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Date: 1835-01-26
By: Upper Canada (House of Assembly)
Citation: Upper Canada, First Report, from the Select Committee Appointed to inquire into the state of the Trade and Commerce of the Province of the Province of Upper Canada (R. Stanton, 1835).
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FIRST REPORT,

FROM THE

SELECT COMMITTEE

Appointed to inquire into the state of the

TRADE AND COMMERCE

OF THE

PROVINCE OF UPPER CANADA.

R. STANTON PRINTER

ORDERS OF REFERENCE

“On motion of Mr. MACKENZIE, seconded by Mr. ROBLIN, —Ordered,  that a special Committee be appointed to inquire into the state of the trade and commerce of this Province with other parts of the world; and to consider whether any, and if any, what alterations and improvements should be made therein: that the Committee do consist of Messieurs Durand, Shaver, Mackenzie, McMicking, and James Wilson; that they be intrusted with power to send for persons and papers and records, and with permission to report to the House by address or otherwise; and that to this Committee be referred His Excellency’s Message accompanying Mr. Secretary Rice’s Despatch on grain and flour.”

Truly extracted from the Minutes of the 26th January, 1835.

JAMES FITZGIBBON,
Clerk of Assembly.

“Ordered, that the petition of George Hamilton be referred to the Committee on trade, to report thereon by bill or otherwise; and also the petition of Moses Willson.”

Truly extracted from the Minutes of the 21st February, 1835.

JAMES FITZGIBBON,
Clerk of Assembly.

“Ordered, that the petition of William Johnson and others, praying for a Post Office, be referred to the Committee on trade, to report thereon.”

Truly extracted from the Minutes of the 3rd March, 1835.”

JAMES FITZGIBBON,
Clerk of Assembly.

“Ordered, that the petition of William Cunningham and others, on the subject of a Loan Office, be referred to the Committee on trade, with power to send for persons and papers, and to report by bill or otherwise.”

Truly extracted from the Minutes of the l9th February, 1835.

JAMES FITZGIBBON,
Clerk of Assembly.

FIRST REPORT,

FROM THE

SELECT COMMITTEE

Appointed to inquire into the state of the 

TRADE AND COMMERCE

OF THE

PROVINCE OF UPPER CANADA.

MEMBERS OF THE COMMITTEE:

Mr. James Wilson—Chairman
Mr. Mackenzie,
Mr. Shaver,
Mr. McMicking, and
Mr. Durand.

The Select Committee appointed to inquire into the condition of the Trade and Commerce of this Province with other parts of the world, and to consider whether any, and if any, what alterations and improvements should be made therein, and to whom was referred His Excellency’s Message sent down with Mr. Secretary Rice’s Despatch on grain and flour, and the petitions of certain Inhabitants of this Province, complaining that at a time when a great part of the population are involved in debt to an alarming extent for lands they have purchased, a great and unexpected depression has taken place in the prices of agricultural produce, and praying for such relief as

[Page V]

it may be within the power of the Legislature to extend—have made some progress in the investigation of the matters referred to them, and agreed to the following as a first report: —

The case submitted to your Committee by the petitions of the proprietors of the soil, is one of severe distress, affecting those interests of this country which are of a fixed and permanent nature, as compared with the usual objects of commercial enterprise, and which would require the early and careful consideration of the House, and the efficient co-operation of the Government to lessen and alleviate.

With a view of ascertaining the extent of the depression under which wheat and flour, the chief staple commodities, raised for exportation, have fallen in the Montreal market, your Committee put the following question to fifteen of the Members of the House, practical farmers, residing in various parts of the Province.

“What is the average cost of production of twenty bushels of merchantable wheat in your county, (without taking into consideration, or making a charge for interest on capital invested in the land)?”

The result of these calculations was as follows:

*Please consult the PDF for the table*

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The average result is £2 15s. 11 ½ d., or two shillings and nine pence halfpenny per bushel. —On the shores of Lake Ontario, it ranges from half a dollar to three shillings: Eastward, in Glengarry and the Ottawa, it rises from three shillings to three shillings and nine pence; and Westward, in the Gore and London Districts, falls to between half a dollar and two shillings of our currency.

The price paid by the merchants in Toronto and the County of York, during the present winter, is from 2s. 6d. to 3s.; and the cost of conveyance of a bushel of wheat from hence to Montreal, in summer, is from fourteen to fifteen pence. The prices there have ranged between 4s. and 4s. 6d. during the last half year, and there is very little prospect of improved prices. The cost of conveyance is increased from the London District, so as to counterbalance the superior productiveness of the soil; and although there is less expense of freight and charges between Montreal the Ottawa and Glengarry, yet the natural disadvantages of climate under which the Eastern Districts labor, seem to place them but on a level as to prices, with the country near Lake Erie.

Mr. Cawthra, a merchant of extensive dealings here, stated in evidence before your Committee, that the expense of conveying a bushel of wheat from Cobourg or Toronto to Montreal, was 1s. 2d. to 1s. 3d.; from Prescott to Montreal 9d.; and from Kettle Creek, on Lake Erie, 1s. 7d.

The immediate cause of distress is thus shown to be an inadequacy of return; the chief product of the soil does not now obtain, in any market, foreign or domestic, a price which replaces to the

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producer the cost of production, nor is there a return of interest on the capital originally invested, either in buying and clearing of waste lands, or in the purchase of improved estates.

Your Committee have not made a very minute inquiry as to the values of ashes, beef, pork, and other staple exports, although it is a well known fact, that they do not bring to the agriculturist a remunerating price for his capital and labor.

The average last season, at Quebec, for pearl ashes was about 25s. 6d. the cwt., and for pots, 24s.; pork was met in that market by a supply from Ireland, and the prices fell in consequence.[1] Lumber appears to have been the only staple which commanded favorable prices, but there are many sections of the Province which receive little or no benefit from it as an export to places abroad.[2] Although 1122 vessels, measuring 315,803 tons, arrived last year at Quebec, the greater number being for cargoes of lumber, yet there is such an uncertainty as to the course the British Government may pursue with regard to the discriminating duty in favor of American timber, that the disposition to embark capital in that very precarious article of traffic is much lessened of late years.

Another cause of distress is to be found in the restrictions laid on the trade of the Colony, and the disadvantages under which the land owners and merchants labor, as compared with the same classes on the opposite frontier.[3]

Laws for the regulation of our trade and commerce are enacted in the Parliament of the United Kingdom,[4] and continually changed and varied without our being consulted for our interest, although

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the value of our labor and property is unduly affected by this ever varying system of Legislation.[5]

In the United States, the different sections of the several States are fairly and equally represented, according to their numbers, in the body which[6] regulates their commerce, and thereby raises or depresses the value of their industry and estates.

By the fiscal regulations of Great Britain, affecting the commerce of Upper Canada, customs duties are ordered to be levied at our shipping places, of 7 ½, 15, 20, and even 30 per cent on the value of imported articles of the first necessity to an agricultural community, if those articles are not imported from England or some of her Colonies; but if imported from England or her Colonies, they are only subject to 2 ½ per cent. on the £100. value, and in some cases are duty free.[7]

Some articles of general utility are prohibited to be imported unless in British ships, or from a British port.[8]

Our trade by sea is carried on almost exclusively in British shipping, and for the advantage of capitalists residing in Europe.

Although it is obviously the most convenient and suitable for us to raise a revenue for state purposes, by customs duties levied on articles of foreign growth, or manufacture of a like kind with those which form the staple commodities produced and manufactured in this Province; and although England regulates our trade so as to protect her manufactures[9] against all foreign competition in our markets, yet it is declared by

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the Imperial Acts of late years, that heavy duties shall be charged on the importation of those foreign articles which we require but do not produce, while the importation of the staple commodities of the neighboring Republic, being the same as ours, shall be duty free.

England claims an exclusive monopoly in our markets; she allows us none in hers; [See Note to page 49.] Our beef and pork are prohibited in her home dominions, and our pot and pearl ashes subject to the same rates of duty at London or Liverpool as the pot and pearl ashes of the south shores of Erie and Ontario. The shipping of Great Britain, at Quebec, give no preference to timber, live stock, flour, beef and pork, brought from Upper Canada, over the same articles brought from the United States:—if we sell cheapest they buy from us, not otherwise.[10]

By the ninth section of an Act of the Imperial Parliament, passed on the 28th of August, 1833, which has not been placed on our Statute book,[11] and which, it is probable, that not one in a hundred of our population ever heard of (the 3rd and 4th of Wm. the 4th, chap. 59,) it is enacted, that United States wheat, wheat flour, beef and pork, may be imported into the Canadas either by sea or inland navigation, free of duty; as also, that the wheat, wheat flour, beef and pork, thus brought into competition with ours, may be shipped at Quebec; in British ships only, to any part of the British

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West Indies, there to be admitted on the same terms as the like produce of Upper Canada is admitted. United States flour may be sent to Halifax or St. Johns in British ships; there it is warehoused duty free for exportation to the British West Indies.[12] The monopoly is all in favor of England and the United States.

By an Act of Congress passed in July 1832, wheat, wheat flour, beef and pork, ashes, and all other articles, the staple produce of the Canadas, are subject to a tax of £15. on every £100. value, if imported into any port of the United States; Congress choosing to levy duties for the purposes of revenue rather on those foreign articles of which the United States produce an abundance, than on articles of necessity, which come not in competition with the industry of their citizens. Adhering to this principle, the same act authorises the importation into the ports of the Union free from duty, of tea, coffee, pepper, ginger, mace, nutmegs, currants, raisins, camphor, flax, tin in plates and sheets, drugs, dye-woods, grapes, &c., and the consequence is, that tea and such other articles of general use, as are cheaper beyond the lines than in this Colony, are, in many instances, imported clandestinely, by a population who never assented to the Legislative Acts whereby tea was prohibited to be bought at the cheapest market.[13]

We are necessarily confined to the markets of the United Kingdom and its Colonies, as the markets for our produce, for were we to attempt to extend our trade with other countries, the protecting duties imposed by England in favor of her own merchandise, would prevent the importation of foreign goods in exchange.[14]

In the documents appended to this report, your Committee have taken considerable pains to show the actual state of the trade of Canada, the extent of the tariff and prohibitions and protections here referred to, and the arguments adduced on behalf

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of their respective theories, by those in America and in England who advocate the doctrines of free trade,[15] as well as those who give a preference to the Colonial system,[16] with its chain of monopolies; reference has been had to Legislative proceedings and official accounts, made up in the Colonies, Great Britain, and the United States, in order that parties interested might, by having placed before them a collection of facts bearing on the important questions before your Committee, be able to arrive at just conclusions.

But although a depression of prices and the restrictions which injuriously affect our commerce are, perhaps, the more immediate causes of the agricultural embarrassment which now prevails, and which is bringing many persons within the vortex of a tedious, costly, and ruinous series of lawsuits, with very little hope of being able to extricate themselves from the meshes of the Courts of civil jurisdiction, there are other causes of commercial and agricultural distress equally deserving of the notice of the Legislature, and perhaps more fully within its power to remedy.

Unless the taxes and rates which are raised from the people are laid out with care and prudence for their benefit, that advantage which good government would confer, is not shared by the community. In Upper Canada, a large sum is annually raised by district rates, fees, assessments on uncultivated lands, and other local taxation, which is not well accounted for, and in many instances not judiciously expended.

Again, the proceeds of the sales of Clergy Reserves paid into the military chest, and incorporated with the finances of Great Britain, serve to impoverish the farming classes here. If one farmer

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sell land to another, the parties being both resident among us, the public wealth receives no diminution, but the proceeds of the sales of the Clergy Reserves are very unjustly taken out of the country altogether, while the clergy of a few are thrown upon the protection of the whole population, and a large sum annually, illegally, applied to their maintenance.

Another injurious and unconstitutional scheme, whereby a vast sum is annually drawn from the labor of the hard working farmer, is, the Canada Company, an association of European mercantile speculators in those waste lands of the Colony to which the industry of the settled population had given value, but which had been constantly refused when they applied to the local authorities as intending purchasers. We are of opinion, that this monopoly is one of the greatest drawbacks upon the agricultural and commercial prosperity of the Colony—that its formation was an act of injustice and oppression—and that every possible legal effort should be made to root it out of the country.

Our commercial prosperity is retarded, and emigrants of wealth, talent and enterprise, induced to avoid our shores, by the knowledge they have, that men in whom the public would have confidence, cannot, and will not be placed in those situations of power and trust, where they might check misrule and punish the authors of it. Unless the Legislature is enabled to assume the control of the whole public revenue, from whatever source derived, and unless the nature of the Government is such, that all public officers can be made accountable, on this side of the Atlantic, for their official conduct, those principles of economy and retrenchment, on the operation of which the whole fabric of domestic prosperity and successful

[Page xiii]

competition in foreign commerce would safely rest, cannot possibly prevail. There is no question but that under a better order of things, the expenses of our canals and public undertakings, and of the Government itself, would be greatly diminished, the difference would go back among the agriculturists to encourage them to new exertions, and our public debt, like that of Lower Canada and the United States, would be annihilated.[17]

The Legislative Council of this Colony have greatly augmented the difficulties with which the British and Colonial Governments have to contend, by the obstinacy with which they have thrice refused to agree, to the proposals, first made by Lower Canada, under the Government of Sir James Kempt, that Commissioners should be appointed on the part of Upper Canada, to meet Commissioners who had been appointed by law in Lower Canada, to consult on the state of trade, and other matters of mutual interest to both Colonies.[18] Thrice was a bill sent up by the Assembly, in different sessions, and different Parliaments, word for word with that which had received the royal assent in the Sister Colony; but the Council would pass no bill whatever, unless it contained a clause that (while the Assembly had nominated the Commissioners in Lower Canada) the Lieutenant Governor should select the Commissioners here. Had the bill passed into a law, the joint deliberation of Commissioners possessing the confidence of the two Canadas, would have most probably resulted in the recommendation of measures to the British and Canadian Legislatures of great importance to our

[Page xiv]

commercial welfare; —as it is, the country remains comparatively, poor, and the land-owners, whether resident or non-resident, suffer severely.

Having called the attention of the House to some of the causes of the distress complained of by the farmers, your Committee proceed respectfully to submit to its consideration some practical measures for their relief.

Until England shall give to her colonists a monopoly in her markets, she cannot be held entitled to a monopoly of ours. If she resorts to the United States for those articles she finds to be cheapest there, why should not we do so also ?

Our consumption of foreign and British Colonial merchandize is far greater, in proportion to our population, than that of those northern States of the Union whom she admits to equal advantages with us in her markets.[19] Compare the duties imposed on British, and British Plantation rum, raw and refined sugars, wollens, cottons, silks, hardware, cutlery, &c. in the ports of Boston, New-York, Buffalo, or Oswego, with the charges levied on their importation at Quebec or Montreal, —they are in some cases four-fold—in very many instances, ten-fold greater in the former.

In what do we receive an equivalent? —We receive none.

Your Committee submit a resolution, which is, in substance and effect, to follow the example set us by Great Britain, and to allow the distressed agriculturists of this Colony to buy in the markets of the Union, free of duty, those articles which do not come in competition with their industry; are of immediate necessity; and cheaper than at Montreal.

[Page xv]

To repeal so much of the Imperial Act of 1833, would perhaps be the most direct way of attaining this object; but to this course, some may entertain objections. That we have the power, however, to appropriate the monies raised in taxation, is not doubted; —it is a sacred trust reposed in us, to apply the public revenue in the way that would be most conducive to the general welfare.[20] The resolutions reported herewith embody the opinions of your Committee on this subject.

The article of salt is manufactured in small quantities in the Province, but the chief supplies are from Onondaga. A bounty is granted on the exportation of this necessary article by New York State; and your Committee submit resolutions for the repeal of the Provincial Act under which salt is taxed, and the farmers on this side the great lakes obliged to compete on unequal terms in Montreal and Quebec with their brethren across the lines, whose salted beef and pork enter these markets duty-free.

Another means whereby the payment of the debt due by Canada might be ensured, is the taxing of the stock of joint stock Banks. It is evident that these institutions are making great annual profits in the midst of the general distress; and it appears unjust to allow capital invested in the transient concerns of Banking, to augment, without contributing to the expense of the government which protects its operations, while the houses and lands and cattle of the agriculturist, and even his salt, are taxed.

The advantages that would be conferred by the adoption of the course suggested by your

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Committee, on the families settled in this Province, and employed in agriculture, are plain and obvious. They would be enabled to purchase much cheaper than they do now, those articles of comfort and necessity which few families can do without.—It would be as if two rival stores had been opened in a township where there was but one before. After carefully considering the consumption of the articles proposed to be admitted free of duty, your Committee estimated that £5 to £20 would be saved yearly to a large number of the families in this Province, by following the example of England and buying in the cheapest market. The Lower Province would scarcely complain of an experiment intended to relieve Upper Canada, and to enable her population to increase those surplus products, the outlet for which is the St. Lawrence; or if she did complain, the remedy would be for her to follow our example and take off the duties on the same articles, whether imported from England, the West India Colonies, or the United States. It cannot be shewn that British commerce would suffer by such a course of Legislation.

Another remedial measure would be the passage of a law for raising a revenue by imposing moderate duties on imports from the United States, of flour, wheat, ashes, pork, beef, live stock, lumber, horses, and such other articles as come directly into competition with the staple products of this Colony; said duties to continue, at least until Congress shall remove the restrictions which have hitherto prevented the exportation, to the United States, of Canadian wheat, flour, provisions, lumber, &c., when that country would have afforded the best market for these articles. The sum likely to accrue from the passage of such a law, would, in part, prevent that decrease of revenue

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which might by some be brought forward as an objection to the proposition for the removal of certain other duties which injuriously effect the Colonists. The question of the expediency of raising a revenue from United States imports of wheat, flour, live stock, &c., has, however, been referred to the consideration of another Committee.

The system of bonding merchandize, and making up assorted cargoes of foreign and domestic goods, duty free, for foreign countries, if it were permitted at Quebec and Montreal to the same extent and in the same way in which it is authorised at New York and Boston, would greatly increase the trade of these ports, and add to the commercial prosperity of both Canadas.[21]

The cost of collecting the duties levied on imports from the United States, is unreasonably high; the system under which £100 can be retained for collecting another £100 being united to the powers vested in the Government to increase the number of collectors and ports of entry at pleasure, requires revision. From the official returns to the House, it appears that twenty Collectors of customs collected last year £2117 and kept back £1059 out of it, for their trouble.

The appointment, by resolution, of three Members, of this House to proceed to Montreal, after the session has closed, and confer with any three Members whom the House of Assembly of Lower Canada may in like manner appoint, to consult on matters of trade,[22] and other matters of mutual importance to both Provinces, would be a very useful measure.

