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O O M M E R C I A L.
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O O M M E R C I A L.
O O M M E R C I A L .
Untitled Article
UNITED STAIES- ^ Fltf ANCE . We were summoned last week , by the publication of the French budget , to notice the financial condition of France , and this week we are required , by the President ' s Message , to perform the same office for the United States . No mystification or " cookery" of accounts is attributed to him ; and all his figures are implicitly relied on . Unfortunately , the Republican Government , like its monarchical rivals , has not known how to keep its expenses down to its income , and . is now imitating the spendthrifts of Europe by running in debt . This is a new p hasis in its latter life ; for , unlike them , it actually paid off its debts , aud its revenue was so large that speculations were rife in the States as to the mode in which the surplus should
be appropriated . Two years ago , in consequence , the rates of the tariff were lowered , taxation was remitted , the Government was encouraged by a plethora of wealth in carelessness and extravagance ; then came the commercial convulsion of 1857 ; the revenue of 1858 declined ; the Government could not immediately contract its expenses , and the consequence is that for the first time for several years it has again run into debt . It still shows , however , a very striking and favourable contrast in this respect to the two Governments of Europe with which it can best be compared .
The total unredeemed debt of this country , funded and unfunded , was , on the 1 st of March , 1858 , within a few pounds , 806 , 000 , 000 / . The funded debt of France is 348 , 000 , 000 / . ; the unfunded debt is stated to be 28 , 000 ^ 00 0 / . , but this is below the mark . The debt of the United States , according to Mr . Buchanan ' s statement , is now actually 59 , 910 , 777 dols ., equal to about 11 , 000 , 000 / . This includes Treasury notes as well as stock , or floating as well as funded debt , and is a mere fraction—though the resources of the nation are indefinitely great—of the mighty debt of either of the two monarchies . And lest we . should be
reminded that each of the Federal states has a debt of its own , let us add that almost every county , and every town , and many parishes of ^ England , have large debts , while the future produce of industry here is mortgaged to a large extent to the clergy of a particular creed . We put this contrast prominently forward because we do not feel called on to become the advocates of the Government of the United States . On the contrary , we see with alarm- —knowing how much the hopes of mauldnd have been centred on it- ^ -that it has of late been stigmatised as excessively corrupt , and has undoubtedly become very unnecessarily extravagant .
17 , 710 , 114 dols . of this sum were a balance which was in the Treasury on June 30 , 1857 , aud 23 , 716 , 300 dollars were borrowed in the course of the year . The produce of the customs duties , of the land sales , and of miscellaneous receipts on the actual revenue was only 46 , 557 , 569 dollars against 68 , 965 , 000 dollars in 1 S 56-7 . So low as in 1858 the revenue has not sunk since 1850 , and the Government therefore would probably have had to borrow had it been even as economical as it was extravagant . With the loan of 23 , 716 , 000 dollars and the large balance in the Treasury last year , the balance for the year ended last June was only 6 , 398 , 310 dollars . At the same time the revenue
has not recovered . The customs duties in the quarter ended September 30 th amounted to 13 , 444 , 520 dollars , against 18 , 573 , 729 in the same quarter last year . The estimated expenditure of the year now commenced is 74 , 065 , 896 dollars , and the estimated revenue , including a further loan of 20 , OOOjOOO dollars , which the Government is authorised to negotiate and one-half of which it has already borrowed , is only 81 , 129 , 194 dollars . So that next June , after borrowing in all 43 , 000 , 000 dollars in the two years , there will only be in the Treasury a balance of 7 , 063 , 298 dollars . With all deference to the statesmen of America , this is very bad husbandry , and we apprehend that if they continue in such a career , they will bring the Republican Government into as many difficulties as surround all the monarchical Governments of Europe .
Mr . Buchanan says , " No statesman would advise that we should go on increasing the national debt to meet the ordinary expenses of the Government . This would be a most ruinous policy . " He calls on the CongresSj therefore , now to make provision for the expenditure of the Government for the present year and for the fiscal year 1859-60 ; and recommends an increase of customs duties , preferring special or fixed to ad valorem duties , which permit much fraud . At the same time he calls on all parties in their
respective spheres to practise the " most rigid economy , " and invites the Congress to " institute a rigid scrutiny whether the expenses -in , all the departments cannot be still further reduced . " He is sensible , then , of the impolicy of the present course , and would fain alter it , if the multitude of office-holders and expectants of office will allow him . Were he a younger man he might succeed , but he has already alienated from him many of his supporters ; his party is dwindling away , and he will have to leave to some successor the task of
devising a plan which shall secure additional revenue with decreasing expenditure . / It may probably be considered fortunate , but it is a fact , that the founders of the American constitution have no ! provided any suitable means for securing it a revenue . It is . authorised to sell land , and in imitation of the Governments of Europe , which sought to regulate trade by customs , to levy customs duties . But experience has shown that these divert trade from its ordained channels . If levied on articles of which none are or can be produced in the States—such as tea and coffee—which are very few , and which have been hitherto exempt from auty , they must be very high or the revenue will be insufficient . If levied on
Between 1850-53 inclusive , the average expenditure of the Government was 45 , 000 , 000 dollars j jn the financial year 1857-8 , which closed on June 30 th , it Was 81 , 585 , 667 dollars , and the yearly expense had increased therefore 36 , 000 , 000 dollars in five years . Within this period it has been engaged in no war but that against the Mormons , and the chief source of the increase is the multiplication of office holders . Mr . Buchanan , much to the delight of the Times and other advocates of extravagance , says that " comparisons between the expenditure
