COMMERCIAL & STATISTICAL REGISTER. EDITED BY SAMUEL HAZARD. VOL. IV. PHILADELPHIA, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 2, 1841. Wheat Product of the North-West. The following Memorial was presented at the last Session of Congress, and printed among their documents. It contains many important facts and tables, on the subject of American wheat. MEMORIAL Of JOSHUA LEAVITT, praying the adoption of measures to secure an equitable and adequate market for American wheat. No. 22. teen millions, or 18 per cent. more, are deemed capable of cultivation; leaving 15,871,463 acres, or 20.4 per cent. of the whole, worthless for human subsistence. (See table 5.) At the same rate of productiveness with the cultivated land in the United Kingdom, the land already sold by the Government should produce subsistence for near 30 millions of peo ple, while the vast quantity still unsold admits of a nearly proportionate increase. The lands being all held in fee simple, in farms of sufficient size to insure the greatest product with the least labor, unincumbered with rents, tithes, or poor-laws, and no part engrossed by noblemen's parks or royal forests, the products may be expected to reach this To the Honorable Senate and House of Representatives of amount far in advance of the proportionate increase of popu the United States in Congress convened: lation, provided such a market shall be found for the surplus as will furnish the adequate motives and rewards of industry. It is to this point that the attention of Congress is particulara The undersigned, a citizen of New Jersey, respectfully solicits the attention of Congress to the following memoir, presenting a few considerations connected with the wheatly requested. product of the North-West. The actual increase of population in these States shows that there is something in our land system, our freedom from taxation, and the general character of free institutions, as spread over this region by the benign influence of the ordi nance of 1787, eminently calculated to impart a healthy vigor to a rising empire, beyond any precedent in the history of the world. Forty years ago, the whole civilized population of this district was but 50,240; now, it is 2,970,696. The ratio of increase during each decennial period of this century is 483,202.85, and 102 per cent. The numerical increase of the last ten years is 1,502,604, being more in number than the whole increase of England and Wales during the first sixty years of the last century. The increase per cent. is greater than the increase per cent. of England and Wales during the whole of that century. The six northwestern States (including as such, the two Territorial Governments, soon to be admitted as States) of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Iowa, spread over a surface of 236,211 square miles, not including the portions of Wisconsin and Iowa still held by the Indians. Being situated in a temperate and healthful climate, with the greatest natural facilities for communication abroad, with a soil of amazing fertility, they constitute a region of country as well adapted to the residence, support, improvement, and happiness of man, as any equal portion of the globe. Their present population is 2,969,696, being only 12.6 to a square mile. (See tables 1 and 3.) Of the 178,666,672 acres of land in those States, (excluding Indian lands, as above,) 72,€93,414 acres, or 40 per cent., have already passed into private ownership, by sales, grants, or reserves; leaving 105,- Of the actual growth of trade, it is impossible to speak 923,258 acres in the hands of the Federal Government. In with equal precision, although some valuable data for an the settlement and value of this land, the National Treasury estimate may be found in the appended tables. (See tables has a deep interest, as may be seen in the fact that it has 7, 8, and 9.) So great has been the influx of emigrants, already received the sum of $72,214,932 from the actual that it is only within three or four years that large portions sale of 52,166,414 acres in these States. (See table 2.) of this district, the best adapted for wheat, have ceased to The land in private ownership gives 24.5 acres to each in- import bread-stuffs, and it is but just now that the actual habitant, and is more by 11,771,414 acres than all the land pressure of a surplus of these products begins to be felt upon in Great Britain and Ireland that is capable of cultivation. the general market of the country; barely suggesting to the (See tables 3 and 5.) The land actually sold by the Go-wisest forecast what is to be. Let the estimate of the future vernment may be regarded as all bought for cultivation, and be formed in view of the tables, and of the facts, that the exceeds by more than five millions the quantity now under soil is as fertile as any other, with a smaller proportion of cultivation in the United Kingdom. The sales in the last waste land, from rocks, mountains, or swamps, than in any eight years are 31,759,666 acres, being only two and a region of equal extent; that there are no barrens; that both quarter millions less than the land now cultivated in the soil and climate are favorable to the production of provisions Island of Great Britain. Of this quantity, 10,068,999 acres, of all kinds, while at least two-thirds of the whole is eminent. or 31 per cent., were sold in the last four