Although more than a million sterling, has been expanded in the construction of an uninterrupted

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inland navigation, by the way of the Rideau, between this Province and the port of Montreal, it was the opinion of the House of Assembly, that another route had already become necessary; and at great expense and with borrowed funds the Province has commenced the improvement of the navigation of the Saint Lawrence upon a very extensive scale; a steam boat canal 100 feet wide at bottom, 200 feet at the surface, and 9 feet deep, with locks 200 feet in length, and 50 in width, is in progress; 11 miles are under contract; upwards of £30,000. have been expended, but no part is finished.[23] If this canal shall be completed on the scale on which it was begun, it will involve Upper Canada far deeper in debt, although the advantages will be shared by the sister Colony, and especially by her grand commercial emporiums, Quebec and Montreal. Lower Canada has contributed a very small part of the expenditure of the canal navigation of this Colony, although she is entirely out of debt, and possessed of a vast and greatly increasing revenue. The Commissioners whose appointment has been suggested, might do much towards bringing about a better understanding between the two Provinces in matters of this kind.

Another means of alleviating the existing distress is already adopted by the House, in the disposition, its votes have sanctioned, of the proceeds of the Clergy Reserves.

The extension of the trade of a country is not a true test of its happiness. Britain has a foreign commerce greater than any other nation, yet, owing to a long continuance of bad government and oppressive taxation, millions of her population are in poverty and want: Ireland exports immense

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quantities of her domestic products;[24] yet is she grievously impoverished, and coercion bills and thirty thousand armed men are found necessary to prevent her population from rising against the authorities, even in a time of profound peace. The documents appended show that one of the chief causes of that commercial and agricultural distress by which the British West Indies have so severely suffered, can be traced to the folly and extravagance of their Local Governments, too long sanctioned by the Colonial Office.[25]

The abolition of the Canada Company, an illegal and injurious association, if at all practicable, or the taxation to the full extent of the lands so unjustly placed at its disposal, would be of great importance, as a means of lessening that perpetual drain upon the amount of cash circulating in the Colony, of which the people continue to complain.

Above all, it is essential to the welfare of Upper Canada, that the House should insist, that the whole public revenue raised within it might be henceforth at its disposal, to be applied only according to law; and that those Officers, whose duty it is to preside over the several departments of the Government, should be the responsible advisers of the Lieutenant Governor, and hold their offices only for such periods as their proceedings might obtain for them the confidence of the representatives of the people.

JAMES WILSON, Chairman.
WM. L. MACKENZIE,
PETER SHAVER,
GILBERT McMICKING,
JAMES DURAND,

Extract from the Journal of the House of Assembly of U. Canada. (Page 25, printed copy.)

29^th JANUARY, 1829

The House in Committee on the Message of His Excellency the Lieutenant Governor, relative to the joint Resolution of the Legislative Council and Assembly of Lower Canada.

The following Resolutions were unanimously agreed to:

“Resolved. —That this House receive, with peculiar satisfaction, the communication of His Excellency the Lieutenant Governor, of the 23^rd instant, with a copy of a despatch from His Excellency Sir James Kempt, relative to the joint Resolution of the Legislative Council and House of Assembly of Lower Canada, respecting the appointment of Commissioners on the part of that Province, to meet other Commissioners on the part of Upper Canada, to treat of, and report up on various matters of common concern to both Provinces, respecting the imposing and collecting duties on importation; the improvement of the navigation of the rivers Saint Lawrence and Ottawa, and roads of communication: and that this House do highly appreciate the assurance of His Excellency Sir James Kempt, of his approval of this important object.

“Resolved. —That this House is fully impressed with the importance of cordial co-operation with the sister Province, in all matters of mutual interest.

“Resolved. —That a bill be brought in for the appointment of three Commissioners, for the purpose of carrying into effect, in the most liberal manner, the object of the said joint Resolution of the Legislature of Lower Canada.

“Resolved. —That a message be sent to the Honorable the Legislative Council, communicating the foregoing Resolutions, and to request their concurrence therein.”

RESOLUTIONS

REPORTED BY

The Select Committee on Trade and Commerce

1^st. —Resolved. That in order to afford relief to the Cultivators of the Soil, who are now laboring under great distress, owing to the low prices of the staple articles of domestic produce, it is expedient, that on the following articles, when imported from the United States into Upper Canada, for home consumption, there be granted to the Importers, for one year from the first of May next, a bounty or draw-back, equal in amount to the whole of the duties row levied under the authority of an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, (3 & 4 of William the 4th, chapter 59.) passed on the 28th of August, 1833, and entitled, “An Act to regulate the Trade of the British Possessions abroad,” viz: —

*Please consult the PDF for the table*

2^nd. —Resolved. That it is expedient that the fifth section of an Act passed in the tenth Parliament of this Province, on the sixth day of March, 1830, entitled, “An Act for the relief of the sufferers who sustained loss during the late war with the United States of America,” by which a duty is imposed on salt, should be repealed.

3^rd. —Resolved. That if the duties now charged on the above articles when imported by sea, and on salt imported at Quebec, were remitted during the year, commencing in May next, a very seasonable relief would be obtained for the Agriculturists of Upper Canada.

4^th. —Resolved. That a copy of these resolutions be communicated to His Excellency the Lieutenant Governor, with a request that he would transmit them to the Governor-in-Chief, for the purpose of being laid before the Legislature of Lower Canada.

5^th. —Resolved. That it is expedient, in lieu of the tax on salt, to impose a tax of —per cent per annum on the declared profits of Joint Stock Banks, and that the same be applied to the purposes for which the proceeds of the tax on Salt were directed to be applied.

6^th. —Resolved. That it is expedient to alter the law by virtue of which Collectors of Customs are paid £100. out of the first £200. they collect, and in like proportion for smaller sums; and in lieu of such compensation, to substitute the following per centages, viz.: —On all sums collected by them in any one year under £100. 20 per cent; on all sums over £100 and under £300, 15 per cent; on all sums over £300. and under £1,000, 6 per cent; and on all sums over £1,000, 4 per cent.

7^th. —Resolved. That it is expedient to appoint three of the Members of this House, Commissioners, to proceed to Lower Canada, and confer with any three of its Members whom the House of Assembly of that Province may, in like manner, appoint, to consider and report to their respective Houses, their opinions concerning the restrictions now placed on the Trade of these Colonies, and concerning Inland Navigation, and other matters of mutual importance to both Provinces.

CONTENTS OF THE APPENDIX

*Please consult the PDF for the table*

[Page 1]

APPENDIX

TO THE REPORT ON TRADE.

Arguments used in favor of protecting and discriminating duties, by the friends of the Colonial system in the United States and British America.

In favor of the United States tariff of 1828, they allege:

The uncertainty of distant foreign markets, and the certainty of that at home.

The violence and caprice of foreign powers, who sometimes commenced a war suddenly, and swept the seas of American merchantmen.

The great expense of fitting up and upholding a navy like that of England, for the protection of foreign commerce.

The uncertainty of the demand for United States staples in the European markets sometimes, while at war, opening their Ports and demanding American Flour at ten or fifteen dollars a barrel—and at other times, as in the event of a peace, ruining thousands of American farmers, and those connected with them, by reducing the price of that article to three or four dollars.

Cases like the following were cited:

A supposed scarcity of cotton, or some other American staple, is stated as existing in England—large supplies are sent from America—the market over-stocked—prices reduced; and shippers ruined.

A war takes place between the United States and England, and the supply of foreign manufactures thereby receives a check—domestic workmen are employed; capital expended on machinery, and apprentices indentured; the return of peace recalls the foreign competition, and proves ruinous to the domestic manufacturer.

It is argued:

That if a cultivator in the Western States obtains a good coat, good furniture, or education to his children, for so much of the produce of his fields, it is of little consequence what proportion the price paid bears to the prices in Europe; it must be fair whatever it be; he cannot send his grain to England to buy cloth or furniture. [26]

That, as a Nation is a political community, where a number of persons unite for their mutual advantage, it is unjust for

[Page 2]

the farmer to say “I will buy my clothes or shoes from abroad, because they are cheaper,” as it would be foolish for a shoemaker to propose to purchase his flour from abroad because it was dearer.

That it is better for the American farmer to pay twenty shillings for a yard of cloth wove in Massachusetts than to allow a person from Yorkshire to import and sell cloth of the same quality at fourteen. The English landlord uses the same argument to the Yorkshire weaver in favor of monopoly in corn, high rents, and domestic agriculture.

That free trade is opposed to the opinions of most countries—unapproved by long experience of any people—and that the United States created their marine by the old system of protection; and, were also creating, by the same means, distilleries and plantations sufficient for their supply in sugar and spirits.

That, by the old system, the Canadas have been enabled to exchange their wood, corn, and fish, for the manufactures of Great Britain, and the produce of the West Indies; that by the old system, therefore, a country which would otherwise have been uninhabited, or remained in poverty and want, has rapidly grown up into all the comforts and conveniences of life, and now teems with the industry and happiness of a million of British Subjects. That the Northern Colonies, and the Southern also, cleave, as to the very charter of their existence, to the old system of protection.[27]

That the United States Tariff of 1828 was imposed to balance the burthens imposed on native industry by the operation of foreign laws, but not to burthen one class of persons in the union, or one section thereof, at the expense of another. That all England meant by free trade, was merely to obtain a monopoly of other markets by means of her superior skill in manufactures, and thereby to prevent foreigners from her soil from establishing manufactures, or else to ruin and undersell those already established. That England could afford to begin the system, of free trade, because, her manufactures are now so well established, that free competition would place them in no danger.

That Washington, Jefferson, Madison, and Munroe had all advocated the principle of protection.

That Britain had given birth to the tariff system, by persisting in her corn laws.

That the American tariff and English corn laws had brought to America many thousands of the capitalists and first-rate mechanics of Britain, whose industry must now be protected from the competition of their half-starved brethren in Europe,

[Page 3]

whose labor would be kept down, under the most favorable circumstances, by an unfeeling, but all-powerful aristocracy.

That the price of the great staple of cotton, and of all the chief productions of the agriculture of the United States, has been sustained, and a decline averted, by the protective system.

That objects within the scope of the policy of protection have greatly fallen in price; that the benefits of the close system would be still more extensively felt in time of war; that free trade would subject America to foreign legislation, regulated for foreign interests, and would prove ruinous to the nation.

That the power of invention would never be exerted if it had no confidence in the promise of support.

That capital would never come to the aid of skill and enterprise if it had no security for investment.

That America ought not to wait until surrounded by invasion, and then beg blankets from invaders to warm a shivering army engaged in national defence.

That if protection must be general—not local, the nation, with its various soils, different climates, and diversified objects of industry, could never provide a protecting tariff.

That duties upon foreign goods secure the market to the home manufacturer, and that the tax is not paid because the article is not imported, domestic competition among the manufacturers having reduced the cost to the lowest possible price, while at the same time that competition bas improved the quality.

In the report of the committee on iron, in the New-York convention of  “Friends of Domestic Industry,” held in October 1831, it is urged that an impost may operate on the importer, and not on the consumer—1^st. Where the importing country is the principal market for the article, and that article one which the exporting country unavoidably produces in the manufacture of sone other of greater value. 2^nd. Where there is an increasing surplus of production in the exporting country, and an extensive and growing manufacture of the same article in the country where this surplus has heretofore sought a market. Of the first class, they offer molasses as an example, and affirm that the duty on its importation into the union was exclusively paid by the planter, who was obliged to sell it there at what it would bring. Of the second, they give iron as an illustration, affirming that, after the intelligence of the United States new duty on iron by the tariff of 1828, reached England, iron fell one pound a ton, immediately, and next year was still further reduced in price; and that the United States manufacturer, feeling increased confidence, extended bis operations and increased the supply, without raising

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his price. As the English manufacturer could only reach the domestic markets of America by paying the additional impost, it is contended that American competition compelled him to diminish his profits, and thus prevented the extra duty from falling on the consumer. “If,” says the American manufacturers, “domestic ingenuity had not been thus protected, the price in England would have continued as before, because the foreign manufacturer, supplying the article exclusively, would have dictated his own terms, including a large profit to himself.”

With reference more immediately to the British Colonial system, it has been argued, (see a letter of Mr. H. Bliss to Sir Henry Parnell,) that “the first general principle in the Colonial system of Great Britain, has hitherto been a mutual preference of all her Provinces in their intercourse with each other, and with the Mother Country. This has been the basis of that confederacy, the security of that connexion, which has held together for so many years her immense Dominions, in spite of all the differences and divisions of situation, laws, language, and religion. This has proved the main support of the power and wealth and independence of the whole Empire.” — that to admit United States produce into the Ports of the Canadas, for domestic consumption or exportation, on the most favorable terms, while the United States prohibit Canadian produce from passing to a foreign market through their Territories, or from being consumed by their people (see Law of April 1831) is unjust to the Canadians; that it is calculated to raise the value of real Estate on the Northern and North Western Frontiers of the Union; and when taken into consideration, with the advantages of Self Government, an independent judiciary, the absence of an established church, and the more equal distribution of real estate, will induce British Capitalists to prefer, in many cases, the Southern to the Northern banks of the Saint Lawrence, and great Lakes—that to alter the duties on American and Baltic timber would throw 1000 British Ships out of employment immediately—and that it would injure the Canadians.

Mr. Clay endeavoured, in February 1834, to persuade Congress to continue the tariff of 1828, by reading the following extracts from a work entitled, “The Trade and Navigation of Great Britain, considered by Joshua Gee, 1750.”[28]

“The advantages to Great Britain from keeping the Colonists dependent on her for their essential supplies.”

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“If we examine into the circumstances of the inhabitants of our plantations, and our own, it will appear that not one-fourth part of their profit redounds to their own profit, for out of all that comes here, they only carry back clothing and other accommodations for their families; all of which is of the merchandize and manufacture of this Kingdom.”

After showing how this system tends to concentrate all the surplus of acquisition over absolute expenditure in England, he says, —

“All these advantages we receive by the plantations, besides the mortgages on the Planters estates, and the high interest they pay us, which is very considerable, and therefore very great care ought to be taken in regulating all affairs of the Colonists, that the Planters be not put under too many difficulties, but encouraged to go on cheerfully.

“New England and the Northern Colonies have not commodities and products enough to send us in return for purchasing their necessary clothing, but are under very great difficulties, and therefore any ordinary sort sell with them. And when they have grown out of fashion with us, they are new fashioned enough there.”

The friends of the protective system in England and the United States use the name arguments. “The Working Man’s Advocate,” a paper printed in New York, reasons thus:

“And what advantage it would be to the laboring man, if he gain twenty or thirty dollars a year in the purchase of food and clothing, and lose double or treble the amount by low wages, we leave it to the enemies of protection to decide. —The manufacturing and mechanical laborers of the United States could not work against the starving workmen of England and other countries, unless they worked as cheap, consequently would be in as miserable a condition. Do the enemies of protection want such a state of things? If they do, they are the real enemies of the country, and particularly of the laboring class.”

President Jackson, in one of his messages, had laid it down as a maxim, that “objects of national importance alone ought to be protected.” On this text Mr. -Mallory speaks in Congress as follows: —

“The farmer who grows wheat, asks the aid of Government to protect that article. He knows that Poland, Russia, the Barbary States, and France, may furnish at times, wheat cheaper on the seaboard than he can afford. When he asks protection, an objection is made—some portions of the Union do not produce wheat—its production is not general—it must be rejected. Butter and cheese are presented for protection. Our farmers can produce them in abundance. The Irish tenant, who subsists on the humblest fare that unfeeling oppression

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deals out, may furnish them cheaper than the cultivators of our soil: yet, it is discovered, that portions of our extended country are unable to produce butter and cheese. —They cannot be protected; they are “local,” and not general.”

As to protecting particular branches of trade, and upholding American manufactures against British competition, Mr. Cambreling is of opinion, that—

“We (meaning the United States of America) cannot make our Merchants of yesterday rival in skill and economy, the Englishman, who is a manufacturer by inheritance. We cannot make one man perform more than the labor of three; nor can we make one capital equivalent to two. We may, as we have done, for fifteen years, force capital into particular manufactures, and drive our people into wild and speculative competition with each other. We may, for a tine, crowd our markets, and sell the produce of our labor at less than the costs of the raw material: we may continue to waste our millions in such experiments, but when the phrenzy is over, our manufactures are as far as ever from being placed on a permanent and prosperous foundation. Although fabrics may be cheaper than before the competition, they are comparatively as much dearer than British manufactures, as they were-the permanent relative prices in the two countries depending not on temporary competition, but on the comparative advantages of capital, labor, skill, and duties on raw materials, our joint stock companies, and our mercantile manufactures, with all our short lived Legislative creations, must, under our artificial system, inevitably perish, with every re-action in trade, as they have done for twelve years past. The millions invested under the act of 1816, were swept away in 1818 and 1819: those under the act of 1824, by the revulsion of 1825 and 1826; and the investments under the act of 1828, by the tremendous shock of 1829. The oldest cotton manufacturer in America, one who came from England in 1788, and who had, under our ancient free trade system, accumulated a fortune by manufacturing; even that manufacturer trembled for a week on the verge of bankruptcy.”

Mr. Huskisson, in his speech on the effects of free trade on the silk manufacture, laid it down as a principle, that it was to increasing industry, and not to artificial regulations for creating high prices, that England would have to look for relief. “It is to the increasing wealth of the manufacturing population, and the progress of industry, and not to artificial regulations for creating high prices, that this country must look, not only for relief from her present burthens, but for the power of making fresh exertions, whenever her situation may demand them. It is not in the power of any artificial measures to give that real relief to agriculture, or to any other

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mode of occupation, which can only flow from the increasing activity and increasing industry of the people.”

Mr. Neilson, in his Quebec Gazette, appears to think that a low tariff is the most suitable for promoting the interests of the mercantile class in Canada. In March 1832, he wrote as follows: — “Our duties on the whole of our imports do not, perhaps, average one-sixth of those paid by the United States; —the effect is felt in the annual increase of our trade, and the increasing wealth and comforts of our population. Our low duties could not, however, give to our trade and industry the impulse which they have lately received, without the aid of the American tariff. It proves nearly as beneficial to these provinces as the American Embargo of 1810; and we shall, without being very solicitous of discovering the cause, be happy to find that the majority of the people of two neighbouring countries continue to be satisfied with a system of duties on importations so very different.”

By the fiscal regulations on the trade between Great Britain and her West India Colonies, the Jamaica sugar planter is prohibited from refining the sugar produced on his estate, — that process or manufacture being confined to England. The steam millers of Manchester, not long since, petitioned the Imperial Parliament for protection against United States and Canadian grist-mills, propelled by water power. A Manchester (steam) flour miller, thus advocates the doctrine of protection to domestic industry, in the Manchester (England) Guardian, of March 24th, 1831: —”If it shall appear possible from war, or any other adverse cause, nonintercourse with America may at some future time recur; if it shall appear possible that from a bad harvest in America, or from superior demand from other States, supplies may not be spared, or diverted into other channels; and if it shall appear that whilst our sources of supply of foreign wheat are numerous, and generally abundant, our supplies of foreign flour are derived, almost entirely, from America; if it appear that peradventure at some future time we may have again an abundant harvest of our own; that in consequence, foreign flour would not be required, and that if required, it would be excluded by low prices of wheat, and consequent high duties; if it shall appear that under such circumstances, having abundance of wheat but not sufficient means for its conversion into flour, the country would be thrown upon the mercy of those millers, with whom all the surviving means of supply would remain; if, in short, it appear possible, that, with abundance of home and continental wheat, the inhabitants of this country may at any time, or times, be driven by a want of mill machinery, to pay a famine price for the four they consume, thon surely it must appear, that, next to an abundant supply of wheat, an abundant

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supply of machinery, to convert that wheat into four, is of, paramount importance to the whole community. It will appear that it is expedient for the general good that we continue within ourselves the power to manufacture flour sufficient for the whole population; —that, therefore, it is expedient that the means of conversion increase with our increasing population, and, of course that it is not expedient that a single existing establishment be driven to extinction for want of protection. For the sake, then, of every public as well as private interest, protection by the miller should be sought by all” Under the existing law of averages, direct prohibition, or a prohibitory duty, is necessary.

