it reached 2034 vessels, with a tonnage of 583,450, has year by year declined; the quantity lost, condemned, and sold to foreigners has been more than equal to the production, and the sale tonnage is now 91,192 tons less than at the highest point in 1855. The cotton crop has, however, increased, until it has resumed its proportion of one bale to a ton. no clearer proof than these figures afford, of the utter dependence of the North shipping on the great South staple. If we turn to the official tables distinguishing the three sections, we shall have the ownership of tonnage as follows, comparing the years 1830 and 1858, both cotton crop and tonnage having quadrupled :—

There can be

The South furnishes six-sevenths of the freight, but owns less than one-sixth of the tonnage. The North owns eighty per cent. of tonnage, and supplies seven per cent. of freights. The value is given much less than actual amount; thus the cotton crop of the present year will reach 2,070,000,000 lbs., and the present rate of freight is one cent per lb., or ten per cent. of the value. This gives nearly 21,000,000 freights for one transport of the crop, and it requires several. The other articles of export bear a similar freight of the registered tonnage at the North. New York City holds half of the outward freights from there. A large portion of that put down to the West is supplanted by South produce received coastwise, and it is not otherwise to be spared from North consumption. These are the outward freights only. The return freights into the country are also to a considerable extent on

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sumers.

South account, at the same rate per cent., on the value as that paid by cotton. The amount derived on the importations is $35,000,000 per annum, of which pro ratâ $12,000,000 is paid by South conWe have then $36,000,000 paid by South to the shipping per annum, or a sum double the value of all the tonnage she owns, and this without taking into account in any degree the coasting freights. This large sum is distributed among the merchants, owners, seamen, shipbuilders, stevedores, carmen, and all their business connections, as the value of the South connection. That section consents to the profits thus enjoyed by the North, while she has it in her power to withdraw them by a resort to her own forests and shipyards. North thus monopolises the freights, for the reason that she has hitherto been able to furnish the cheapest ships. The South has, no doubt, however, profited by the cheap freights. Had the two sections not been united by the bond of free trade, a very little legislation would have caused shipbuilding to grow faster at the South than it has hitherto. The evils of disunion would be not unconnected with some benefit for the Maryland and Delaware shipbuilders in this respect. The coasting tonnage is supported in nearly the same manner as the registered tonnage, and it is the North that draws the benefit.

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