years, since the ly adapted to the culture of wheat; that the population is season of speculation was over; which fact, taken in connec- almost exclusively agricultural, with the advantage of owning tion with the vast influx of emigration during the preceding every man his farm in fee-purchased, too, at so low a rate four years, conclusively proves that a much smaller propor- that no probable reduction of prices can bring their lands tion of the land sales of that remarkable period, in these down to the original cost, while cultivation is constantly inStates, was taken for speculation than is generally supposed. creasing their value, instead of turning them to waste, as in At the rate of sales of the whole eight years, the lands in some regions; that the character of the people, for industry, these States would be entirely disposed of in less than twenty skill, education, general intelligence, order, and regard for years; and at the rate of the last four years, the whole would law, is surpassed by few other sections of the world-affordbe sold in seventy-two years. (See table 4.) ing assurance that they will always raise as much produce as they can, if there is a market for it, and will always require as much of the products of other regions, in manufac The whole quantity of land in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland is 77,394,433 acres; of which 46,922,970, or 60.6 per cent., is cultivated; giving an aver-tured goods and other comforts as they can pay for, while age of but 1.88 acre to each inhabitant, of the 27,704,118 supposed to be the present population of those islands. Four VOL. IV.-43 their general integrity and the reign of just laws afford a guaranty that they will not run in debt to buy what they 338 WHEAT PRODUCT OF THE NORTH-WEST. cannot see a way to pay for by the products of their labor. The trade of such a country will be limited only by the physical ability of the people, stimulated to the highest industry by the wants of the most civilized state of society, unless it is clogged by obstructions interposed by the policy of our own or other Governments. Until the year 1805, wheat, chiefly in the form of flour, was the leading article of export from this to foreign countries. The average value for the five years preceding the one named, was $8,205,000. (See table 10.) In that year, cotton reached the value of $9,445,500, and took the precedence of wheat, which it has since maintained. The increase since, in the value of domestic products exported yearly, is about fifty-two millions of dollars, the whole of which is in cotton; while the value of wheat and flour has sunk to the fourth place in the columns of exports. The settlement of the wheat region of the North-West, to such an extent as to begin to furnish a surplus, already increases the export of this product; while the prospect for the future calls upon the philosophic statesman and merchant to look upon this growing interest with the deepest concern. Wheat flour-from its value, its lightness of freight, capability of preservation, and adaptedness to the wants of diflerent countries, as well as the natural indications of the soil and the abundance of water-power, either in that country or along the lines of communication with the sea-board;wheat flour must be the principal reliance of the NorthWest for foreign export, and for the means of paying for articles of necessity or comfort brought from abroad. The more extended introduction of this staple into our foreign trade would not only increase the actual commerce and reve nue to that extent, but would tend to relieve our general monetary interests from the severity of the fluctuations arising from the present almost exclusive reliance upon a single staple. But the most advantageous foreign markets for wheat are grievously obstructed, and rendered so uncertain and fluctuating as to be nearly valueless to the American farmer, by the corn laws of Great Britain and France. The yearly consumption of all kinds of grain in Great Bri- In those ten years, prices ranged from 56s. to 78s. 48.— The commercial effect of this system has been to encourage speculation. The moment a deficiency appears in the slightest degree probable, the grain-dealers naturally withhold their stock on hand from the market; orders are sent to the continent for grain, to be imported in bond, to be entered as soon as the fall of duties will answer; prices are pushed up by all the arts of trade; and, as soon as the duty sinks to the desired rate, (say 6s. 8d.,) the whole stock in bond is The British corn law, as settled in 1828, by the act of 9 enfered for consumption, and thus added to the general stock; Geo. IV, c. 60, is one of the most ingeniously contrived and, if the deficiency proves imaginary, or small, prices fall schemes that can well be imagined, calculated to injure the as rapidly as they rose before, the duty runs up again, and grain-growing interests of other countries, and the grain the speculators have received the whole benefit, Thus a consuming portions of its own people, without, it is believed, gambling character is imparted to trade, as detrimental to a corresponding advantage to the agricultural interest, for commercial morals as to the general prosperity. From July, whose benefit it was intended. The variable scale of duties, 1828, to December, 1838, the quantity entered was 6,788,rising as the