The friends of monopoly assert, and perhaps with reason, that Salt could not be brought so cheap to Lower Canada if the ships which come for timber to Quebec were discouraged by an equalization of the lumber tariff in England; they think the freight of other goods would also be augmented. To this it is replied, that many of the ships would continue to come for timber and other produce, and that by allowing a competition not now permitted the probability is, that freight would fall.

In Maine, the friends of the tariff of 1828, endeavour to uphold the principle of protection to particular branches of industry, by stating such facts as the following— (we quote the Portland Advertiser):

” Few persons, we apprehend, are sufficiently sensible how much the Mechanics of the country are protected by the tariff laws. Let us look at a single trade, by way of example. —Formerly a vast amount of Boots and Shoes were imported into this Country from Great Britain. In 1829 the whole amount imported was only $ 310,943; and this is the largest amount imported for several years past. Now the proportion this bears to the boots and shoes made in the Country, we can form some idea of, when we find that the value of those made in the single State of New York, is estimated, in returns made by the State authorities, at five millions of Dollars. If the repeal of the tariff would enable us to bring English boots and shoes cheaper, so it would throw thousands of men out of employ, sinking many millions of capital, depress the price of agricultural produce, and, of course, land, and cause a revolution which would affect the business of every man in the Country. Hats afford us an example nearly as striking; many other mechanics are protected in like manner; and all are protected in some degree.”

Ireland affords a very different example of the effects of the monopolising system, which ought not to be lost on the people of Upper Canada. Taking an average of three years, (1824; 1825; 1826,) Ireland exported to other Countries, but chiefly to England, each year, 57,427 Oxen; 62,929 Sheep; 73,913

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Swine; 2,533 Horses; 38,070,368 pounds of Bacon and Hams; 189,931 barrels of Beef and Pork; 55,200,656 pounds of Butter; 3,020,664 bushels of Wheat, (and wheat flour); 10,443,624 bushels of Oats, (and Oatmeal); 531,907 gallons Irish Whiskey; 51,947,413 yards of Linen manufactures; — also, £23,412 value of ditto. We quote the official returns by Mr. Irving, the Inspector General of Exports, whose return is dated 15th January, 1831. In what condition do we find the majority of the population of this industrious community, notwithstanding its vast export of surplus produce!

In support of the principle of Free Trade, the abolition of all the taxation laid on Foreign Commerce with a view to the protection and encouragement of domestic manufactures, or of particular branches of home industry, and the imposition of few and light duties, cautiously apportioned, for the purposes of Revenue, it is alleged, —That there cannot be any more industry in the world than when every body is employed; that this industry is in the best condition when devoted to those employments which yield the most profits, payable in the Universal Currency, gold and silver; that for an American (for it is in the United States that the question has been most canvassed) or a Canadian, to commence making pins and needles under a protecting tax, when he would be more profitably employed in raising grain, pigs, or cattle, or in manufacturing pearl or potash, if no such protective impost (whatever it might be) had an existence, is to apply the money of the community to induce the citizens to leave the sort of labor for which their country is naturally adapted, and to follow trades and professions for which it is not naturally adapted: that a proposal to levy taxes on Foreign Commerce in support of Domestic Manufactures, which would yield no returns without taxation, is about as wise a project as if the Legislature were to grant a bounty to the people of Quebec, for raising the grapes in hot-houses, in Canada, for making all their wines, instead of purchasing as they do now, in France or Portugal: that when a country is ripe for a manufacture it will be soon introduced, by private persons for their own advantage, unless the character of the Government or the instability of the Laws, deter them from trusting their capital in it: that great establishments of manufactures require great numbers of very poor persons to do the work for small wages; that these poor persons are to be found in Europe in great numbers, but that they will not be so found in North America until the lands are all taken up and cultivated, unless unnatural laws should be framed to prevent the cultivator from being supplied from the cheapest market: that whenever the Canadians or other Americans

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find it more advantageous to make the articles they now import, they will do so; and that the chief means they now have of importing goods, is by selling in exchange those articles which it is more advantageous for them to make or produce, to other countries, who, in their turn, find it suitable to be the purchasers: that trade between Foreign Countries, when not conducted on the principles of barter, regulates itself, in some degree, by raising the exchanges; that it is no good reason why English cotton or silk goods should be heavily taxed at New York, because the English choose to lay a prohibitory duty on American corn, exported from that City to London—for that, unless the corn finds a purchaser elsewhere, or unless the English consent to take some other commodity in exchange for their silks and cottons, be it money, bullion, tobacco, cotton, wool, or any other article in the possession of the American, as the fruit of his industry, whether of domestic or foreign origin, the exchange will soon be at an end, as a country cannot long continue to import that which it has not the means to pay for: that every one who is able and willing to work may be profitably employed in North America, there being no such class of persons there as Mr. Stanley described in the House of Commons in 1826, working fifteen hours a day for five or six shillings a week, and starving their families on a meal a day, rather than ask parish relief; nor any such class as Mr. Hume described in 1832, at Enfield, who receive thousands per annum for doing nothing, and allow their parents to take three, six or nine hundred pounds a year as State paupers: that the laborers to be employed in large establishments (which a country is taxed to keep up, by being prevented from purchasing at the cheapest market, in order that the Capitalists who own these establishments, may be supported) are not taken from an idle class, for there are no idle persons, but from labour, in which they were profitably employed, without the aid of a tariff to support it, and which labor will be injured by the operation of that tariff: that the whole art of gaining national wealth lies in producing the greatest public value from the least labor: that the western part of the State of New York, with the States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, &c., had risen up under the hand of agricultural industry, previous to 1810, when America had no tariff or manufactures in the modern style, farms in these countries, having generally increased in value 100 per cent. per annum, on the original investment: that Adan Smith and Mr. Malthus, gave a preference to Agriculture over every other modification of industry. —They perceived, in some degree, the superior importance of the primary means of subsistence over all other kinds of wealth. —Food is the first of indispensable necessaries, and where the people have enough of that, they will, by their own exertions,

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supply clothes and fuel: their toil gives a zest to their food, and a pleasure. The aggregate happiness of a community is not increased in proportion to its wealth, indeed the latter may be augmented at the expense of the former; (the same proposition holds good in Upper Canada, except in so far as the absence of a frugal domestic Government has retarded its prosperity): that to employ a Manufacturer in the New England States, to weave sixty yards of cloth for one hundred and fifty dollars, which cloth could be purchased in England or France, of the same quality, for ninety dollars, freight and insurance included, is to draw American labor into unproductive channels: that many thousands of American Farmers saw their farms increase in value from a hundred dollars to two, ten, fifteen, and in some cases twenty thousand dollars, besides subsisting the Proprietor, while there was no protecting tariff to aid their efforts; and that on the other hand, had each of them become Manufacturers, he would have been compelled to tend a cotton or woollen Mill, with its spindles and reeds, and unwholesome smells, and with the aid of wife and children, and a tariff to boot, ten to one but he would have been an unfortunate Bankrupt, instead of being an opulent educated Freeholder: that a protecting tariff is introducing a set of miserable pauper operatives, establishing a privileged order in North America, and undermining that happy equality which has hitherto prevailed in that country; and that the great factories both of Europe and America, are the nurseries and hotbeds of vice and infamy. Thus, say the enemies of tariffs, “is our wealth checked, our population degraded, and the principles of our free and happy Government threatened to be subverted, by a miserable attempt of a combination of avaricious monopolists.”

It is also urged in favor of free trade, that the advocates of the protective system have cunningly contrived to make it a party question; and by nixing it up with other questions, such as those of internal improvement, state rights, &c. they have obtained many partizans, who only advocate a high tariff as a political party measure; that the tariff laws tend to build up a rich and powerful general government; that they accumulate capital into great and permanent masses; that they offer many temptations to illicit trade and make the smuggler a partner in the spoil; that the duties on iron, a material of universal necessity, and principally used by the productive classes, are perhaps, of all others, the most obnoxious; that every branch of American industry ought to be equally protected, which cannot be the case while freedom of trade is interdicted and the farmer prevented from choosing his goods in the cheapest market; —but nevertheless, the taxation of imports for the purpose of raising a revenue, would be objected

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to by no one, as long as it might be found necessary for the public service. That no civilized nation in Europe is now so unnecessarily burthened with taxes as the American States, which, when not one quarter their present population, rose in arms, as one man, against the most powerful nation on earth, rather than submit to a tax of two pence per pound upon the important article of Tea!

It is asserted by Mr. Niles, of Baltimore, that the tariff law of 1828, of which that of May 1832 may be considered a modification, “was the result of a political bargain, and passed on principles disreputable to a Congress of the United States.” Henry Lee, of the Massachusetts permanent Free Trade Committee, fears that the law was enacted by a compromise between various individuals who went to Congress for the promotion of their own ends, and those too, in many instances, of the most sordid and selfish character. They went to that Assembly pledged to promote other objects than that of the great interests of the people, and utterly devoid of that elevation of sentiment, and purity of purpose, which ought to characterize men entrusted with the Government of a great nation. That the revolutionary war was entered into in order to relieve the nation from monopolies, and unequal, unjust and burthensome taxation. That while the chief objects of duties should be revenue, they may be so adjusted as to encourage American Manufactures—of which the products of the soil, mines and workshops, essential to national defence, occupy the first rank. That, where, by giving a temporary encouragement, by means of duties, to certain species of domestic industry, a good and reasonable expectation may be had that these articles will soon be able to compete with foreign labor, on equal terms, so that the tariff would be no longer a tax, moderate duties may be properly imposed ; but that (as in the case of tea, on which the duties are directed to be abolished ) it would be of no use to establish a tariff to promote in America the culture of cinnamon, pepper, tea, coffee, or peruvian bark. That to take off entirely the duties upon these and other foreign products or manufactures which come not into competition with the funds of the labor of America, and from which a large revenue has been derived, would, in fact, be protecting American labour, by enabling the laborer to live cheaper, and the manufacturer to compete easier with foreigners. That as in America the market is far beyond the natural price of labor, much of the benefit on the reduction on necessaries would accrue directly to the poor, while the remainder would go to the aid of the capitalist. That if unfortunately for the interests of the public, a partizan of the close protecting colonial system should be placed in the chair, the Union might expect a defective tariff to be

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made worse; every corruption to be cherished; every abuse encouraged; taxation to be still further increased; and the monies expended in rewarding followers, pensioning dependants, and purchasing friends, —that in due time, (European fashion) taxation would be made to reach every article of food and clothing, lands, houses, fuel, hearths, and the light of Heaven itself. That in return for these last stated miseries, America might reasonably look for splendid projects and magnificent structures, honored and adorned by the gorgeous equipages of the rich; liberty annihilated; property concentrated in the hands of a few, on whose darkened souls no ray of patriotism would ever shine, and the great mass of the people oppressed, poor, starving, desperate and rebellious.

Such results, however, will not be permitted in the United States; they have the example of the national debt and expenditure of Great Britain and Ireland continually before them; every day brings them fresh tidings of the evils of monopoly where it prevails; —they will therefore take heed.

It is further urged, that a free trade in iron would be highly advantageous, the effect of the high duty being to induce the people of America, with a fuel comparatively unfitted to the preparation of iron, to create a sum nearly equal to the whole duty, (as it stood in 1831) in endeavouring to compete with a country where bituminous coal may be procured by the mere act of appropriation. That a more careful discrimination in favor of necessaties, and higher comparative duties on luxuries, would best promote accumulation of capital where wanted, and best uphold the wages which reward labor. Dr. Johnson was of opinion, that much of the prosperity of a trading nation depends upon duties properly apportioned, so that what is necessary may continue cheap, and what is of use only to luxury, may in some measure atone to the public for the mischief done to individuals. Duties may often be so regulated as to become useful even to those that pay them; and they may be likewise so unequally imposed, as to discourage honesty, depress industry, and give temptation to fraud and unlawful practices. That the wealth of America does not depend on the poverty and depression of Europe; but is intimately connected with its industry, opulence and comfort. That a free trade with all the world formed one of the leading objects of that compromise of interests which produced the union of the States in 1789; “that the people of the United States were fed, clothed and lodged, before the tariff laws were passed; that converting Farmers into Manufacturers does not add to the consumers of food, and thereby create a demand for the surplus previously exported; it merely takes frons the number of producers of food for exportation and that if in their new employment they produce a

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less value, as Manufacturers, than they procured previously, when they were Farmers, in exchange for the products of their farms, a loss to that amount is sustained by the community.” That to tax the imports of the Agricultural Countries of the Union heavily, is to cut off the means by which Foreign Nations purchase American surplus products; that it is taxation, (as in the case of South Carolina) virtually without representation. “Has one single voice of this entire section of the South, from the Potomac to the Alabama, said Mr. Haynes, been given in favor of a taxation whose uncompensated burthen falls exclusively upon this very section? Is not the tribute exacted altogether by the votes of the representatives of those who share the booty?” that “the principles of free trade are the principles of human liberty; next to worshiping our God according to the dictates of our conscience, is the privilege of directing the labor of our hands, with unrestricted freedom, to an industry of our own choice; a right no less sacred than the freedom of the press”: that peace is an enemy to speculation, and a bad time to force the establishment of new manufactures, because increased industry gives more diversified employments to the mass of the population of every country, and cheap rates of transport lower the prices of the products of Agriculture, Manufactures and Commerce. [Mr.Cambreling affirms, that the price of manufactures, whether in Europe or America, are generally not more than a third of their value in 1815]; that free trade is a saving of labor, and restriction a waste of it: that for a Government to attempt by taxation, to prescribe the occupations and direct the labor of the community, and control their private pursuits, is repugnant to the spirit of freedom: that all customs duties have the same effect as if the amount were levied on domestic productions, because these productions must sell both for consumption and for exportation, at rates proportioned to the additional price which the duties imposed upon the imported merchandize, render necessary: that the systems of free trade is in accordance with the principles of Christianity, and calculated to unite all nations in harmony and peace; and that a protecting tariff is calculated to enrich one section of the Union at the expense of the industry of another section, and will, if continued, gradually alienate the affections of a section of the United States, from a Government founded solely on the love of the Citizens, and invested with no other than a moral force.

Mr. Albert Gallatin, Chairman of the Committee appointed by the Free Trade Convention, held in Philadelphia, in September and October, 1831, enclosed to the Speaker of the House of Representatives of the United States, in January 1832, a memorial setting forth the evils of excessive and un-equal duties on imported goods. The Committee urge on the consideration of Congress, such arguments as follow: —

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Every individual in every community, without exception, will purchase whatever he may want, on the cheapest terms, within his reach. The most enthusiastic restrictionist; the manufacturers most clamorous for special protection, will each individually, pursue the same course, and prefer any foreign commodity or material to that of domestic origin, if the first is cheaper, and the Law does not forbid him: all men ever have acted, and continue under any system, to act on this principle: it is impossible that they should universally act in that manner unless it was evidently their interest so to do. The tariff system is founded upon the principle, that what is true of all men, individually, is untrue, when applied to them collectively; Laws which do not trust the common sense of the Citizen, which do not permit him to seek what he thinks the best market for the products of his industry, or which compel him to receive in exchange for these a less quantity of the objects he wants, than without those laws he might have obtained, are evidently destructive of domestic industry. By Free Trade, we mean that trade which we may carry free of any restrictions imposed by our own Government; it is synonymous with free industry, and it is only because and so far as it promotes domestic industry that we object to those restrictions: when, in order to justify that system, it is said, that Nations are adverse to each other, and that a free trade between them would contravene the arrangements of Providence, when it seems to be forgotten, that it is Commerce which unites the several Nations of the Civilized World, and that next to Christianity, it is principally to Commerce that we are indebted for modern civilization; we can but lament the extremes to which enlightened, patriotic, and philanthropic men may be carried, by adhering to a favorite theory, and losing sight of every other consideration. We are not called upon to discuss the abstract question, whether another mode of taxation would be more eligible than the impost, or whether an unrestrained intercourse between all Nations, free of the payment of any duties on imports, would be best calculated to promote the industry and prosperity of all; on that subject the experience of forty years is conclusive, so far as relates to the United States. The people prefer, in time of peace, duties raised on the importation of foreign merchandize, to any internal tax, direct or indirect. Whether for good or for evil, that system affords an encouragement to domestic manufactures, not less efficient for being incidental, duties on imports amounting, on an average, to about 20 per cent. on the value, appear necessary to the support of Government. If the price at which a commodity can be afforded by the person who undertakes to produce it, is higher than that at which it may be, or might have been purchased from others, the difference of price is the measure of

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the National loss incurred by his misapplication of capital and labor, to the production of that commodity. “The whole amount of imports equalizes itself with the whole amount of exports. It is not at all necessary that this equality should exist; it never does exist in the trade of any Country with every other Country: every one purchases what it does want from that Country which affords it on the cheapest terms; and sells its products to those Countries by which they are wanted, and which give the highest price: a sufficient capital, and a certain density of population are necessary requisites; and Agriculture will, in preference to Manufactures, attract labor in Countries or Districts where virgin land is abundant, and within the reach of all: but a single glance at the map of Europe will satisfy every intelligent observer, that the great superiority of some over other Countries, in other respects equally fitted for manufactures, is due to the nature of the Government, to Laws, which at least secure to men the proceeds of their industry, to liberty, or at least comparative liberty, and to the diffusion of knowledge and superior intelligence, skill and activity, the infallible offspring of unrestrained industry, and political, religious, and civil liberty.”

Mr. Gallatin assumes, that the greatest mass of comfort and happiness is to be found always where the remuneration of labor is the highest; and adds, that after two centuries of Free Commerce with Great Britain, and fifty years of a similar intercourse with the rest of the world, the price of labor continues, without alteration, to be higher in the United States than in England, or any foreign country. A Manufacturer, a Mechanic, a Farmer, an Artist, or a Legislator, may be brought into Canada duty free, although his value to the community among whom he is to reside, may be thousands of pounds; but the materials with which he is to labor, whether of iron, steel, cotton, wood, colors, dyes, paper, quills, may not be imported, nor provisions he may require while in the exercise of his skill, whether tea, coffee, sugar, the products of the sea or of the land; on these there must be a tax—a tax to support extravagant Government, and to repress industry. When Americans wish to influence their population to support a high tariff, in order to exclude English competition, they continually quote the example of the Governments that have flourished in England in the midst of oppression. —In no country has the Government exerted itself with greater system to banish comfort from the cottage of the Peasant and the dwelling of the Artizan. In Russia, leaf Tobacco is taxed, on importation only three half pence per lb.: in Britain, it is taxed three shillings, or about 1200 per cent. on the cost price. In Russia, tobacco, manufactured for smoking or chewing, pays eighteen pence duty: in Britain it is taxed nine shillings; and a violation of the Law, in the least degree, subjects the offender to

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cruel and ignominious punishment. In the United States tea is duty free; in England it is nearly 100 per cent. on the cost price. The wife of the American laborer will be drinking her choice Old Hyson, at 3s. 6d. per lb. while the English mechanic will be condemned to quaff Congo, at 5s.

