Particulars of the Stocks of Cotton in Liverpool on the 31st December, 1847, 1846 and 1845. Great Britain has been striving for some time past to raise her own cotton. Some years ago an East India Company, with a capital of £500,000, was set on foot for this purpose. The object of the company was to supply the English market with a cheaper and superior cotton of Indian growth, and as an inducement to capitalists to unite in the project, reference was made to a memorial of the Manchester Chamber of Commerce, which stated-"That the quantity of cotton imported into Great Britain in the first eleven months of the year 1838, amounted to 1,374,316 bales, of the value of £14,000,000 sterling, in its unmanufactured state, of which only 96,113 bales were from the East Indies, of the value of about £600,000, or only five per cent. of the whole value of cotton imported, about ninety per cent. of our supply being drawn from foreign sources. That the value of the above quantity of cotton, in its manufactured state, was £40,000,000 sterling per annum, giving freight for 300,000 tons of shipping, and employment to upwards of 2,000,000 persons;" and concluded by pointing to India as an available, and at the same time a more desirable source of supply. The same considerations have still a governing influence over the manufacturer and shipowner, and, combined with the desire of the government to get rid of its dependence on our country for a material which must be obtained at any sacrifice, have caused the anxiety now manifested by Great Britain to produce cotton within her own territories. In Turkey, too, the experiment has been made to raise cotton, and the French are attempting the same thing in Algeria. Whilst these efforts are being made abroad in the cultivation of the raw material, an increase of the manufacture is very apparent in this country. The Southern States have lately turned their attention to the subject, and may at no very distant day compete with the north in the production of cotton fabrics. Eight large cotton manufactories are mentioned in South Carolina. One of them is an extensive establishment near Charleston, from which the best results are expected. Georgia and Tennessee are engaged in similar enterprises. There are thirty-two cotton factories in Georgia in operation, or in progress of construction. There are employed in the buildings and working of these thirty-two factories, two millions of dollars. The number of hands engaged therein is nearly three thousand, and of persons directly receiving their support from the same, six thousand. The value of manufactured goods turned out by them last year fell nothing short of one and a half million of dollars. One third of these manufactured goods were sold out of the state, mostly in the northern markets, and partially in the valley of the Mississippi. It is confidently asserted by some that the cotton factories of the south must surpass similar establishments elsewhere, as there can be no successful competition with factories established in the midst of the raw material. A Georgia paper, on this subject, holds the following language :"Georgia and Tennessee are destined to become the great manufacturing states of the south, if not of the Union; because they have not only greater resources in proportion to their population, but being traversed in every direction by railroads and rivers, and having a double outlet both to the gulf and the Atlantic, they will possess unparalleled advantages in regard to both the foreign and domestic markets. If our people would display one-half the energy and enterprise of the Yankees, in a quarter of a century from the present time we could surpass the whole of New England in wealth and population; indeed, all that we now lack to develop that enterprise and energy is the establishment of manufactories, and the more general introduction of machinery. "Let us compare for a moment the agricultural wealth of the two states named, with that of New England. Georgia and Tennessee have together a population of 1,694,000; the states of Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Vermont, Connecticut, and Rhode Island, have 2,422,000 souls. Now, let us see the rela tive products of the two sections as developed by the census of 1840, and by more recent statistics: "In addition to this, Georgia and Tennessee produce annually about fifteen million pounds of rice, and probably 3,000,000 bushels sweet potatoes, none of which are raised in New England. They also have, according to the census of 1840, 1,906,851 neat cattle, and 4,484,362 swine; whereas the six New England States have but 1,545,273 neat cattle, and only 748,698 swine. "Thus showing that, while we have a little over half the population of New England, we have more than double the capacity to feed them. Hence the fact that provisions are comparatively so much cheaper in these states than at the north, and hence the great advantage which we would have as competitors in manufacturing enterprise. In many parts of Georgia and Tennessee, operatives can live for less than one-half of what it would cost them at Lowell, or in any other of the great manufacturing cities of New England. Having this immense advantage in regard to provisions, and a corresponding advantage in procuring the raw material, why should our capitalists hesitate to invest their means in manufactures?" It may not be deemed inappropriate to mention here, in connection with what has been stated relative to cotton fabrics, that we are now making cotton duck. Formerly a great deal of money went from this country to Russia to pay for Russia duck, then used for ships, to the exclusion of every other article of the kind. In place of it, cotton duck is now extensively substituted, and is getting to be generally preferred; and instead of purchasing Russia duck abroad, we manufacture an excellent duck at home, out of materials of domestic growth. In the neighborhood of Baltimore, there are three large establishments for the manufacture of this article, all of which are conducted by one firm. FOREIGN COMMERCE OF THE UNITED STATES. The value of exports and imports of the United States (exclusive of specie) as derived from official reports, embracing the year 1840, and up to the 1st July 1847, the termination of the fiscal year. Of the domestic produce exported in 1847, the amount exported to England was of the value of $97,747,130, and to France $19,277,992. During the six months preceding 1st July, 1847, we received from England goods to the amount of $54,707,468, from France $14,388,742, from Spain $12,617,113. The balance of trade in our favor in 1847, was, as above stated, $34,316,534. According to the statements from the Treasury, In 1846 the amount of exports to Great Britain was imports from $47,310,325 38,047,095 15,130,575 23,911,532 In the same year (1846), of the total amount of exports, $78,634,410 was exported in American vessels, and $23,000,000 in foreign vessels. The different articles exported were In the year 1847 the exports were very largely increased by the demand for breadstuffs. 614,518 203,995 1,379,566 1,490,303 The following table, copied from the Shipping and Commercial List, will show the export of breadstuffs from the United States to Great Britain and Ireland, for the year ending September 1, 1847: In addition to which, 88,261 bushels of rye, 436,881 of oats, and 289,613 of barley were exported. The exports from the city of New York alone, to Great Britain, Ireland, France and all foreign ports for 1847, were as follows: The following table, showing the exports of corn, flour and wheat, by months, though differing somewhat in its aggregate from the official figures given above, is still near enough correct to be of interest in illustrating the course of trade during the year: The total receipts by the Hudson river, from the opening of navigation to the middle of September, were 2,009,297 barrels of wheat flour, 94,395 do. cornmeal, 1,483,400 bushels of wheat, 2,843,841 do. of corn, and 192,635 do. of rye. The annual trade report of Philadelphia shows the results of the last year to be The aggregate value of these articles is about twice that of last year. In the first month of 1848, the quantity of foreign and domestic merchandize exported from the port of New York, is given in the following statistical state |