price of grain falls, and falling as the price rises, 80 quarters, of which 5,088,946, or 75 per cent., paid is but little understood in this country. The "general aver- duties not exceeding 6s. 8d.; and of this, 3,225,263, or nearly age," as it is called, is declared every Thursday, at the exche- 50 per cent. of the whole quantity, paid only 1s. duty. In quer; and is obtained by first finding the average of all the the year 1837, there were entered for consumption 232,793 grains sold during the week ending on the preceding Satur- quarters wheat, and 40,187 cwt. flour, paying duties to the day, at 150 of the principal towns and markets, and then amount of £356,860. In the year 1858, there were entertaking an average of this with the five last preceding general ed 1,740,806 quarters wheat, and 393,847 cwt. flour-being or! averages; and this last is the declared or general average for more than seven times the quantity of wheat, and nearly ten that week. When the declared average of wheat is 73s. or times the quantity of flour entered the preceding year, payupwards per quarter of 8 bushels, the duty is 1s.; and when ing only £146,533 duties, or less than 50 per cent. ; wherethe price is 52s. or under, the duty is 34s. 8d.; the interme- as, had the rate of duty been equal in both years, the duty diate duties being graduated by a scale, or tariff. (See tables in the latter would have been £2,303,129. From 1st Sep11 and 12.) Wheat and flour may be stored under bond tember, 1838 to 30th November, 1839, duty was paid on for any length of time, without paying duties, and re-export- 4,532.651 quarters wheat, the prices ranging in the time from 61s. 10d. to 81s. 4d., and the duties ranging from 18. ed at pleasure. to 20s. 8d.; but the average of duties was under 3s. 7d.— (See tables 15 and 16.) The object of this complicated arrangement is, first, to pro- The tendency of this system to general impoverishment, and to the increase of misery and discontent among the poorer classes, is already awakening intense observation in Great Britain. The manufactories stop work, because orders do not come from America; and the orders are not sent, because that with which payment might be made to a large amount, will not be received on any just and reasonable terms. The goods are wanted here, and our free industry is abundantly able to produce the means of payment; but the great staple of the North-West is under an interdict. The operatives are thrown out of employment, and reduced to the lowest means of subsistence, and unable to consume a full measure of the products of agriculture, and thousands are made paupers, and become an absolute charge upon the land. The consumption of agricultural products is diminished; the agri cultural laborers share the common distress; and agriculture itself, the very object sought to be benefited by this unnatural arrangement is oppressed by its own protection. It is demonstrable that a well-employed, well-paid, well-fed, prosperous community of operatives would consume and pay for more agricultural products, in addition to the wheat they might import from America, than a depressed and starving community would without the wheat. The best authorities agree that a very large proportion of the misery which we hear of among the factory children is the result of the corn laws; first diminishing the employment and the wages of the parent, and then raising the price of his provisions, until sheer want drives him to sacrifice his children for bread! Thus, while we are wanting goods, (not, indeed, the necessarics of life, but the comforts of civilized and refined life,) our national revenue falling short, and our granaries bursting with abundance, England's mills are standing still, and her poor perishing with hunger. Surely, the common instincts of our na ture, the enlightened and philosophic benevolence which regards human happiness as the great object of human society and government, require a faithful examination of this system by all nations. The question, where Great Britain is to look for supplies of wheat to meet either the occasional though frequent deficiencies of her harvests, arising from her uncertain climate or the regular demand, now not very distant, caused by the increase of population beyond production, is one already exciting the attention of her statesmen and political economists. The Baltic countries are an unsafe reliance, because it is heavy debts,-all incurred for the purpose of making roads, canals, and railways. All these improvements were calculated with reference to the conveyance of the products of the soil to markets out of their borders, and all converging, in effect, towards the great Atlantic sea ports, whence those products should seek a European market. The stocks of these States are greatly discredited,-chiefly, it is believed, through the unfortunate neglect of a well-established axiom in finance, which forbids the creation of a public debt, without a specific pledge of revenue, from taxes or some other source, sufficient to prevent the accumulation of interest.And even now, the States are reluctant to tax themselves, and greatly injuring the credit of the country by delay, because they do not see a fair prospect of sale for the products of their land, which is all they have to sell. And how are they to acquire the means of paying the taxes necessary to sustain these stocks, unless