Mr. Henry Clay recommends to the Americans, that they should tax the woollens and cottons, and hardware, which are the fruit of the labor of the working classes in England, because the land owners of England will not admit American corn, duty free, from every part of the United States. The Duke of Wellington is in favor of high taxation on the corn of Prussia and Russia, because Russia and Prussia might refuse to take articles of British manufactures in return: the Duke would keep many industrious Englishmen unprofitably occupied in cultivating a bad soil; and Mr. Clay would fain persuade his fellow Citizens of the Union to abandon the cultivation of the finest lands in the world, and bid good-bye to the sight of green fields and pure atmosphere, to waste their health, strength and substance, in the midst of the noisome effluvia of a cotton or woollen mill! The objects of these Senators are the same—to build up, uphold and maintain an idle and luxurious class, to consume the Revenues of their Country.

England is the only country in which the prohibitory system and complete success in establishing manufactures, generally superior in cheapness and quality, are found united; she affords the only proof that both may subsist together; and it would not be difficult to show, that they thus submit to the aid of a vast Military force, at the expense of the happiness and comfort of millions of her population, the victims of a cruel oligarchy. Her staple manufactures, though firmly established, are not, however, exempt from those fluctuations which affect the flour and ashes manufactured in America; they “are exposed to evils of over production, as foreign trade to that of excessive importation. This partial and occasional evil is inseparable from foreign commerce, and cannot be prevented unless that commerce be altogether proscribed: so long as the protecting duty is not prohibitory, and the corresponding foreign article is not entirely excluded, it may occasionally be imported to excess.”

So far back as 1820, the free trade principle had obtained, in England, many able and efficient advocates; in that year, in May, a memorial of Merchants and Traders of the City of London, was presented to the House of Commons, in which the subscribers set forth—

“That foreign commerce is eminently, conducive to the wealth and prosperity of the country, by inabling it to import the commodities, for the production of which the soil, climate,

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capital, and industry of other countries arc best calculated, and to export in payment, those articles for which its own situation is better adapted.

“That freedom from restraint is calculated to give the utmost extension to foreign trade, and the best direction to the capital and industry of the country.

“That the maxim of buying in the cheapest market, and selling in the dearest, which regulates every Merchant in his individual dealings, is strictly applicable, as the best rule for the trade of a whole Nation.

“That a policy founded on these principles, would render the commerce of the world an interchange of mutual advantages, and diffuse an increase of wealth and enjoyment among the inhabitants of each State.

“That, unfortunately, a policy the very reverse of this has been and is more or less acted upon by the Government of this and every other country; each trying to exclude the productions of other countries, with the specious and well meant design of encouraging its own production; thus inflicting on the bulk of its subjects, who are consumers, the necessity of submitting to privations in the quantity or quality of commodities, and thus rendering what ought to be the source of mutual benefits and of harmony among states, a constantly recuring occasion of jealousy and hostility.

“That the prevailing prejudices in favor of the protective or restrictive system may be traced to the erroneous supposition, that every importation of foreign commodities occasions a diminution or discouragement of our own productions, to the same extent; whereas it may be clearly shown, that although the particular description of production which could not stand against unrestrained foreign competition would be discouraged, yet, as no importation could be continued for any length of time without a corresponding exportation, direct or indirect, there would be an encouragement for the purpose of that exportation, of some other production to which our situation might be better suited; thus affording at least an equal, and probably a greater, and certainly a more beneficial employment to our capital and labor.

“That of the numerous protective and prohibitory duties of our commercial code, it may be proved, that while all operate as a very heavy tax on the community at large, very few are of any ultimate benefit to the classes in whose favor they were originally instituted, and none to the extent of the loss occasioned by them to other classes.

“That among the other evils of the restrictive or protective system, not the least, is, that the artificial protection of one branch of industry, or source of protection against foreign competition, is set up as a ground of claim by other branches

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for similar protection; so that if the reasoning upon which these restrictive or prohibitory regulations are founded were followed consistently, it would not stop short of excluding us from all foreign commerce whatsoever.

“And the same strain of argument, which with corresponding prohibitions and protective duties should exclude us from foreign trade, might be brought forward to justify the re-enactment of restrictions upon the interchange of productions (unconnected with public revenue) among the kingdoms composing the Union, or among the counties of the same Kingdom.”

Home or domestic manufactures ought to be protected at the outset, say the friends of high tariffs, in the same way as books and maps, and new inventions are for a series of years protected: —others urge, that like as young plants of trees in a field are protected by a paling, until they acquire strength, should the cotton Spinner and iron Master of America be environed; but we do not think the cases apply. Patents are given only to the original discoverers of something new, or to the authors of new publications; and to give patents for American editions of British works, or for American imitations of’ British cloths, would be taxing one part of a community to enrich the other, and turning productive industry out of its natural channels into new directions less advantages to the general interests.

In 1793, Mr. Jefferson proposed two remedies for the restrictions placed by foreigners on the commerce of his country; namely: countervailing measures, and friendly arrangement. In a report on trade, he says, —There can be no doubt, but that of these two, friendly arrangement is the most eligible. —Instead of embarrassing commerce under piles of regulations, duties and prohibitions, could it be relieved from all its shackles, in all parts of the world, and every country be employed in producing that which nature has best fitted it to produce, and each be free to exchange with others mutual surpluses for mutual wants, the greatest mass possible would then be produced of those things which contribute to human life and human happiness; the numbers of mankind would be increased, and their condition bettered.

Mr. Booth, of Liverpool, in his celebrated Pamphlet in favor of the principle of Free Trade, considers the following axioms as established and indisputable.

1^st. That if imports are prevented by prohibitory duties, exports are prevented to the same extent.

2^nd. That a business or manufacture protected by high duties on importation, will not, on that account, yield more than the ordinary rate of profit, otherwise every one would engage in it, which is an absurdity. The public therefore suffer by being compelled to purchase a protected article at a high price, while the manufacturer does not receive any benefit from the high price,

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while the manufacturer does not receive any benefit from the high price.

3^rd. That food is the basis of population, of life and all its enjoyments: population is limited only by the limitation of food; for manufacturers and workmen of all descriptions, will increase and multiply, if food be furnished in return for their labor.

4^th. That to enable a whole community to obtain the greatest possible quantity of the conveniences and comforts of life, the Merchant must be at liberty to make his purchases wherever he can procure farm produce and commodities of the best quality, at the cheapest rate.

Mr. Booth says, that a certain amount of labor and capital is more beneficially employed in manufacturing an article for exportation in lieu of one imported, than in manufacturing a protected article for home consumption: that importations from Foreign Nations must be paid for by the produce of the industry of Great Britain, and therefore must afford employment to the laboring people: that as to England’s being placed at the mercy of those Foreign States from whom her supplies would be drawn; commercial experience shows, that the selling party is the party obliged, and generally the more dependent of the two; that Holland had long and pre-eminently been an importing country, and had suffered as little from fluctuation in price as any country that could be named; that with free trade, instead of no employment, there would be much more employment than at present; not a bushel of corn would enter the harbors of the United Kingdom that would not be paid for by some commodity, the produce of the industry of the people; that under the free trade system, money and land would each find their proper level in value; that if the cost of the absolute necessaries be diminished, a larger amount of income is thereby set at liberty to be expended on the luxuries of life; that the law which regulates wages by the ratio which subsists between the supply of labor and the demand for it, is fixed and immutable; it can neither be evaded nor successfully opposed; that with reference to the affairs of trade, what the people of every community should say to their Government, is, “LET US ALONE;” that a spirit of peace and universal good feeling, of candour and liberal consideration, is best promoted by the free’st and most enlarged intercourse between different nations. It is Governments alone which prevent their subjects becoming citizens of the world.

The celebrated advocate of Free Trade, Albert Gallatin, in an argument against the tariff of the United States, brings forward Switzerland, as an example of the good effects of the commercial system.

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“Switzerland is one of the few European Countries to which the restrictive system has not extended, and is, nevertheless, that which, in proportion to her population, is next to England, the first manufacturing country of Europe; exposed like her, to the same revulsions, and to periods of distress, when the channels of superabundent manufactured products are obstructed. —Switzerland, unprotected by any duties whatever on foreign merchandize, besides certain branches belonging particularly to her, rivals England in the cotton and France in the silk manufacture.”

From the table of Official Values[29] of Imports and Exports, sent down to the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, from the Inspector General’s office, on the 12th May, 1832, it appears that during the year ending 5^th January, 1831, produce and manufactures were imported from the British Northern Colonies into the United Kingdom, of the official value of £1,265,850.

British and Irish produce and manufactures were exported to the said Colonies, of the official value of £2,315,716.; the real or declared value of which was £1,857,133.

Also Foreign and Colonial merchandize of the official value of £303,798.

Making the official value of the whole exports £2,619,563.

The same table shows that the official value of Foreign and Colonial merchandize exported in that year to the United States, did not exceed the value of the same description of exports to the Northern Colonies, by so much as one-fourth.

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It also shows that the value, at the Custom-house, of the British and Irish produce and manufactures, exported in that year to the Northern Colonies, was something more than two-sevenths of the value of the same description of exports to the United States.

From returns made to the House of Commons, in May 1833, moved for by Mr. Whitmore, we have ascertained that there were entered at the Custom-house, during the year 1832, for domestic consumption, in Great Britain, 164,982 quarters of Foreign wheat, on which a duty was paid of £193,249. varying from 23s. 8d. to 34s. 8d. duty, on the quarter: also, of Colonial wheat 160,453 quarters, paying a duty of 5s. per quarter, or 7 ½ d. per bushel, equal to £39,536. on the quantity imported.

In the same year, (we quote the same returns) there were imported into Great Britain, for home consumption, 56,135 cwts. of Foreign wheat flour, on which an import duty was charged of £22,867.; also, 105,132 cwts. of Colonial wheat flour, on which England exacted for duty £9,052. The rates of duty on wheat, meal and flour, are regulated by the price of wheat, and are equal in amount per barrel, of 196 lbs. to the duty payable on 38 ½ gallons of wheat.

An attempt was made, and with good reason, by the House of Assembly, in April last, to obtain the remission of the duty charged in the Ports of Great Britain and Ireland, on wheat, grain and flour, the growth of the Colony; but it failed. Mr. Spring Rice replied, that Government did not think it advisable to make any change upon the duties of Canadian corn, apart from the consideration of a general change of the duties of corn. While Great Britain legislates so as to secure to herself a full monopoly on the foreign purchases we might otherwise make at first hand, she neglects to assure to Upper Canada any similar advantages in return.

From returns moved for by Mr. Burge in the House of Commons lately, it is shewn that during the year ending the 5^th January 1831, there were exported from Great Britain to the United States, 7,307 gallons of rum; to the British Northern Colonies, 85,589 gallons.

In the same year, Great Britain exported to the United States, of raw and refined sugars, only 487 ½ cwts.; and to the British Northern Colonies, 4,750 cwts. of raw, and 16,513 cwts. refined sugar. [30](16,513 cwts. of refined, is equal to 28,072 cwt. raw.)

From other official returns laid before the House of Commons, it is ascertained that—

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In 1831, there were exported from the United Kingdom to the United States, 15,003 tons of British bar iron; to the Northern Colonies, 5,406 tons.

Of British bolt and rod iron, to the United States, 464 tons; to the Northern Colonies, 520 tons.

Of British nails, to the United States, 192 tons; to the Northern Colonies, 1,622 tons. —Also :

That 2,272,417 qrs. of wheat, (and wheat flour) were imported into Great Britain and Ireland from the following places during the year, ending on the 5^th January 1832, viz.: from—

*Please consult the PDF for the table*

The total export from Quebec in 1831, was 81,609 barrels of flour, and 1,326,834 minots of wheat, to all countries. Of the flour, about 22,483 barrels were from the United States.

It is estimated by some statistical writers, that the people of the Canadas, on an average of five years, ending in January 1832, with a population averaging during that period 800,000 souls, employed as they have been, partly in the lumber trade, have raised nine millions of bushels of wheat annually ; and that allowing each individual nine bushels a-year for domestic consumption, there was, one year with another, an annual surplus for export in the shape of wheat and flour, of 1,800,000 bushels. This, however, is mere guess work.

The official value of corn and meal imported into Great Britain in the following years, was as follows: —

*Please consult the PDF for the table*

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In 1830, there were imported into Great Britain, and retained for home consumption, from the British Northern Colonies, 61,916 cwts. wheat, meal and flour; from the United States, 623,745 cws.

Also from the Colonies, 58,963 qrs. of wheat.

From valuable and accurate returns by the Inspector General of Imports and Exports, to the House of Commons, dated Custom House, London, 30th April, 1833, we ascertain that in the year ending 5^th January, 1833, there were imported into Great Britain, 98,764 quarters of barley, and barley meal, chiefly from Denmark and Germany; 24,231 qrs. of beans; 1,303 qrs. of indian meal and corn, chiefly from Portugal and the Azores; 29,350 qrs. of oats and oat meal, chiefly from Russia and Denmark; 17,329 quarters of peas, chiefly from Prussia; 4,629 qrs. of rye and rye meal, from Russia; 1,520 qrs, of buckwheat, from France and the Netherlands; also, of wheat and wheat flour, in quarters, 463,592, from the following countries: —British North American Colonies, 103,700; United States, 39,117; Guernsey, Jersey, Alderney, and Man, 16,619; Russia, 91,305,; Denmark, 33,549; Prussia, 119,323 ; Germany, 43,199; the Netherlands, 71; Spain, 1,789; Italy, 2,305; Ionian Islands, 1,062; Turkey and Egypt, 10; Cape of Good Hope, 1,642; East India Company’s Territories, 9,579; Van Dieman’s Land, 26; British West Indies, 1; Chili, 180. The average price of wheat in that year in Great Britain, was 58s. 8d. sterling.

In 1832, there were imported from Ireland into Great Britain, 3,091,202 quarters of grain of all sorts, (equal to 24,729,616 bushels) of which 802,430 qrs. were wheat and wheat flour, and 2,104,992 oats and oat meal.

In 1831, there were imported from Ireland into Great Britain, 2,319,947 qrs. of grain, meal and flour, of all sorts—(equal to 18,559,576 bushels) —of which 479,053 qrs. were wheat and wheat flour, and 1,605,723 quarters of oats and oatmeal.

These accounts were made up by Mr. Irving, at the Custom House, on the 30^th of April, 1833, and may therefore be relied on as perfectly accurate. They shew that nearly double the quantity of wheat and wheat flour imported from Ireland into Great Britain in 1831, was imported in 1832; that nearly 500,000 qrs. more of oats and oatmeal were so imported in

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1832: and that upwards of six millions of bushels of grain, meal and flour, were imported from Ireland into Britain in 1832 more than in 1831. There is no duty charged on grain between the countries since the union; and these facts, which shew the manner in which England obtains her supplies of our principal staple commodity, are important to be known in Canada.

From returns made up at the India House, to 1^st May, 1882, we find that the remittances from the North American Colonies, on account of the tea sold by the East India Company’s Agents there during the year thon ending, amounted to £136,552.

And that they estimated the probable receipts from the same trade during the year, up to 1^st May 1833, at £141,000—or, about a thirty-third part of all their commercial receipts estimated for 1832-3.

The return of tobacco imported into Great Britain during the year 1831, is—

*Please consult the PDF for the table*

A table, shewing the quantities of some of the principal articles of British North American produce and manufactures imported in and retained for consumption in Great Britain, in 1830:

*Please consult the PDF for the table*

A statement, shewing the declared value of certain articles of British produce and manufactures, exported to the British Northern Colonies and United States, in 1830:

*Please consult the PDF for the table*

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In 1830, the following quantities of articles of foreign and Colonial Merchandize, were exported from the United Kingdom to the British Northern Colonies:

*Please consult the PDF for the table*

In 1831, the duty on coffee imported at Quebec into the Northern Colonies from the United Kingdom, was 2d. per pound; if imported from another British Colony, 2d.

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per pound, and 7s.[31] per cwt. additional; and foreign coffee paid the 2d, the 7s.[32] and also another 5s. per cwt.!! The effect was to increase the smuggling from the United States, chiefly of Cuba coffee. Only 119,464 lbs. of coffee appear to have been imported into the two Canadas from all parts, in 1831, a quantity wholly inadequate to the wants of the population. If Cuba coffee, via. New-York, found a market in Canada in 1831, how must it be now that the 5 cents a pound are taken off in the Union, and the trade supplied duty-free?

The official report of the Lower Canada Customs, and the Quebec commercial lists, for the year ending the 31^st December 1831, shew the following results: —

*Please consult the PDF for the table*

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From Great Britain, 278 with cargoes, and 305 in ballast; the tonnage being 177,931, and manned by 7,901 seamen.

From Ireland, 73 with cargoes, and 146 in ballast; the tonnage being 56,977, and manned by 2,583 seamen.

From Jersey, 1 vessel; 111 tons; 8 men; cargo, wine and merchandize

From Gibraltar, 3 vessels; 431 tons; and 22 men; cargoes, spanish wine, sherry and brandy.

From the Netherlands, 3 vessels, in ballast; 974 tons; 43 men.

From Sweden, 1 vessel; 158 tons; 9 men; value of cargo, £2,289, currency.

From Spain, 2 vessels; 19 men; 358 tons; cargoes, wine, brandy, salt and merchandize.

From Portugal, 4 vessels; 879 tons; 37 men; wine and merchandize.

From the United States, 4 vessels; 822 tons; 37 men; cargoes, leaf and manufactured tobacco, rice, beef, pork, pitch, and rosin.

From Columbia, 2 vessels; 266 tons; 12 men; 300,469 lbs. muscovado sugar, &c.

From Brazil, 1 vessel, in ballast; 457 tons; 17 men.

From China, 1 vessel; 586 tons; 45 men: 465,797 lbs. tea; also 120,458 lbs. tea from the lower Colonies.

From British West Indies, 57 vessels; 7,940 tons; 443 men; cargoes, 881,813. gallons rum; 71,080 gallons molasses; 46,156 lbs. coffee; 18,956 lbs. pimento; upwards of 3 ½ millions of pounds of muscovado sugar, &c.

From Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Bermuda, Cape Breton, and Prince Edward’s Island, 146 vessels; 15,633 tons; 816 men.; cargoes—rum, 507,648 gallons; molasses, 24,257 gallons; about 10,700 gallons wine; 10,318 lbs. refined, and 1,530,817 lbs. muscovado sugar; 39,447 lbs. coffee; also, tobacco, salt, miscellaneous merchandize-value, £26,000.

Also, 77 vessels to Gaspé and New Carlisle-14,321 tons, and 774 men.

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In this trade in 1831, were employed 12,766 seamen, and a tonnage of 278,243 tons, besides the seamen and shipping on the great Lakes, and on the Rivers Ottawa and St. Lawrence, above Quebec.