All tariffs have such an effect ; and though they be only called for , as in this case , by the wanton or contemptible extravagance of governments , winch exist only to protect , the interests ol mankind , they are passed gene rally with as much indifference , and assailed , too , with as much satisfaction , as if they were , like the cultivation of the earth , essential to human welfare . The bearings of such subjeets on the commerce of every nation , and oi tlie whole nations of the world , are not sufficiently considered , or commerce is too much slighted , fcucii a reflection makes us direct especial attention to
Europe , to appropriate to its own uses the pronertv of the people ; and therefore we think it fortunate for the world that its authors gave it no o'her means of raising a revenue than by import duties which are at once unsuitable to the condition of the Americans , and liked by only a very few of the people . It will be made economical in spite of itself The Government , however , has no other means of covering the deficit , and concludes that a modification of the tariff is necessary . Mr . Cobb , after reviewing the several objections made to the present system of ad valorem duties , decides contrary to Mr . Buchanan ' s wish to continue this planand
, recommends the duties on the articles contained in Schedules C , D , F , G , H of the tariff , to be raised respectively to 25 , 20 , 15 , 10 , and 5 per cent . This alteration he calculates will give an increase to the customs revenue of 1 , 800 , 000 dollars , He may find , like Sir F . Baring in 1839 , that 5 per cent , on the rate , is not more than 2 per cent , on the yield . To raise the additional amount required , he is to select certain articles and transfer
them from the lower to the higher schedules , taking care " to make such selections as will best promote the various interests of the country without doing injustice to any . " With such a tariff as that of the United States this is impossible , and wo can only expect that , as trade extends , the Government will again get involved in numerous difficulties . The people of New York , who have borne the brunt of the late convulsion , are resolved , it is said ,
to oppose the alterations of the tariff . We sec in books and newspapers a just appreciation of its effects on the country , and we do not believe that the Federal Governmenrhas of late so advanced in public estimation that all classes will be extremely willing to submit to inconvenience and loss to increase its revenue . The consequence , let us further say , of thie alteration in the tariff , will be to disturb and injure the trado between America and all other countries .
the subject in this part of our paper . It must riot be inferred from the temporary decline in the revenue of the Government . that the prosperity of the people is lit ah end . It is entway the consequence of the commercial convulsion of 1857 , which began in the States and fas far more serious there than in any other country . It was the collapse from prodigious inflation , ln ™ ° fr . it was merclv an ajustmont of accounts , a reduc ion « f A «» m ?/» ili # > actual amount of ( roods to answer tne
it ; and though the people of New W , American shipping , and many persons suffered ^ tcm porary cvils-Juflercd from failed ¦ pe « Wg £ and acceived hones-though many ™ \ W" * f t £ been deemed fortunes turned put to be losses , imor was no general decline in the n ^ ional progres » . The sufferings and losses fell chiefly on «» o »» «« speculative traders and their immediate coupon s Some protected industries too , such aa < tnoso cotton and iron , suffered . Bu the butt ^ JM people , the great ootto ^ growing , food-g » wxnff , fancUearing , and othergreat »» d ^^ S a , ul unprosperous . From this we learn I ° * f ™ ' * 1 l cia 3 S unjust it is for the Government to rely on one «¦ from which to collect a revenue , and on on ° D ™" ho learn too W »»
now and ten or twenty years ago are altogether fallacious . " Additions of territory and increase of population make sqme ., additional expenditure unavoidable ; but rapid as is the increase of people in the States , they have not increased at the rate of eighty per cent , in five years . As the Stated have no colonies nor territories to maintain against an antagonistic nation , such a rapid increase of expenditure seems wholl y unjustifiable . Twenty years ago , when the expenditure was not more than a third of its present amount—we have Mr . Buchanan ' s
testiartieles made or produced in the country , the whole sum taken from the consumer does not go into the Treasury . " The consumer , " says Mr . Secretary Cobb , " pays the enhanced value not only on the quantity imported but on the quantity made in the country . Tlie tax is paid not to the Treasury but to the manufacturer , rendering such a duty not only more burdensomo but grossly unequal , the home producer being boneAtcd at the expense of the consumer . " Moreover , as these duties are
mony to the faot— the Government was efficient aud the country prosperous ; and now , when the Government has entered into a career of wild extravagance , he informs us that money ia used to carry elections ; of course , because success has for the candidates-- " by'bestowing on them influence over the Treasurya money value , and he is filled with apprehensions for tlie future fate of his country . Lot him and other American politicians take to heart his own warning and not yield to the extravagance , nor encourage the corruption he justly dreads . ^ To meet the expenditure of 1358—81 , 585 , 607 dols . — -the actual means were 87 . 983 , 983 dols . J but
levied rather on luxuries than on necessaries , they increase rapidly when the people aro prosperous , and fall off as rapidly when they are , otherwise . Such duties , as wo have seen in the oase of tlie United States , flood the Treasury with wealth in one year an 4 leave it nearly empty tlio next . They are , consequently , an unreliable source of revenue . Though , popular with the few whom they enrich , they arc too extremely unpopular with the many . The Republican Government is dearly disposed , like tbo monarchical governments of
Ofbusineasto yield it . We , . Of business to yield it . we »?» " •» . ^ i " BOple decline of the Government revenue , while Jo pgp , . continued to increase and extend over y ** ^ . tories , that they Prosper rather ui smtooi i »« k vernment thau by its aid . Those w ) io would * to model the institutions of Europe on the gw tions of America , seem to forgot tUafc . 5 t « rritory tiona can give to industry an unoccup ed term jpraotically boundless , , anil to a people » Dlging fnduBtry praotically skilful and unwearied w »«* *> wealth .
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1424 ^______ THE LEADER . [ No . 457 , December 24 , 1858 . 1
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 24, 1858, page 1424, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2274/page/24/
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