they have a market for their staples? And how are these public improvements ever to pay for themselves, unless the produce of the country can be carried on them? And whither shall it be carried, if there is to be no foreign market? The Federal Government has expended more than a million of dollars in creating artificial harbors on the upper Should it, indeed, come to be settled that there is to be no lakes; and two or three millions more are required to complete them in such a way, that what has been done shall not be destroyed. In addition, harbors are required by the most urgent necessity along the coasts of Lake Michigan, now, for hundreds of miles, entirely destitute of a shelter for shipping. These works are all standing still, because the revenue is short while the tooth of Time is rapidly consuming supposed they have already reached their maximum. Ire- the unfinished constructions. (See table 18.) land, from which large quantities of grain have been brought, foreign market for these products, the fine country under is now in the process of a great moral and social revolution, which, by enabling every peasant to eat his daily bread, will contemplation is not, therefore, to be despaired of. Let the not only furnish a home market for Irish wheat, but, ere mind among the people of the North-West. The same necessity once become apparent, and there will be but one long, create a demand for American flour in exchange for Irish linen. The quantity of wheat brought from Ireland in patriotism which carried our fathers through the self-deny1832 was 552,740 quarters; in 1839, but 90,600 quarters. ing non-importation agreements of the Revolution, will pro(See table 14.) The Black Sea is another source, but the duce a fixed determination to build up a home market, at wheat is of inferior quality; few British goods are taken in every sacrifice. And it can be done. What has been done payment, leaving the balance to be met with specie; the already in the way of manufactures, shows that it can be voyage is long, and wheat very likely to be injured; and the done. The recent application of the hot-blast with anthracost of freight enormously disproportioned-the cost of cite coal to the making of iron, and the discovery of a mine of freight and charges from Odessa being from 16s. to 19s. per could draw to our factories the best workmen of Europe, natural steel, would be auxiliaries of immense value. quarter. The six North-Western States of this Union, with attracted less by the temptation of wages, than by the desire their present products, consumption of goods, and capability of increase, exactly meet the exigency. The examinations to leave liberty and land as the inheritance of their children. made by the persons employed last year in taking the census, But it would take a long time to build up a manufacturing show that the product of wheat in those States, excluding interest, adequate to supply the wants of the North-West, Wisconsin, in the year 1839, was 25,241,607 bushels, equal or to consume the produce of those wide fields; and the burto 8.6 bushels, to each inhabitant; of Indian corn, 87,620,- den of taxation for internal improvements, uncompleted and 868 bushels, or 29.08 to each inhabitant; of other kinds of grain unproductive, would be very heavy and hard to bear; and 19,735,202 bushels, or 10 to each inhabitant; and the total of all the population that is concentrated upon manufactures, all kinds of grain was 48 bushels, to each inhabitant. There is so much kept back from the occupation of that noble docan be nodoubt that the product of 1840 was very much great-main; and the National Treasury would feel the effects of er than this; but there are no means of ascertaining the extent of the increase. In some extensive sections, it has been estimated at one-fourth, and even one-third. The wheat of the whole United States (excepting North Carolina and Kentucky) was 75,995,787 bushels, or 5 bushels to each person; and, of Indian corn, the crop was 301,947,658 bushels, or 20 bushels to each person. (See table 17.) crop If we now turn again to the six North-Western States and Territories of the Union, we shall find that one of the greatest interests of the Nation is the filling up of those countries with a sufficient population to complete the social organization. Without requiring that they should be made as populous as England, with her 294 inhabitants to a square mile, it may be safely assumed that the structure of society will not be rendered complete, in a country so destitute of mountains and waste lands, with a less population than 50 to a square mile; of this number, they now have but a quarter. Any policy, or course of events, which hinders the influx of population, is therefore calculated to protract the period of comparative unorganization. In addition, those States have burdened themselves with We the curtailment of imports and the cessation of land-sales; and the amount of misery which the loss of the American market would occasion to the starving operatives and factory children on the other side of the Atlantic, is worthy to be taken into the account, by every statesman who has not forgotten that he is a man. On the other hand, let it be supposed, for a moment, that the land-holders of England would be satisfied with a fixed and moderate duty, in addition to the protection afforded by the cost of freight and importation, now