Only one foreign ship entered the Port of Quebec in 1831; she was from Columbia. Were trade free, there would be a change in this respect.

We have paid some attention to the mode and manner of entering merchandize at Quebec, subject to 2 ½ per cent, and have made some inquiries: perhaps if 20 per cent. were added to the official currency value at Quebec, the amount of the real value in sterling money would be nearly attained, independent of a large value in goods brought by passengers, which is passed over as part of their luggage; there is a carelessness of entry, owing perhaps to the lowness of the duties.

We have calculated the real value, at Quebec, of the imports for 1831, at nearly two millions, sterling, which is probably about the true worth of the goods.

Mr. Neilson has made out an estimate in detail, for 1829 and 1830, by which he shows the value of the exports for 1829, at Quebec, to have been £870,840. sterling, and the exports in 1830, £1,184,400., also British money; in this he includes new ships built at Quebec, for exportation, peltries, lumber, ashes, everything.

A return made to the House of Assembly of Lower Canada, and printed in the appendix to their Journals, 1832-3, gives the following official information on importations.

There were imported at Quebec, in 1830, of Muscovado sugar 4,400,951 lbs.; in 1831, 5,923,908 lbs.; in 1832, 5,495,976 lbs., besides 267,058 lbs. imported in 1833, at Montreal, now a separate Port.

And at Quebec, of loaf sugar, in 1830, 561,969 lbs.; in 1831, 1,084,889 lbs.; in 1832, 373,334 lbs.; and at Montreal, (in 1832) 688,638 lbs.

Also, at Quebec, of coffee, in 1830, 210,085 lbs.; in 1831, 118,137 lbs.; in 1832, 123,024 lbs.; to which add (1832,) 48,005 lbs., at Montreal.

In 1830, there were imported at Quebec, 82,108 gallons of molasses; in 1831, 97,813; and in 1832, 123,024.

In 1830, at Quebec, 234,196 minots of salt; in 1831, 277,120; and in 1832, 226,696; besides 17,832 minots landed at Montreal.

On referring to a schedule of importations of tea and coffee, published with a report of the Legislature of Upper Canada, on tea in 1824, we find, that in 1815 a million and a quarter pounds coffee were imported by sea into Quebec, which fell to 335,441 lbs. in 1816, while in 1814 it had been 168,962 lbs.,

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allowing for the demand for smuggling into the United States, then it must be evident, that our chief supply of coffee is from the States now. The import of coffee into the United States in 1831, was 81,757,386 lbs., value of upwards of six millions of dollars.

The difference between a trade in barter, like that we carry on with the British West Indias, Great Britain, and the British Lower Provinces of North America, and a trade which must be paid for in bills of exchange or in specie, is this, the latter raises the exchange with other Countries, it makes money scarce amongst ourselves, and thereby gives an interruption to the traffic within this Province.

In his evidence given February 16th 1832, before the Select Committee of the House of Commons, on the state of the West India Colonies, Peter Rose, Esq., a Planter, of Demarara, who had been sent to England to state the grievances under which the Colonists labored, mentions, that American (U. S.) cargoes of produce purchased in Demarara, were usually paid for by bills drawn on Great Britain. On being asked—

“Would you still continue to barter your produce for lumber brought from British North America, even though the protecting duties on lumber and other articles from the United States were taken off? He replied,— “I should say, in Demarara, certainly, because at this moment we have very few Planters who can draw bills on England; their credit is gone.”

Mr. Rose gave in a statement, from which we learn, that the official value of imports into Demarara, from the British North American Colonies, was £147,022, in 1828, in 288 ships, 27,037 tons; in 1829, £139,150., in 299 ships, 30,266 tons; and in 1830, £125,168., in 319 ships, measuring 81,632 tons. The imports from the United States were comparatively trifling in amount. The exports of rum, coffee, sugar; &c. from Demarara to British North America, in these years, were conveyed as follows: —

In 1828, in 331 ships, measuring 26,504 tons; in 1829, in 355 ships, 30,380 tons; and in 1830, in 379 ships, 35,872 tons. A trade like this, carried on exclusively in British shipping, must be of immense importance to the Naval superiority sought to be maintained by England. The official value of a year’s exports to all places, from Demarara, is about £1,800,000. sterling.

The dependence of the West India resident Planters, on their English Commercial Agents, when under embarrassment, is shewn in the clearest light, by the evidence of Mr. James Aikin, of the firm of Aikin, & Hughes, Ship Brokers, Liverpool, given before the Committee, 20^th February, 1832.

You resided in Demarara for some time, did you not? I did.

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How long ago is that? I went to Demarara about twenty-one years ago.

How long did you remain there? For about twelve months: I have been there three times, for about twelve months each time.

Are you intimately acquainted with the mode of doing business in Demerara? I was at that time; I do not know that it is much altered since.

Have you been able to form any estimate of the rate per cent. per annum, which it costs the Planter to raise money on his estate, by way of mortgage? I have frequently made those calculations, and it has. always occurred to me, that the party (including interest) must have been paying at the rate of about 20 per cent, for any money he borrowed.

In what way do you make that estimate? He pays, in that Colony, six per cent. interest, in the first instance: he pays to the generality of houses 5s. freight, when a ship owner would contract to bring it at 3s. and 2s. per cwt. upon the produce of the estate; I would calculate to be equal to more than the interest upon the loan, generally speaking.

Is that independent of the six per cent? Yes.

How is that? The six per cent. is the legal interest; the freight which the Merchant who has a mortgage charges, is 5s. to the Planter, when in reality he pays only 3s. to the Ship Owner, that is a difference of two-fifths.

How much per cent. is that? I should suppose that 2s. per cwt. would be about six per cent. upon the sum generally lent them: the Merchant lending the money, has other benefits, — the commission in effecting the insurance, and the commission upon the sale of the produce, and other advantages. —I think, moderately speaking, the whole cannot be estimated at less than 20 per cent.

You are aware, that whether a Planter is under incumbrance or not, he must pay a certain commission on the transit? Yes, but Planters who are free from mortgage, manage, in some instances, to save the Merchant’s commission altogether; there are Brokers in Liverpool who receive consignments direct from different parts of the West Indies, and charge only one per cent, so that he would save, in that instance, one and a half, without looking to the guarantee commission.

The witness added, that (while Planters whose estates encumbered, were paying 5s.) he would undertake to bring home sugar from Jamaica to London, at 3s. 6d. per cwt. in British built ships!

The great depression of the West India trade, may be inferred from the facts stated in an official return from the Inspector General, London, 31^st  March, 1832, by which it appears, that while the declared value of British and Irish produce

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and manufactures, exported to the British West Indies in 1814, was seven millions of pounds, it gradually declined, until in 1818 it had fallen to six; in 1820 to four; in 1826 to three; and in 1830, to little more than two millions and three-quarters of a million of pounds, sterling. In proportion as West India produce fell in the markets of Britain, does the quantity and value of British manufactures appear to have fallen in the West Indies.

In the trade carried on between the British North American Colonies and the British West Indies, in 1828,-9, & 30, there were employed, on the average, 738 slips, measuring nearly 100,000 tons. In the same years, the average number of United States vessels employed in the direct trade between the British West Indies and the United States, was about 117.

The policy of England in founding, conquering, and maintaining Colonies, is thus described by Wm. R. K. Douglass, Esq. M. P., a member of the West India committee, and an extensive West India Proprietor, in his evidence given before the committee, February 2nd, 1832.

“Will you explain how the commercial policy of this country (England) imposes expenses upon the Colonist, which disable him from competing successfully with the grower of Foreign produce?”

“As I have already said, in an answer to a former question, the policy of this country, and every other country holding Colonies, is to hold them as dependencies, entirely subservient to the interest of the fixed commerce of the Mother Country; they are held entirely as an engine for that purpose, and the Colonists have no will of their own in regulating their own commerce. Every Act of Parliament, from the time of Charles the Second, downwards, has fully recognised that principle. If the Committee will refer to the 12th of Charles 2, Chap. 18. they will find that it is enacted, that no goods should be exported from the plantations but in British vessels, and that such ship should bring such produce only to England, for the sole benefit of our navigation and people. The 15tlh Charles 2, Chap. 7. is in the same spirit. The 25th of Charles 2nd, was passed, requiring, that unless bond were first given for bringing the Colonial produce to England exclusively, that produce, before the landing, should be subject to certain duties of customs; in fact, any person who will look at the whole Colonial policy of this country, will find, that it has been entirely for giving a fixed and certain trade to this country, and for the employment of its shipping. Various Acts of Parliament also have been passed, allowing a high rate of interest for monies lent on the security of Colonial property, all enacted under the same spirit as that general policy which regulates the possession of our Colonies: the consequence is, that at the peace in this respect, as I have before said, the effect

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of a competition in the sale of our Colonial produce on the Continent, became then fully felt, for Foreign Countries had the free’st mode of obtaining their various supplies, and selling their produce to all comers: our Colonist on the other hand, estimating the probable consumption of his estate, within a year, (the necessaries for the supply of the people) sends to this country a list, probably of a hundred various articles, that he estimates as really to be consumed upon the estate, within the coming year, from clothing down to the most minute articles; all these are therefore supplied on estimate; and, from the statement, it does not appear that the strictest economy can be observed, when there must be more of expense attending a system of that kind.

The Colonist also is not allowed to sell his produce; it has been the old system not to sell any of his sugar and other produce in the Colonies. —His trade is entirely restricted here; there are none of those persons come to buy in our Colonies that go to purchase produce in the independent Colonies; and there are expenses certainly that do necessarily attend that system, because, every man, when he is receiving supplies of this kind, in this estimated quantity, from his own country, must send all the produce he raises to the Mother Country; it must be sent and converted into money here, before it can be made changeable for those commodities supplied in the manner I have described. I mention this, not with any view on my own part to recommend the alteration of that system exclusively, for I conceive, if a country is to hold Colonies, it holds them for the specific advantages of maintaining a constant permanent trade, and giving employment to its shipping and navigation; and I believe, that has been the principle of our trade; but no man can avoid seeing that there are some expenses which are imposed upon the Colonist who is placed in this situation.”

In page 240, of the fourth edition of Sir Henry Parnell’s Work on Finance, he quotes the following opinions of the House of Assembly of Jamaica, on the monopoly under which the British West Indies suffer.

“By the Colonial system, established by England, for her own aggrandizement, British shipping and British seamen are exclusively employed in our commerce; no article of European growth or manufacture can be purchased unless imported from the Mother Country, which obtains the benefit of the carrying trade for our supply, and double freights; the Colonies being burthened with the increase of charge. The whole of our produce is, by the same system, sent in British shipping to the markets of the Mother Country.”

On a reference to the official returns by the customs, of imports and exports, at the several seaports of Lower Canada,

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in 1832, recorded in the Appendix to the Journals of the House of Assembly of that Province, for 1832,-3, we find, that there were exported from Quebec, Montreal, Gaspe and New Carlisle, in 1832, —

*Please consult the PDF for the table*

In 1832, there were imported into Canada, by sea, via Montreal and Quebec, —

*Please consult the PDF for the table*

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This statement of imports is exclusive of the cargoes of 76 vessels imported into Gaspe and New Carlisle, which chiefly consisted of salt, rum, gin, sugar, flour, and molasses, with nearly £15,000 value of merchandise, paying advalorem duties.

The real value of the goods imported into Canada, in 1832, by sea, inclusive of the imports into places below Quebec, appears, on a careful calculation, to fall very little short of eight and a half millions of dollars, or about a twelfth of the imports into the ports of the United States.

1008 vessels arrived at the port of Quebec, in 1832;- —From Great Britain, 337 vessels, (96,555 tons, and 4,394 men with cargoes; and 274 vessels (94,161 tons, and 3,615 men in ballast. Among the imports direct from Britain, were—

*Please consult the PDF for the table*

From Ireland, 47 vessels, with cargoes, (12,793 tons, 588 men) and 156 in ballast, (40,982 tons, 1,855 men.

From Jersey, in one vessel, 113 tons, 8 men, wines, and merchandise.

From Gibralter, in six vessels, 975 tons, 5. men, merchandise, brandy, salt, and 99,924 gallons wines.

From Portugal, in four vessels, 694 tons, 34 men, 14,387 minots of salt, 12,005 gallons of port wine, &c.

From Teneriffe, in one vessel, 106 tons, 6 men, 15,606 gallons of wine.

From Sweden, in one vessel, 155 tons, 8 men, merchandise.

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From France, two vessels, 411 tons, 20 men, wine and brandy,

From Messina and Leghorn, one vessel, 180 tons, 9 men, wine. &c.

From the other Colonies in British North America, 75 vessels with cargoes, 8,321 tons, 452 men; and in ballast, 28 vessels, 4,393 tons, 214 men. Among the imports are 220,528 gallons rum, 585,603 lbs. of sugar, and 14,756 lbs. coffee.

From the British West Indies, 55 vessels, (8,150 tons, and 460 men) of which 54 are with cargoes. Among the imports are 345,718 gallons of Jamaica rum, and 489,370 gallons of Leeward Islands rum, 98,398 gallons molasses, 46,810 lbs. of coffee, and 4,711,834 lbs. Muscovado sugar.

From the Netherlands, Brazil, the Azores, and Madeira, six vessels, 1,927 tons, 87 men, in ballast.

From the United States, six vessels with cargoes, 1,406 66 men; also ten vessels in ballast, 3,917 tons, and 162 men. All the imports, by sea, from the United States, were 119,539

lbs. leaf tobacco, 132,624 lbs. manufactured tobacco, 3,941 lbs. coffee, 355 lbs. segars, and £4,874 value of miscellaneous articles.

From Columbia, one vessel, 145 tons, 6 men; cargo 205, 863 lbs. Muscovado sugar, and 57,436 lbs. coffee.

And from China, two vessels, 1,327 tons, 99 men, with968,057 lbs. teas.

[On a reference to the minutes of evidence given before the standing Committee on Trade, of the House of Assembly of Lower Canada, 21^st January, 1833, we find—

William Finlay, Esq. was of opinion, that the East India Company could not import their teas, on quite as advantageous terms as the Merchants of the United States, “as the voyage is longer and the freight higher;” that the American vessels generally charge lower rates of freight; that the transport of teas between New York and Niagara, and Quebec and Niagara, could not be very different, and that, therefore, the amount of duty payable in Canada, would be the premium for smuggling into Upper Canada, supposing the cost at the two seaports nearly alike: witness would prefer a free trade to China, to a legal importation from the United States.

Jeremiah Leaycraft, Esq., thought that the abolition of the Colonial duty on tea would increase the consumption of sugar.

William Walker, Esq. (an Agent to the East India Company), said, that the extensive establishments of the Company in China, their causing their teas to be conveyed in large valuable ships, and under two decks, the greater length and intricacy of the voyage, the examination of the teas at Quebec, and the illicit trade carried on by the merchants of the United States, when on their way to China, and which is said to have

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been very profitable, appeared to be the principal causes why the Company could not import teas at Quebec on as favorable terms as they were sometimes imported into the United States.

The Committee reported, that in case it were found that the contraband trade in tea were continued, “the remedy would be, the opening of the intercourse with China, and legalizing the importation of teas from the United States, on the same scale of duties as are now levied.” (Journals House of Assembly of Lower Canada, 1832,-3, page 466.]

The China trade is valuable to the United States, on account of the tonnage it employs on long voyages, and the profitable commerce carried on in exporting to places beyond the Cape of Good Hope, cotton and woollen goods, beaver, otter, fox and ·other skins, tobacco, lead, iron, ginseng, copper, quicksilver, &c. The imports from China, India, &c. are tea, indigo pepper, nutmegs, cloves, cinnamon, cassia, silk, and East India sugar.

Of the exports from Quebec, in 1832, there were shipped for the United Kingdom, all the ashes save one barrel, all the wheat, 26,395 barrels of the flour, 3 barrels of pork, 200 of beef, a million of deals, 24,968 oars, nearly four-fifths of the staves, 20,662 tons of oak, 192,946 tons of pine, and 18,654 tons of elm.

For the British West Indies, only 4,901 barrels of flour, 470 barrels of Indian meal, 4,631 barrels of pork, 2,455 barrels of beef, nearly a million of staves, 5,775 lbs. of soap, 4,366 lbs. candles, and a large proportion of the codfish.

For Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and the other Northern Colonies, 3,505 barrels of pork, 19,761 barrels of flour, 2,321 barrels of beef, 190 m. staves, 4,661 cwts. biscuits, 6,380 lbs. of butter, 18,790 lbs. of soap, and 6,596 lbs. of candles.

For, France, 665 tons of pine timber, 127 tons oak, 11 m. staves, and nearly 2 m. deals. A small part of the imported goods is re-exported. —The value we can only guess at.

A large share of the exports from Quebec and Montreal is made up of United States produce; the exact proportion it would be difficult to ascertain.

By a reference to the laws regulating the customs, it will be seen, that while Englanid gives no preference whatever in her ports, to the ashes and lumber of the north shores of the Saint Lawrence, over the like articles brought from the United States frontier; and while the wheat and flour of the Canadas are refused even an imaginary protection in the British and West India markets, against United States competition, the Canadians are compelled, by means of heavy discriminating duties, penal statutes, and orders in council, to confine their regular trade almost exclusively to British shipping, British

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home or Colonial produce and merchandise, and those foreign articles which are re-exported from England—tea, is now, in some degree, an exception. —The share we have of the West India trade, as compared with the United States, is trifling; and our staple articles of produce are shut out of the United States markets, by the operation of their tariff. The discriminating duty in England, in favor of lumber from Canada, and the other Colonies, is more in favor of United States lumber taken down to Quebec;[33] the advantage to the Canadian is comparatively limited, and such as it is, is interfered with by the absurd tax at the Chaudiere.

The unanimous resolution of the House of Assembly, in February 1831, that the tax of a penny in the foot on the Canadian timber passing down the Ottawa, was not the least of the many discouragements by which the lumber trade was blighted; and the address for its removal, in which the Legislative Council refused to concur, and which the Colonial Office declined to approve of, have remained unnoticed by the Board of Trade; and the proceeds of the tax are applied without the concurrence or approbation of the Legislature. —Whether the tax is equally collected on all timber, or only on the rafts of certain individuals, there would be difficulty in ascertaining.

The Finance Accounts of Great Britain for 1832, show, that there were built and registered in the British plantations, 367 new vessels, 32,719 tonnage; 376, tonnage 34,290, in 1832: and 221, tonnage 25,470, in 1833. The whole number of vessels registered in London, as belonging to the several ports of the British Empire, on the 31^st December, 1832, was 24,435, measuring 2,618,068 tons, and navigated by 161,634 men: of these 4,771 vessels belonged to the British plantations, measuring 356,208 tons, and employing 23,202 seamen.

Mr. McGregor, in the second edition of his “British America,” has made a computation of the ships, tonnage, and seamen, employed in the trade between the United Kingdom and British North America, on an average, of the five years before the 5^th January, 1833.

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*Please consult the PDF for the table*

The difference of 62 ships on the average, inwards, greater than outwards, arises from that number, besides new ships, proceeding to Newfoundland with naval stores, and loading with fish, either for the continent of Europe or the West Indies: and the difference of tonnage from others, entered from the United Kingdom, being large ships, which load with lumber in the ports of New Brunswick, for the West Indies.

The following statement, computed by the same author, from the customs returns, shows the number of vessels, tonnage and men, employed between the British Northern Colonies in America, and the West Indies, and other Countries.

*Please consult the PDF for the table*

Mr. McGregor found it difficult to ascertain the tonnage, and seamen employed in the northern intercolonial trade. The official returns for the year ending 5^th January 1832, give (he says) the following statement, which does not include the vessels employed in the fishery,

*Please consult the PDF for the table*

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The trade of New Brunswick with Canada, and other countries, is shown by a statement made to the House of Assembly of that Colony, containing the exports and imports for 1832, and certified to be correct by the Collector of customs at St. Johns.

*Please consult the PDF for the table*

Out of this large amount, exceeding as it does, half a million, it appears by the return, that only £8,558. value was of the produce or manufacture of the Canadas. The following was the value of imports of the produce or manufacture of some other places.

Of the United States, £97,142. a part having been conveyed via Canada, &c.

Of the British West Indies, £67,185. part of which came indirectly, via Novascotia. &c.

Of the United Kingdom, £277,933.

*Please consult the PDF for the table*

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The quantities of the staple commodities of New Brunswick, exported in 1832, were 208,227 tons of square timber; 30,962,000 superficial feet of deals; 5,091 m. shingles; 289,581 staves; 622 barrels, and 2,947 kits of pickled salmon; 1,499 barrels mackerel, 18,502 quintals cod; 18,335 bbls. salted herrings; 14,167 boxes, and 42 barrels smoked herrings; 4,510 bushels oysters; 6,695 gallons fish oil; 3,176 tons gypsum; 12,978 lbs. butter and cheese; 598 tons limestone; 11,385 grind stones, &c. Of native grain, the whole export is 60 bushels of oats.

The value of the trade of New Brunswick, in a great measure, arises out of the bulky nature of her staple products. From the returns of the Custom-house of Saint Johns to the House of Assembly, it is ascertained, that in the year 1831, there cleared out to sea, from the several ports of the Colony, 1,710 vessels, measuring 212,734 tons, and navigated by 10,319 men; and that in 1832, there cleared out 1,758 vessels, 239,732 tons burthen, manned by 11,683 seamen.

In 1832, 471 vessels, 138,318 tons, 6,281 men, arrived in Saint Johns and the other ports of New Brunswick; and 536 vessels, 162,842 tons, with 7,186 men, cleared out for the United Kingdom. The same year, 1,039 vessels, 56,925 tons, 3,670 men, entered the ports of New Brunswick, from Canada, Newfoundland, &c.; and 935 vessels, 48,635 tons, and 3,095 men, sailed from the ports of New Brunswick for other ports in British North America.

In 1831, there were also employed in the trade of New Brunswick, Coastwise, at the port of Saint Johns, alone, 600 vessels, measuring 33,646 tons, and manned by 1,436 seamen; also 28 vessels cleared out for the fisheries, with 720 men, for bounty, and 38 vessels for ditto, with 120 men, not for bounty. The number in 1832 does not greatly differ from that of the year before.

The appendix to the General Assembly of Novascotia, Journal for 1834, page 11—furnishes an abstract of dutiable goods imported into that Province, in the year 1833, for which the duties had been paid or secured to the Colony, namely, —

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113,671 gallons of wine; 887,352 gallons of rum, brandy and gin; 41,990 cwts. (equal to 4,702,880 lbs.) sugar; 6,016 barrels of beef and pork; 32,263 barrels of four; 186,690 lbs. of tobacco; and of merchandise subject to advalorum duties, £347,389. Duties collected on all these articles, £105,386.

We are indebted to an official tabular statement, in page 14 of the appendix to the same volume, for the following important information concerning the import and export of Novascotia, in the article of flour. Novascotia imported from the United States, in 1832, of flour 56,507 barrels, and from the British Colonies, in North America, only 6,564 barrels.

Of the 63,071 barrels thus imported, 7,432 were exported to the West Indies, and 13,164 to other parts.

9527 barrels of United States flour were entered for the British fisheries, and subjected to no duty.

In 1833, there were imported into Novascotia, 85,752 barrels of flour, of which 67 barrels were from Britain, 16,000 from the British North American Colonies, and 69,685 from the United States. In the same year, Novascotia exported 14,271 barrels to the West Indies, and 18,526 to other parts; in all 32,797 barrels.

That high duties give rise to smuggling in Novascotia, the following extract from the report of the “Committee of the Chamber of Commerce, appointed to obtain information respecting the illegal introduction of dutiable and prohibited articles” into that Province, will serve to show:[34]

Your Committee, in pursuing their inquiries, have ascertained, from sources on which they can rely with the utmost confidence, that an illicit trade is now carried on in this Province, to a much greater extent than has heretofore been known; they have reason to believe that it is not confined to any particular section of the Province; but it is doubtless conducted on a much larger scale in those parts where the facilities and inducements are known to be the greatest.

Halifax, 2nd Dec’r. 1833.

We do not find the official return of the shipping belonging to the great port of Halifax, among the Novascotia returns, but in an abstract from the Custom-house, Halifax, dated 17^th February, 1834, it is shown, that the number of vessels owned at the out ports of that Colony, were 8 ships, 76 brigs, 550 schooners, in all 634 vessels, 36,696 tons.

The value of the imports from the United States, by way of the rivers, the sea coasts, and the numerous roads, cannot be correctly ascertained; but their is a Port of entry and Custom-house

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at Saint Johns, on Lake Champlain, at which the imports into Canada, in 1832, appear to have been very considerable. We select some of the principal items, on the authority of the official returns, for which, see the Assembly of Lower Canada’s Journals.

Articles imported from the United States into Saint Johns, Lower Canada, in the year ended the 5^th October 1832,inclusive.

Ashes, 2,598 bbls.; salted beef, 1,675 barrels; butter 192,897 lbs.; 4,298 buffaloe robes; cheese, 396,622 lbs.; 5,811 head of cattle, (value on the Custom-house books, £26,442.); 6,480 packs of playing cards; 111,800 lbs. fresh codfish; 12,285 lbs. coffee; 5,219 raw calves skins; £1,494. value of drugs; £4,646. value in fancy goods; 32 barrels flour; 170 boxes glassware; 8,783 hat bodies; £1,119. value in hardware; 2,410 live hogs, value £4,573.; 252 horses, value £3,646.; 130 bales hops; 49,390 lbs. lard; leather value £5,364.; 45 lots machinery, value L1,217; pork, salted, 4,400 barrels, value L11,953.; fresh pork, 731,378 lbs., value L6,507.; 36,815 raw hides, value L21,957; Rice 313,845 lbs. value L2,356.; 104 barrels spirits of turpentine; L1,382. value in silk goods; 5,407 sheep; 435,845 lbs. tallow, value L7,724.; leaf tobacco, 91,213 lbs.; tobacco manufactured, 362,773 lbs., value L6,541.; 127 boxes of French wines; wheat, 50 bushels; specie, L79,110. These and other imports at that port, that year, amount to L225,917. sterling money, and will serve to indicate to the Upper Canadians, the true source from whence the inhabitants of Lower Canada and the 1,000 ships of England, annually frequenting Quebec, derive their supplies.

The articles imported (specie exclusive) at the port of Saint Johns, are valued at L146,807. sterling, while the exports from thence to the United States, (exclusive of L96,803. In specie) are valued only at L8,197. Some of the exports are 108 horses; 17,984 bushels of salt; 242 bales of rags: merchandise, value L3,338.; a few skins, seeds, fish, &c.

At another port in Lower Canada, named Saint Marie Nouvelle Beauce, the customs give L7,480. sterling, as the value of the imports from the United States, in 1832; and L4,569. as the exports; all of which consist of goods which had been imported by sea, into Canada.

No part of the revenue collected on imports, at any other ports in Lower Canada, save Quebec and Montreal, is paid to Upper Canada; nor is any part of the Upper Canadian customs revenue, derived from imports from the United States, accounted for to Lower Canada.

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In the Quebec commercial list, 7th March, 1832, the value of all the lumber shipped from that Port in 1831, is down at £373,386; the ashes, at £334,128; flour and grain, £591,806; provisions, tobacco, &c. £49,322, (of which, Pork, £26,919; beef, £8,158, chiefly of United States origin); furs and peltries, £85,910; new vessels, £32,500;-in all, £1,467,052, or within about £400,000 of the estimated value of the imports. Of the lumber, a very considerable part was of United States origin; of 32,335 tons of hewn timber, this year exported by the United States, 29,967 tons were sent to the British North American Colonies;[35] and 150,795 barrels of flour, and 24,159 bushels of corn, were shipped by the same, to the same;[36] also, (says Niles) 100,382 barrels to the British West Indies,[37] and 91,915 bushels of corn.[38] The principal imports into Quebec, Gaspé, and New Carlisle, Lower Canada, in 1831, are estimated in the Quebec commercial list, at £52,835 for wines; £218,962 for rum, brandy and gin; £10,216, molasses; £126,058, sugars; £85,714, teas and coffee; £4,887, tobacco; £13,502, salt; and of merchandize, paying 2 ½ per cent. duties, £1,343,728;–total, £1,855,903; these in 1,111 ships, (calculating at one voyage each) —277,480 tons, and 12,766 men. Nine of the vessels which cleared from Quebec in 1831, were built there that year.

Iron is a most important commodity, and large quantities are annually imported into the Canadas. For many purposes, Swedish iron is preferred to English; but the Canadians are, in some degree, discouraged from using it, by the penalty of £7 10s. per cent duty, while English iron is subject only to the third of that tax.

The Quebec Gazette, in its remarks on the business of the year 1834, mentions that, in consequence of the heavy stock of Pork in hand last July, prices fell half a dollar a barrel, and that  “about this time an unusual quantity of Irish Pork began to arrive, which was offered at auction, and prices again fell 2s. 6d. to 3s. 9d. per barrel, leaving a large stock still in the market, from which it is expected that prices will open rather lower than usual in the spring (of 1835) say 51s. 3d. to 52s. 6d. for prime, 60s. to 62s. 6d. for prime mess, and cargo 42s. 6d. to 43s. 9d.”

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England has passed a law to say that Pork, Flour, Wheat, Live Stock, Ashes, Beef, and Lumber shall be imported from the United States, England, or Ireland, into Canada, duty free. Ireland thus sends Pork to Quebec, and lowers prices. Suppose the Canadian to send a cargo of Pork to Ireland or England, in order to pay for the cotton or linen manufactures he uses, he will find that by the 6th, George 4th, cap. 117, Beef, Lamb, Mutton, Pork, Sheep, and Swine, are prohibited to be imported into the Home Dominions of Great Britain, from Canada or any other places whatever. Cattle and Malt are also prohibited to be imported: Butter pays an import duty of £20 per ton; Beer, 53s. per 32 gallons; Cheese, £10 per ton; Apples, 5s. per bushed; Clover or Hay Seeds, 20s. per cwt.; Potatoes, 2s. per 112 lbs. The price of all these articles is thus raised to consumers for the benefit of one class, the land owners, who have an interest very distinct from the farmers and laborers.

It will be seen from the British official returns, that the quantity and declared (or nearly the real) value of the following articles exported from the United Kingdom to British North, America, in 1830, was as follows:

Beef, and Pork, 10,976 barrels, £29,012; Beer and Ale, 397 tons, £7,294; Butter and Cheese, 3,958 cwts. £13,265. These articles must have chiefly gone to Newfoundland and the other lower ports.

England pursues a different course with regard to the Canadas: she declares it lawful for the United States to import into these Provinces duty free, Live Stock, Wheat, Flour, Ashes, Pork, Beef, Hams, Bacon, and other produce required by her shipping, and buys as readily the produce of Maine and Vermont, as of Upper and Lower Canada.

The United States steadily exclude the dealer in Canadian produce from a choice of markets, by duties so high, as in most cases to amount to a prohibition.

The Legislature of this Colony addressed the King in March 1833, praying that a lower duty might be charged on Cotton and Tobacco of United States growth, when imported into the United Kingdom through Montreal and Quebec, than when shipped from the countries of their growth and manufacture: the answer as to Cotton, justly declared that it would be highly inexpedient to create an artificial interest which might prevent the manufactures of Great Britain from being supplied with Cotton at the cheapest rates, and remarked that the duty on Tobacco was laid on, purely for the purposes of revenue, and that Government declined to recommend any modification of that duty which might impare its productiveness without benefitting the British consumer.

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The information contained in the Appendix to the Assembly’s Journal, for 1833-4, page 94 to 101, throws much light on the trade of Upper Canada, and is of a nature on which dependence may be placed.

The Secretary of the La Chine Canal’s Returns shew, that the imports via the Canal, in 1826-7-8, were, of merchandize and liquors, 17,085 tons; and that in 1830-1-2, they had increased to 30,323 tons; that although no salt was imported via. the Canal in 1826, it soon became an important article of trade; the number of tons in the six years ending in 1832, being, 76, 66, 365, 405, 334 and 406 tons. The average number of barrels of Ashes exported by the Canal exceeded 20,000 yearly, in the seven years: the Flour exported ranged in 1826 to 1832 from 55,000 barrels to 130,000 yearly; of Grain there were exported 330,379 bushels in 1826-7-8, and in 1830-1-2, upwards of 1,002,382 bushels; the Hogs sent down increased in number from 187 in 1826, to 2576 in 1832.

Mr. Simpson, Collector of Customs, at Coteau du Lac, estimates the quantity and value of Canadian produce passing downwards in 1831 and 1832, at 337,100 tons; value, £1,123,232, Sterling. He sets down 464,413 bushels of Wheat; 12,764 barrels of Pork, and 98,520 barrels of Flour, of the growth, produce, or manufacture of Upper Canada, either for sale abroad, or domestic, in Lower Canada.

In the year ending October 1^st, 1832, there passed downwards through the Coteau du Lac, (according to Mr. Simpson,) of foreign exports, 12,989 barrels of Flour; 3,106 of Pork, and 3,500 barrels of Ashes. Of exports, consisting of articles the growth, produce, or manufacture of this Province (flour being such if manufactured from the U. States wheat,) there were in that year 12,160 barrels of Ashes; [39] 65,458 of

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flour; 6,718 of Pork;. 510 of Pease; 302,841 bushels of Wheat; 1482 boxes of Starch; 19 barrels, 725 kegs of Tobacco; 642 M. Standard and 832 M. West India Staves, &c.

In the Report of Congress by Mr. Woodbury, Secretary of the Treasury of the United States, on the finances of the country, made in December, 1834, he thus sums up the vast amount of the commerce of the Union:

“The imports during the year ending September 30th, 1834, are estimated in value at $123,093,351; being compared with the preceding year, an increase of $14,101,541. Those during the three past years have, on an average, been about $111,038,142.

The exports during the same year are estimated at $97,318,74; of which $74,444,429, were in domestic, and $22,874,295, in, foreign products; being compared with the preceding year, an increase of $ 6,655,321; of which $3,802, 399 were in articles of domestic, and $2,852,922, in those of foreign products. The average exports, during the last three years, have been about $91,719,690; of which $69,407,976 are the average in articles of domestic products, and $22,311,714 in those of foreign.

It will thus be seen that the imports of the last year varied in amount $12,055,209 from the average of the three past years, and those paying duties, are believed to have varied much less. It is, therefore, in connexion with the reasons before named, considered safe to infer, that the imports of the ensuing year may not differ materially from that average. Should they not so differ, the revenue from customs will probably correspond in substance with that of the past year, except so far as it may be changed by the whole amount of all the importations, when compared with the above average; because the classes and value of articles paying duty, for aught which is known, will probably be similar, and the rate of duties on them will not, by existing laws, be essentially altered till the 31st December, A. D. 1835.”

The power of the United States may be more readily conceived when it is known that on the 1s day of January, 1835, the national debt was extinguished: an excess of half a million

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of dollars remained in the Treasury over all existing claims; and that seven millions of Bank Stock, on hand, with a large available balance of unexpended appropriations, were among the extraordinary features of their present financial condition.

The tariff of foreign taxation is greatly reduced; and in Tea, Coffee, Spices, and many other articles of necessity, the principle of perfect freedom of trade, has been introduced; the vexatious regulations by which an additional 10 per cent used to be added to the cost in estimating the duties on imports is done away, and instead thereof, it is provided that the actual charges on exportation, exclusive of insurance, shall be added to the invoice, in estimating the value of goods subject to ad valorem duties. In estimating British Invoice values the £1 Sterling is to be considered as being worth 480 cents, its value up to 1833, was fixed at 444 cents.

The official value of the United States exports of domestic produce and manufactures, for the year ending September 30^th, 1830, was stated by the Secretary of the Treasury, as follows:

*Please consult the PDF for the table*

The aggregate tonnage employed in exporting for the same year, was 1,105,196 tons.

The real amount of the tonnage of the United States is not easily ascertained, many United States vessels trading under foreign flags, and therefore not appearing in the account. On the other hand, it is well known that many ships which acknowledge American owners, are in reality the property of British Capitalists. The great improvements made of late years in ship building, has enabled the shipping of the Union to combine the advantages of large burdens and fast sailing, and thereby to do more business than could be performed by the same tonnage of any other country.

The steam-boat tonnage of the Union, is estimated at 75,000 tons; and on a rough calculation, we should be inclined to set down that of the British North American Colonies at from 12,000 to 14,000 tons. These packets effect the transfer and exchange of merchandize with great celerity, and, with the canals and rail-roads, powerfully aid in bringing together the most distant parts.

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The annual report of the Treasury department of the United States, on commerce, for the year ending 30^th September, 1831, is an octavo of several hundred pages; and the following brief statement of some of the most important results, are interesting:

The imports into the United States in the above year, amounted to 103,191,124 dollars; and the exports from thence, to 81,310,583 dollars value, of which above 25 ¼ millions were cotton; 10 millions flour; 5 millions (nearly) tobacco; 2 millions rice; about 2 millions fish and oil; 1 ¾ millions staves and lumber; 1 million of ashes; 1 ½ million pork; ¾ of a million of skins and furs; and 1 ¼ millions domestic cotton manufactures; upwards of half the export trade of the Union appears to be made up of the products of the Southern States. Previous to 1790, the United States did not send a pound of cotton to England; now, more than half of the cotton used in Great Britain comes from the United States.

So far is war from being an effectual barrier to prevent trading, that some of the greatest importing years ever known in the American Union, were those immediately after the termination of the last contest between Great Britain and the United States; and, as usual, the greatest trade was between the two countries which had just ceased fighting.

The value of the United States imports in this year, (1830-31) from the Canadas and other British Northern Colonies, was 864,909 dollars; and of the exports of the said Northern Colonies, 4,062,838 dollars: of which latter the whole was of the domestic productions of the Union, except 35,446 dollars. A late Colonial Trade Act, by making a distinction between British American vessels, in this trade, makes it appear that a great quantity of United States goods, intended for the West Indies, are consumed in the Canadas and other Northern Provinces.