amounting to 30 per cent. of the nett proceeds. There would then be a constant market for wheat in England, to which the uncommonly uniform climate of the North-West would furnish a constant and full supply; and the whole returns would be required in British manufactured goods, generally of the description that yield the greatest profit. Immediately, orders would go from this country to set every wheel, and spindle, and hammer in motion. Immediately, these States would be willing to tax themselves for the interest of the public debt, because they would see how taxes could be paid. Immediately, the State stocks would rise, because the interest would be secured, with a certainty that 340 WHEAT PRODUCT OF THE NORTH-WEST. the public works would be completed and rendered produc- The demands for the public lands would pour a steady stream into the National Treasury on the one hand; to be met by a deeper current from the imports on the other, furnishing an adequate revenue for the completion of our harbor works and national defences. The exports, no longer confined to a single staple, and drawn from the most productive of all branches of labor-the cultivation of a rich soil that costs next to nothing-would keep foreign exchanges in a healthy state; new ties of mutual advantage, and new inducements to mutual justice, forbearance, and peace, would arise between two nations of common origin, from whose influence the world has so much to hope for; our own manufactures would be left, under their present protection, to a healthy and natural growth with the growth of the country; and our nation would be saved from another tariff controversy, to occupy and embitter the debates of another political generation. Are not these objects worthy of the consideration of American statesmen? May an obscure citizen, who loves his country, be pardoned for his presumption in spreading these imperfect suggestions before the American Senate ? Your memorialist respectfully requests that useful information may be collected and diffused respecting the wheat product of the North-West; the condition and extent of the foreign market now open for American wheat and flour; the obstructions interposed by the regulations of foreign Governments, and the probability of any repeal or modification of those regulations; and that Congress will adopt such measures as shall be deemed wise and proper, to secure an equitable and adequate market for this valuable product. Your memorialist has prepared, from the best materials in his reach, with some labor, a number of tables illustrative of several of the topics in this memoir, which are appended hereto. JOSHUA LEAVITT. TABLE 1. Showing the population of the six new States of the North-West in the years 1810, 1820, 1830 and 1840, with the increase per cent. in each period of ten years. Total 262,324 1,468,092 85 2,970,696 102 In 1838 Wisconsin had 18,149 inhabitants; and Iowa had 22,859. Consequently, Wisconsin has gained, in two years, 12,430, or 69 per cent.; and Iowa has gained, in two years, 20,358, or 90 per cent, TABLE 2. Showing the whole quantity of land in the six North-Western States and Territories, (excepting that covered by Indian titles in Wisconsin and Iowa;) the quantity sold, to January 1, 1841; the amount per cent.; the value, the rate per acre, and the quantity remaining unsold, with the amount per cent. Total.. 178,616,672 2,448,043 1,504,576 $72,214,932 $1 73 Acres, 1,747,258 4,274,700 18,646,960 29,885,315 1 38 105,923,258 59 * The quantity in Ohio includes those reserves which never came into the hands of the United States Government. The quantity and value of the lands sold in the last quarter of the year 1840, are estimated in proportion to the other quarters-that being the mean rate of other years; and the column headed "unsold” is altered to correspond. TABLE 3. Showing the number of square miles of territory in each of the six North-Western States, with the present population to a square mile; and the number of acres of land in the hands of individual owners, and the number to each inhabitant of the lands in private ownership, and of the whole lands. Showing the quantity of public lands sold in the four years, beginning with 1833, in the six North-Western States and Territories, with the per cent. of the original quantity; the quantity sold in the next four years, beginning with 1837, (the last quarter of 1840 being estimated,) with the per cent. of the original quantity, and of the quantity still remaining unsold; and the quantity in eight years, with the per cent. of the quantity now unsold. Showing the whole number of acres of land in Great Britain and Ireland; the number of acres cultivated, capable of cultivation, and incapable of cultivation, with the centesimal proportions of each; and the quantity of cultivated land to each inhabitant, according to the (estimated) population of 1841. * Of the cultivated land, 40 per cent., or 19,135,995 acres, is arable land. In 1800, it was estimated that the land cultivated in England was 2.31 acres to each inhabitant; in 1826, 2 acres; in 1836, 1.8; and 1841, 1.68; or a little more than an acre and two-thirds to each inhabitant. The annual value of the uncultivatable lands for other objects, is set at £5,000,000. The population for 1841 is estimated, by allowing the same ratio of increase from 1831, as was found in the preceding 10 years. |