Of the tonnage which entered the United States from the Canadas and other Northern British Colonies, 92,672 tons were American, and 82,557 tons British and Colonial. Of the tonnage which departed from the United States for said Colonies, 79,364 tons were American, and 94,776 British and Colonial.

There is a valuable inland trade carried on between the Colonies and the Union;[40] in some places along the imaginary

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dividing frontier, the traveller will see shops, or stores, as they are called, built with one door in the United States and the other door in the Canadas, and American native or imported goods on the shelves of the southern division, and British or Colonial on the northern. The principle on which they are constructed, is truly ingenious, and shews that man, when left to himself, will purchase in the cheapest market, while politicians are consuming the midnight oil to prove that it is bad policy for him to do so.

It would be very difficult to ascertain the extent of the trade of Upper Canada with the United States; the contraband commerce carried on in defiance of fiscal regulations imposed by the United Kingdom Parliament, and of the United States tariff laws, is very extensive, and can be guessed at by referring to the statistical information we have collected.[41] The trade of the Ohio Canal to and from the port of Cleveland, on Lake Erie, (opposite Upper Canada) may be seen by the following official statement. made by Mr. Beardsley, the Collector at Cleveland.

Merchandize which arrived at Cleveland, in Ohio, by the way of the Ohio Canal, during the year 1834:

*Please consult the PDF for the table*

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The excess of freight received in pounds over the preceding year, 1833, was 4,046,887. Excess cleared in 1834, 2,457,154 pounds.

The amount of tolls collected at Cleveland in 1833, was 52,055 dollars; in 1834, it was 61,660 dollars; excess, 9,605 dollars.

Passing downwards, the next source of information regarding the inland trade carried on the great lakes, is the annual report of the Board of Directors of the Welland Canal Company, for 1834, the accuracy of which is guaranteed by the signatures of Messrs. Merritt, McDonell, Creighton, Butler, Chisholm, Elliott, and Doctor Charles Duncombe, Directors of that work.

From their report, dated at St. Catharines, on the 7^th January last, we select the following particulars: —

“There has passed through the Welland Canal the present season, (meaning the year 1834) 570 schooners; 334 boats and scows; and 66 rafts; the amount of tonnage of which is, 37,927; and the following quantities of produce, merchandize, &c.

*Please consult the PDF for the table*

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Coal is found in abundance adjoining the Ohio Canal; this is the first attempt to introduce it on the shores of Lake Ontario.

*Please consult the PDF for the table*

Although the income of the Canal, during the present season, does not present the same ratio of increase with the former, the difference is chiefly to be ascribed to the early close of the navigation, and decrease of business in the months of June and July, owing to the total interruption in the navigation of the Ohio Canal; notwithstanding which our staple articles have been greatly increased, viz: —

*Please consult the PDF for the table*

The Directors, in their report, state that—

“The difficulties and expense of navigating the St. Lawrence, are far greater than is generally supposed. The amount of trade or commerce through that channel, la a mere bagatelle, compared to what is directed to the New-York market. It appears that 264,919 bushels of wheat were conveyed through the Welland Canal last season, of which only 18,464 bushels came from our ports on Lake Erie, and 22,170 from American ports, destined our Montreal marktet; and the remaining 224,285 were conveyed to Oswego; whereas, if the St. Lawrence were made navigable, it would be difficult prescribing bounds to the quantity which would be directed by this channel to foreign markets, or the quantity of merchandize in return for the supply of the western country. It la supposed that merchandize

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from London would be conveyed to Cleveland for £2 10s. per ton, which now costs £3 to £4, from Montreal to Prescott, a distance of 130 miles.”

It would have been satisfactory could we have presented our readers with official details of the commerce of Oswego, in like manner as we have of Cleveland. In the absence of all such documentary evidence, however, we have had recourse to the following statement, which appears to have been compiled with care by the Editor of the Oswego Palladium, a respectable American Journal, and in the habit of watching the commercial movements on the Lakes.

Progress of Oswego, and Business of 1834.

“One of our principal commercial establishments has taken the trouble to prepare, from accurate statements rendered by the several flouring mills and forwarding houses, an abstract of so much of the business of our village as is in immediate connexion with the Lakes and Canals. Having been favored with a copy of the abstract, (for which we feel ourselves greatly indebted,) we are enabled, with a few facts furnished from the Custom-house, to lay before our readers, an accurate summary of the principal business of the village and of the port during the past year. The increase over the business of the preceding year is found to be very great, and considering the pecuniary distress prevailing during the early part of the year, is in some particulars most extraordinary: we are particularly gratified to observe the augmented amount of tonnage, which has increased in less than two years considerably more than 100 per cent.

Commodities received at the Port of Oswego during the year 1834.

*Please consult the PDF for the table*

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The editor adds, that six or seven years ago the whole tonnage of Oswego consisted of four schooners, three of them old and abandoned; but that now Oswego owns 34 vessels, including steam boats, and exclusive of vessels on the stocks. The Canadian ports on Lake Ontario carry on an important and increasing trade with Oswego, and through it with New York and Albany. If the Oswego report is to be depended on, the greater part of the wheat that came down the Welland Canal passed into Oswego, and thence to New York. The Oswego account of Salt shipped for Lake Erie, via the Welland Canal, exceeds the whole quantity officially reported by the Directors of that work, by 1,963 barrels.

TARIFF OF CANADA

Specific Duties payable at the Ports of Canada

*Please consult the PDF for the table*

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And upon certain goods wares, and merchandise being of foreign produce or manufacture[42]

Specific Duties payable at the Ports of Canada

BOTTLED WINE, if not bottled in the United Kingdom, pays an additional duty of £7. 7s. per tun, and a penny a bottle on the bottle.

MADEIRA WINE from the place of growth, in wood, per tun, £7. But if from England, the £7. per tun is reduced to l0s.

ALL OTHER WINES, except French, if from place of growth, £6. 10s. more than if from England, and a further per centage of £7. 10s. where the Colonial duty does not exceed that sum; also, if in bottles, another £7. 7s. if not from Britain.

RUM, 6d. per gallon additional, if not British plantation.

WHISKEY from the Colonies, or from Britain, duty S3d. sterling, and 3d. currency; if from any other place, 9d. additional, sterling, and 2d. additional, currency.

BRANDY, and all spirits, 3d. additional duty per gallon, if not imported from England or her Colonies.

MOLASSES. A protecting duty of 3s. per cwt. in favor of British Molasses.

COFFEE, 5s. per cwt. additional duty, if not British plantation, or imported from England.

COCOA. A discriminating duty in favor of British plantation, of’ 5s. per cwt.

SUGAR, refined, foreign, 20s. per cwt. more than if it were British or Colonial.

SUGAR, Muscovado, 5s. per cwt. additional duty, if not British plantation.

TEAS. IIyson, per lb. 6d.; Bohea, 2d.; all other sorts, 4d. (No duties are payable on teas imported into the United States). In 1830, £12,257. were received by the customs, Quebec, as Provincial duty on tea; in 1831, £18,267.; and during the year ending 5th January, 1833, £8,199. at Quebec, and £9,198. (currency) at Montreal.—see official return to House of Assembly.

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Retailers, when importing tea from the United States into Upper Canada, many years ago, were subject to a duty of— — per cent. on the value imported; this was changed into an absolute prohibition by the enforcement of Acts of the British Parliament, giving an entire monopoly to the East India Company. Their charter having expired, teas may now be imported from the United States into these Colonies, on payment of a duty of fifteen per cent. on the true value brought in, they being under the regulations imposed by late British Acts and orders in Council.

Duties to protect British Capital Shipping and Manufactures, and to give British Merchants a monopoly of the Canada Market, or in other words, to prevent the Farmers of these Colonies from buying the articles hereinafter mentioned, at the best markets, unless under the disadvantages of heavier taxation.

The articles undermentioned, if of British origin or manufacture and brought from Great Britain and Ireland, pay a duty of two and a half dollars in the hundred dollars value, on importation into Canada: but if brought from the United States, France or any other foreign country, they pay three times that duty, or seven and a half dollars for every hundred dollars value.

Alabaster; Anchovies; Argol; Anniseed; Amber; Almonds; Brimstone; Botargo; Boxwood; Currents; Capers; Cascacoo; Coral; Cumminseed; Cork; Cinnabar; Dates; Essences of Bergamot; Lemon; Roses; Citron; Oranges; Lavender; Rosemary; Emery Stone; Fruit dry; preserved in Sugar, wet, preserved in Brandy; Figs; Honey; Juniper-Berries; Iron in bars; Unwrought and Pig Iron; Incense of Frankincense; Lentiles; Lava and Malta Stone for building;

Marble rough and worked; Mosaic work; Medals; Musk; Macaroni; Nuts of all kinds; Oil of Olives, of Almonds; Onis Root; Ostrich Feathers; Ochre; Orange Buds and Peel; Olives; Pitch; Pickles in jars and bottles; Paintings; Punk; Pozzolana; Pumice-Stone; Parmesan Cheese; Pickles; Pearls; Prints; Precious Stones, (except Diamonds); Quick-silver; Raisins; Sausages; Sponges; Tar; Turpentine; Vermillion; Vermicelli, and Whet Stones.

The articles undermentioned pay twenty dollars duty on every hundred dollars value, imported into Canada, if from the United States, or any other part of the world, except the dominions of Great Britain; — but if of British produce and manufacture, and imported direct from Britain, only two and a half dollars on the hundred dollars value:

Glass and Manufactures of Glass;

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Soap;

Sugar Candy; Refined Sugar;

Tobacco Manufactured, and Cotton Manufactures.

The articles named below are subject to a duty of thirty dollars on every hundred dollars value brought into the Canadas, if imported from Germany, France, Holland, China, the United States, or any other foreign country; but if of British produce and manufacture, and imported direct from Britain in British Ships, manned with three-fourths of British seamen, the duty is reduced to two and a half dollars in the hundred:

Clocks and Watches;

Leather Manufactures ; Linen;

Musical Instruments;

Wires of all sorts;

Books and Papers;

Silk Manufactures.

All goods, wares and merchandize, being foreign (or if British, yet imported from a foreign country,) not prohibited, nor otherwise charged with duty, and not declared to be free of duty by the Imperial Act, of 3d and 4th of William 4th, chap. 59, are subject to a tax or duty, on importation into Canada, of fifteen dollars on every hundred dollars of the real value of the articles so imported. But if the same kinds of goods and merchandize are of British produce or manufacture, and imported into Canada from Britain, in British Ships, they are only subject to duty of two dollars and a half on every hundred dollars of their value.

Table of Free Goods

[By Provincial Acts of Lower Canada]

*Please consult PDF for the table*

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*Table of Prohibitions, except from the United Kingdom, or some other British Possession

*Please consult the PDF for the table*

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Drawbacks

By the Statute of Lower Canada, 35 Geo. Chap. 9, sec. 4 it is enacted, “that there shall be allowed, and paid, by the Collector of the customs, out of the duties which shall be by him received under this Act, a drawback of four pence for every minot of salt which shall be exported from the port of Quebec, to any port or place beyond or below the limits herein before mentioned, (namely, below the limits of Lower Canada) and there shall be allowed and paid by the said Collector, seven pence for every tierce of salted salmon, and four pence for every barrel of beef or pork, or of salted fish of any kind, and so on, in proportion for any greater or less package exported from the port of Quebec to any port or place out of Lower Canada.

Wheat and flour exported from Quebec or Montreal to Great Britain, require declaration of production, of which the following is the form:—

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I, C. D., of Montreal, do declare that I am the shipper of 400 minots of wheat, and 400 barrels of wheat flour, on board the Rapid, A. B. Master, bound for Liverpool, and that the said corn or flour is the produce of Lower Canada, —the same being a British Possession out of Europe.

Dated this 1^st day of May, 1834.

C.D.

MEMORANDUM,

To remain of Record in the Custom-House.

Declaration of shipper, or owner, or proprietor of corn, meal, or flour. 9 Geo. 4th. chap. 60. sec. 4.

This declaration remains on record in the Custom-House, but a duplicate is made out to be transmitted with the ship’s papers, with the following certificate at foot : —

I hereby certify, that the above is a true and accurate copy of the declaration subscribed by the said C. D.

A.B. Collector.

Certificate of Officer of Customs to copy of declaration. — 9 Geo. 4. ch. 60. sec. 4.

Besides the above certified declaration, a separate certificate of declaration has to be made; and which, when signed by the Collector, is also transmitted with the ship’s papers. Themform is as follows: —

I, A. B., Collector of the Customs at Montreal, do hereby certify, that C. D. hath declared to be shipped, four hundred minots of wheat, and four hundred barrels of wheat flour, on board the Rapid, A. B. Master, bound for Liverpool.

Dated this 1^st day of May, 1834.

A.B. Collector.

Certificate of Officer of Customs, of quantity of corn shipped under 9th Geo. 4. chap. 6. sec. 4.

In addition to the two manifests, a form is furnished by the Custom-House, to be filled up with a further specification of the cargo.

PRICES CURRENT

NEW-YORK, FEBRAURY 14^TH, 1835 (N.Y. Enq.)

Freights to Liverpoool

*Please consult the PDF for the table*

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Ship Canal from Lake Ontario to the Hudson River.

An extract from a report made to the inhabitants of the City of Utica, New-York, by a committee appointed to survey the route of a contemplated ship Canal between Utica and Oswego, &c. with some of the resolutions agreed to by the meeting.

[FROM THE ALBANY ARGUS.]

At a meeting of the inhabitants of the City of Utica, held, pursuant to adjournment, at the Court-Room, on the evening of February 5th, 1835, the Honorable Joseph Kirkland, Mayor of the City, was appointed President; and John C. Devereux, and Alvin Stuart, Esqrs. Vice-Presidents; and William Crafts, and William C. Noyes, Esqrs. Secretaries.

Alexander B. Johnson, Esquire, Chairman of the State Central Executive Committee upon the proposed ship Canal from Lake Ontario to the Hudson, stated the objects of the meeting to be to hear the report of the Engineer appointed to survey the route of the contemplated work between Utica and Oswego, and to take such measures as should be deemed necessary in presenting the subject to the Legislature; and in

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behalf of the Committee, he presented and read the following report: —

About two years ago, some few enterprising and intelligent citizens of Oswego became convinced that New-York was destined to lose the great inland trade of the western lakes, unless some facility was furnished beyond that produced by the Erie Canal.

The citizens of Oswego, therefore, convened in public meetings, and extensively diffused over the State the information that the Canadian Government, and others interested in the Canadas, were proceeding rapidly in removing the obstructions which prevent vessels from descending the St. Lawrence to the Ocean.

This descent is unquestionably the natural channel for the commerce, not only of Lake Ontario, but of the chain of lakes which stretch so extensively, from east to west, across our continent. They form one continuous and immense sheet of water, and the whole is precipitated by nature down the St. Lawrence. Nature has placed some barriers against the progress of man in this descent, but the Falls of Niagara, which constitute the greatest barrier, are already surmounted by the Welland Canal.

When New York commenced the Erie Canal, the state fondly imagined it had accomplished all that was necessary to insure to itself the commerce of the Lakes. The Canadas had made no efforts to remove the obstructions which impede their participation in this commerce; and the commerce itself was but just in embrio. Now, every thing is reversed. The Canadas are not only active in removing the obstructions of nature; but the commerce is grown to a size as disproportioned to the Erie Canal, as the cradle of an infant is disproportioned to the accommodation of a man. On Lake Erie alone, are 31 American Steam-Boats, 234 American Schooners and 3 Brigs, the whole constituting a tonnage of 31,000 tons; these are only the American vessels; how many Canadian vessels navigate the lake, I have not ascertained.

But even the present commerce of the lakes, large as it may be, is nothing in comparison with the commerce which at some period (and not remote,) is there to be congregated. Experience teaches us that the enterprise of man is constantly and steadily directing itself to the full occupation of every theatre on which enterprise can be employed. The Hudson River was not made to accommodate the cities and villages on its borders, but the river is the mother which has produced those cities and villages. It has produced all the commerce which floats on its surface, and it is entitled to the honor of having produced even the noble and almost superhuman Steam-Boats which traverse it. The river stimulated Fulton’s

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inventive power; and had the river not existed, we should not, at this day, have possessed Steam-Boats.

Looking then at the western lakes, and at the fertile territory of which they are the centre; and at the enterprize of our citizens; we may safely predict that the lakes are to become the scenes of a mightier inland commerce than the world ever before witnessed.

In view of the efforts which were in progress at Oswego, a meeting was held last winter of the citizens of Utica. From that meeting various resolutions emanated, and also a memorial to the Legislature, praying for the survey of a Ship Canal from Lake Ontario to the Hudson. In the present position of the commerce which we desire to share, nothing short of a Ship Canal to the Hudson can enable us to compete successfully with Canada. When we can furnish to lake vessels an outlet from the lakes to New York, we may hope to direct the commerce to that port; but while a trans-shipment must be made from lake vessels into some other, before the freight can reach New York, we may steal from the lakes a little of its trade; we may catch the crumbs that fall from the table, but we can never partake of the solid dishes that compose the feast. Even for these crumbs we must scramble with Pennsylvania, with Maryland, and with States still farther south, and they even, bid fair to surpass us in this comparatively small competition.

Providence has, however, placed within our grasp the means of producing an outlet which shall enable us, not only to leave far behind all the efforts of our sister States, but which shall enable us to furnish an outlet superior, even to that by the St. Lawrence; superior by being more accessible during a portion of the year, and by leading to, generally, a better market.

Upon motion, portions of the Report of Edwin F. Johnson, Esquire, the Engineer who had explored the route, were read, and listened to, with great interest.

The Committee appointed at a previous meeting to prepare a memorial to the Legislature, and Resolutions expressive of the views of the city relative to the work, reported, by their Chairman, a memorial, and the following Resolutions, which were unanimously adopted:

Resolved, That in view of the unparalleled increase in the population and productions of the Western States and Territories, and the consequent necessity of greatly enlarging the facilities of communication between the western portions of our country, and particularly in view of the spirited and wisely directed efforts making in our sister States and the Canadian Provinces, to divert the trade of the western country from its accustomed route, through the Erie Canal, to the City of New

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York, to new channels leading to the seaports of other States, it is incumbent on the State of New York, if she would secure herself from a rivalry which may cost her the inheritance purchased for her by the wisdom of her Clinton, and his coadjutors, to adopt some measures which may render available the natural advantages she possesses for furnishing the commercial outlet of the western country.

Resolved, That this meeting regard the immediate construction of a Ship or Steam-Boat communication from Lake Ontario to this City, and its extension to the City of Albany, at an early day, indispensably necessary to prevent a competition with the Canals and Rail Roads of the Canadas, Pennsylvania and Maryland, which will prove destructive to the carrying trade between the western country and the City of New York, and highly prejudicial to the interests of the whole State.

NEW YORK CANALS.

In a Report made to the Senate of the State of New York, by the Commissioners of the Canal Fund, there are a number of tables exhibiting the trade of the Canals from 1820 to 1834.

The quantity of flour cleared from Buffalo, sent, in 1834, via the Erie Canal, was 79,324 barrels; of provisions 14,590 barrels; of tobacco, 1,009 tons; of pig iron, 1,128 tons; of staves, 2,400,000; of butter and cheese, 257 tons; of wool, 73 tons. Of merchandize, &c. destined for the west, there arrived at Buffalo, by the Erie Canal, 17,401 tons; of furniture of Emigrants, 4,144 tons; salt, 84,101 barrels.

One of the tables exhibits the quantity of property passing to Whitehall, on the Champlain Canal, from 1820 to 1834; and also the quantity of merchandize arriving at or passing Whitehall, from tide water to the north. There has been.an increase in the quantity of sawed lumber cleared at Whitehall, from 22,426,067 in 1823, to 77,863,247 feet in 1834; of wool, from 9,660 to 252,000 lbs.; of butter and cheese, from 27,776 to.1,954,000 pounds; of glass, from 3 to 18,000 boxes; of iron and nails, from 153 to 2,631 tons; and of marble, from 44 to 1,167 tons. The merchandize passing Whitehall north, has increased no less than 1,000 tons, comparing 1834 with 1829. Flour has increased from 5,064 barrels in 1829, to 61,247 in 1834: and during the last season, 20,406 bushels of wheat passed Whitehall to the north. The quantity of Onondaga Salt sent to Lake Champlain through the northern Canal, amounted the last season to 123,337 bushels, being more than the average amount for the four preceding years.

Among the commodities coming down the Champlain Canal, during the last season, there were 210 tons of copperas, and 304 tons of manganese. These articles came from the State of Vermont.

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The whole amount of tonnage arriving at, and passing Whitehall, on the Champlain Canal, in the season of navigation, 1835, was 198,928 tons.

The Erie Canal was finished in the fall of 1825. In 1826 this Canal was navigable from Albany to Buffalo, and the tolls for that year amounted to the sum of $677,466 75, being less by $602,278 22, than the amount collected in 1834. The following statement exhibits the increase in some of the principal commodities transported on the Canal, comparing 1826 with 1834, viz:

*Please consult the PDF for the table*

In 1834, the tonnage arrived at and cleared from Albany and Troy, on both Canals, was equal to 668,433 tons, of 2000 pounds each, viz:

*Please consult the PDF for the table*

The down freight on the Canals has nearly doubled in eight years, and the up freight has more than doubled in the same time.

The Report contains a statement of the quantity and value in the market, of the various articles which have arrived at tide water, on both Canals, in 1834. The total value estimated at

*Please consult the PDF for the table*

If to this sum is added the value of articles arriving at the junction of the Canals and passing north, and which articles are not embraced in the statistical table kept at West Troy,

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the total value of the products brought down the Canals to tide water, during the last season, may be estimated at more than FOURTEEN MILLIONS OF DOLLARS.

Of the aggregate value of property coming to market, wheat, flour, and coarse grain, make up more than

*Please consult the PDF for the table*

The residue of the estimate value of property coming to tide water on the Canals, is made up of cotton, woollen, and other domestic manufactures, of a great variety of non-enumerated articles, and of others which are not specified.

The sums collected upon the several Canals in New York State, for tolls, during the year ending on the 1^st of January, 1835, are as follows, viz :

*Please consult the PDF for the table*

It appears that the whole amount of monies received by the Commissioners of the New York State Canal Fund, from all sources, from the date of the organization of the board, in 1817, until the 30^th of September, 1834, was upwards of twenty-three millions of dollars; of which nearly ten millions were for Canal tolls; upwards of three millions for duties on auctioneers, and nearly two millions for duties on salt; upwards of $73,000 have been also realized from a tax on Steam Boats. The payments during the same period have exceeded twenty millions, and the Commissioners have now on hand three millions loaned out to the State Banks, &c. on interest, to be applied to the payment of the Canal debt when it shall become due.

These statistical facts, obtained from the official Report of the Commissioners will, in part, explain to the Canadian reader, why it is that the amount of duties collected at the port of New York alone, on importation by sea, exceeded in 1834, ten millions of dollars.

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An Extract from the Message of Governor Hamilton, to the Legislature of South Carolina, dated at Columbia, the 22^nd October, 1832.

The Tariff Act of 1832 is, in point of fact, a law by which the consumption of the manufacturing States is nearly relieved of all sort of burden on those articles which they consume and do not produce, and under the provisions of which they are secured by a bounty on an average of more than fifty per cent on the productions of their industry, whilst it taxes our consumption to an equivalent amount, and the exchangeable value of our products in a much more aggravated ratio. The law bears the impress of the Legislation of an independent Sovereignty to a feeble and distant Colony, and establishes the revolting discrimination that the labor of the South is less entitled to the paternal regard of this Government than that of a more favored section of the Union. The provisions of the act are, moreover, at war with every acknowledged principal of wise and beneficent taxation, which has ever existed among any people on the face of the earth, having the shadow of a claim to civilization or a just knowledge of finance. Articles of luxury are selected as the objects of comparative exemption from all burden, whilst those of necessity bear nearly the whole brunt of the imposts. The great staples of the industry and consumption of man, which purchase seven-tenths of our agricultural products, iron, cotton, and woolen fabrics, salt, and sugar, are burthened with a tax quite equivalent to an average of seventy-five per cent. on their prime costs; whilst the teas, the coffee, the silks, and the wines of the rich, which are principally exchanged for the productions of manufacturing or northern labor enjoy, as it regards these articles, a most unjust discrimination in their favor. Operating thus heavily on the exchangeable value of our products, the Act provides for nothing short of the monstrous injustice of levying, at least, three-fourths of the whole amount of the federal revenue on the industry of the Southern States. Nor does the gross inequality of the law stop here. It affects, after all the subtle artifices of exageration, respecting a diminution of our burdens, have been dispelled, a reduction from the amount of duties levied under the Act of 1828, as modified by that of 1830, of three millions seven hundred thousand dollars on the unprotected articles, and only the pitiful sum of somewhere about eight hundred thousand dollars on the protected, which (purchase the staples of the South,) making, in all, a reduction of only four millions and a half, instead of twelve, which last reduction was essential to the accomplishment of the desirable and highly conservative object of bringing the revenue down to the standard of the legitimate wants of the Government. As it is, nine millions of surplus revenue will, in all probability,

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result from the imposts of this Act, over and above the necessary und constitutional expenses of the country, to be distributed by a majority responsible to us, in corrupt, largesses or unconstitutional appropriations to those States which, without possessing an interest in the tariff, are made to feel that they have an enterest in high taxation, when by an unjust provision of the Government they receive more than they are made to pay.

Repugnant as this Act thus is, to every principle of justice, we cannot indulge even the humiliating consolation, that designed as it was, in some respects, to subserve the periodical struggle for the executive power of the country, it will be temporary in its duration, and will at last yield to that returning sense of justice so long promised, and whose advent has been so long and so tardily postponed. No, we have the authentic and solemn declarations of both the great dominant parties in the union, who are now contending for its power, and who conjointly form an overwhelming majority, that the system is as fixed as fate, except in those particulars that are yet to be modified more beneficially for their interests, as cupidity may be instructed by experience. That the system, if we think proper to submit to its injustice, is the fixed and settled policy of the country, so far as the majority can will it to be such, we have much more solid reasons for believing, than even these declarations however authoritative. This belief founded on the indisputable fact, that it is impossible for the wit or wisdom of man to have contrived a scheme for raising the revenue of the country in a mode more essentially and exclusively beneficial to their own interests; for it is a process by which taxation operates correlatively, as a bounty to their industry; and that whilst three-fourths of the public revenue is to be raised on articles in the production of which they enjoy a premium of more than fifty per cent.; all the articles necessary to perfection of their arts and manufactures, and many essential to the accommodations and luxuries of life, are comparatively untaxed. It is not a cold abstract sense of justice, or what are insultingly called the metaphysics of constitutional liberty, that will induce a people, rioting in such a high and palmy state of prosperity, to surrender these advantages, if they can find four millions of consumers, willing to submit to their exactions, who happen to be territorially separated from them, and who exercise a species of industry, in no degree competing with, but on the contrary subservient and tributary to their own. We shall, indeed, have read the history of the world to very little purpose, if we cherish so idle and senseless a conjecture. If the Southern States had been subjugated provinces, and after a war of exhausting desolation, had surrendered at discretion under the sword, I ask, what other bill “for the regulation

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of trade with the Colonies,” our conquerors would have desired but this very tariff act of 1832? Of the ruin which this measure will bring upon us, we are not left to speculation; the signs of our decaying prosperity are around us.

Informed as you are, gentlemen, of all the details of this Act, I am conscious how unnecessary it is to press this view of the subject any further, but there is one consideration which cannot be overlooked, and that is, the solemn and abiding conviction of the good people of this state, that the right to pass a tariff of protection is not to be found in the constitution of the United States; that in the act of 1832, the principle of protection is distinctly and triumphantly recognised, and that neither in expressed terms, or by authorised implication, does any such power exist in the compact of union. To submit to an infraction of the constitution, involving the great right of human industry and property, is to acquiesce in voluntary servitude. To meet this vital truth, the lessons we have been taught by our ancestors contain an instructive and salutary moral. He must be a very ingenious casuist who can discover any difference in principle, between taxation without representation and taxation with a nominal representation, but in violation of the constitution. The result of both is, seizing and taking away money without legal right. But grievous as may be the pecuniary loss arising from this wrong, it is mere dust in the balance, in comparison with the shock which the public liberty of the country sustains, if the people, by a relaxation of public spirit through sloth, servility or cowardice, are prepared to submit to an infraction of their rights; for it overthrows, if I may so speak, that love and reverence for the authority of the general principles of liberty, so essential to the preservation of the institutions of free States.

An extract from the speech of General Smith, of Maryland, in the Senate of the United States, January 1832, during the debate on the question, whether the nomination of Martin Van Buren, as Minister to England, should be approved.

The senator from Kentucky (Mr. Clay) has charged Mr. McLane with having done injury to the navigating interests, by the opening of the Saint Lawrence and the northern ports, to our free intercourse, thus transferring, as he said, the carrying of the produce of Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, New York, Vermont, and Maine, to British Ships, which would otherwise have been carried by our own ships. I believe the farmers of those States do not complain. They know that their produce sold in Montreal is received there free of duty, and is carred to England, Ireland, and the West Indies, as if it were the produce of Canada. It is of little importance to them who is the carrier, provided they get an additional market, and a better

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price for their produce. I regret, Mr. President, that I cannot give the credit of that important act to Mr. McLane: he, however, had nothing to do with it: it formed no part of his arrangement. The opening of that intercourse, for certain articles of our produce, had been done gratuitously by the British Government in 1826, prior even to the attempt at negotiation by Mr. Gallatin. Now that act must have been known: it could not fail to have been known to the senator, [Mr. Clay] then the Secretary of State. Why then does he now charge it as a fault committed by Mr. McLane, who had no more to do with it than the man in the moon ? Nor had Mr. McLane any thing to do with the Act of Great Britain, passed subsequently to the arrangement made by him; by which Act, other articles of our produce are admitted free of duty into the Northern Colonies, and from thence are received in England and the West Indies, as if they were the produce of the Canadas. The senator (Mr. Clay) complains, that the produce of our farmers bordering on Canada, is received in England on equal terms with those of Canada, thus giving a new market to a part of their articles, without which other markets might be overstocked. The senator (Mr. Clay) has truly said, that the wheat of the States bordering on the Canadas, passes into Canada, is their ground, and the flour shipped to British ports, as if it were the produce of the wheat of Canada. This has been the spontaneous act of Great Britain, adopted for her own interest, and is most certainly highly beneficial to our farmers. An immense number of sheep, hogs, horses and cattle, are driven annually from Maine to Quebec, and New Brunswick. The farmers and graziers of Maine differ in opinion with the senator from Kentuckey, (Mr. Clay) and are really so simple as to believe, that their free intercourse with Lower Canada and New Brunswick, is highly beneficial to them: —whether the intercourse with the British North American Colonies be beneficial, or whether it be injurious, the present administration, nor Mr. McLane had little part in it. It had been effected, in part, before the arrangement was concluded, and soon after for another part. It formed, as I have previously said, no part of the arrangement with Great Britain, and this fact must have been known too by the senator (Mr. Clay,) for he then acted as Secretary of State. We have for nearly half a century been claiming the free navigation of the Saint Lawrence, as a natural right: it has at length been gratuitously conceded to us by Great Britain; and now the senator from Kentucky, (Mr. Clay,) complains of it as a grevance.

The senator, (Mr. Clay,) also complains, that the instructions state, “that the late administration had abandoned certain pretentions.” The senator admits, that these pretentions had been waved. The senator from Georgia, (Mr. Forsyth,)

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has contended that there is no difference in substance, between these words. I leave this grave question to be settled by those learned senators, and will proceed to show what those pretensions were, and which I can hardly restrain myself from pronouncing, were puerile in the extreme.

During the Session of 1882, Congress was informed, that an Act was pending in Parliament, for the opening of the Colonial Ports to the commerce of the United States. In consequence, an Act passed authorising the President, in case the Act of Parliament was satisfactory to him, to open the Ports of the United States to British vessels, by his proclamation. The Act of Parliament was deemed satisfactory, and a proclamation was accordingly issued, and the trade commenced. Unfortunately for our commerce, and I think, contrary to justice, a treasury circular issued, directing the Collector to charge British vessels entering our Ports, with the alien tonnage and discriminating duties; this order was remonstrated against, (I think) by Mr. Vaughan. The trade however went on uninterrupted. Congress met, and a bill was drafted in 1823, by Mr. Adams, then Secretary of State, and passed both Houses, with little, if any debate. —I voted for it, believing that it met, in a spirit of reciprocity, the Act of Parliament. This Bill contained, however, one little word, “elsewhere,” which completely defeated all our expectations. It was noticed by no one. The senator from Massachusetts, (Mr. Webster,) may have understood its effect. —If he did so understand it he was silent. The effect of that word, “elsewhere,” was to assume the pretensions alluded to in the instructions. What were they? “That the produce of the United States should be received in the West Indies, on payment of the same duties as were payable on the produce of the North American Colonies. “The British Minister said, “as well might we ask that our sugar should be received free of duty, as is the sugar of Louisiana.”

The result was, that the British Government shut their Colonial ports immediately, and thenceforward. The act of 1822, gave us a monopoly of the West India trade: it admitted, free of duty, a variety of articles, such as—Indian corn, oats, Indian meal, peas, beans, &c. &c. &c.

The British Government thought that we entertained a belief, that they could not do without our produce, and by their Acts of 27th June, and 5th July, 1825, they opened their ports to all the world, on terms far less advantageous to the United States, than those of the Act of 1822; and these are the pretentions which the instructions say had been abandoned by the late administration. They were abandoned, Mr. President, by the following words I the instructions to Mr. Gallatin: — “That the United States consent to wave the demand which

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they have heretofore made, of the admission of their productions into British Colonies, at he same and no higher rate of duty, as similar articles are chargeable with, when imported from one into another British Colony, with the exception of our produce descending the Saint Lawrence end the Sorel.” Now, sir, whatever difference there may be between the words “waver” and “abandonment,” in common parlance,  it is in this case, a complete abandonment in diplomatic language, What a simple truth, is after all, the great ground of objection? It is this. —Mr. McLane has made an arrangement conformable to the preceding instructions from Mr. Adams to Mr. Gallatin, Hinc ille lacrymae

[1] Vide page 44, Appendix

[2] Vide pages 37 and 38. Appendix

[3] See Appendix, pages 57 & 58 & 69

[4] See Appendix, pages 22, 44, 45, 46, & 49.

[5] See Appendix, pages 9 to 21

[6] See Appendix, pages 47 & 48

[7] See Appendix, pages 44, 54 to 59.

[8] See Appendix, page 60

[9] See Appendix, pages 32, 37.

[10] See Appendix, pages 16, 45, 62, &c.

[11] The 50^th Chapter of the Statue Wm. 4, 3^rd and 4^th years, has not been published in this country, nor has the 59^th Chapter.

[12] See Appendix, pages 41, 42, 44, 46.

[13] See Appendix, 57, 60, and price current in pages 64 & 65.

[14] See Appendix, 54 to 64

[15] See Appendix, page 6 to 20

[16] See Appendix, page 1 to 5

[17] See Appendix, pages 47, 48

[18] See Journal of Assembly for 1829, 1830, 1831, and the page following this Report

[19] See Appendix, page 25, 30

[20] The proportion of revenue paid by Lower Canada to this Province in 1833, was £53,468, currency ; and in 1834, it was £54,393, —there is an increase of £925.

[21] See Appendix, page 61 to 6(illegible)

[22] See page following Report

[23] See proceedings at Utica relative to a ship canal from Ontario to the Hudson, page 65.

[24] See Appendix, page 8.

[25] See Appendix, page 32, 33.

[26] This argument would possess the same weight if applied to the produce of a Canadian farmer, who might desire to export it to the United States—the duties would prevent him

[27] Sir Howard Douglas affirms, that the British Emigrant first finds employment in lumbering, and that the lumberman clears the ground for the agriculturist.

[28] The arguments of Mr. Clay and Mr. Gee, in favor of fostering particular branches of manufacture, and in favor of protecting the industry of one part of an Empire or Nation at the expense of the industry of other parts, may be met by a perusal of Governor Hamilton’s message to the Legislature of South Carolina, of which an extract is appended to this report.

[29] Official Value means a fixed value assigned by Law as far back as 1694, to each article exported or imported, and may, therefore, be considered as denoting quantity, rather than value, and may or may not have a relation to the current value of the present time. By the declared value, (or as we have in some places rather incorrectly called it the actual or real value,) is meant, the value at which the goods are entered at the Custom House, by the exporter or importer, and which is, of course, an approximation to their real value, although it may be presumed rather below than above it. The averaged declared value of British produce and manufactures, exported from Great Britain and Ireland, during the three years ending 5th January 1830, was £35,920,670. Ster., while the official values was as high as £52,925,440.; of course it requires a carful calculation to reduce the official into the declared value. Mr. Irving, Inspector General, in a note to a return of British imports and exports, dated 1st August, 1832, mentions that the Law lad made no provision for ascertaining the real value of Foreign commodities, either on their importation into, or exploitation from the United Kingdom: he was unable to state the true value of imports, or of Foreign goods exported.

[30] Of these 4,750 cwt., 1,794 were from the British West Indies; 754 from the Mauritius; 1,602 from the East Indies; and 600 from the Plantations of Foreign Nations.

[31] The seventy-five is taken off by 3^rd & 4^th William the 4^th, chapter 50.

[32] The seventy-five is taken off by 3^rd & 4^th William the 4^th, chapter 50.

[33] The duty on timber imported from British North America into Great Britain, whether of the produce of Canada, Novascotia, New Brunswick, Maine, New York, or Vermont, is 10s. per load; the duty on Dantzie, Memel, or Riga timber is 55s. per load.

[34] Sir H. Parnell, in his treatise on Financial Reform, mentions, that the annual revenue collected in the West Indies, by the imposition of duties on certain articles of necessity, is about £75, 000. Of which, about £68,000. Are swallowed up in the charges made for collection!

[35] Vide report of the Secretary of the Treasury, to Congress, concerning the Finances and Navigation of the United States, 1831

[36] Vide report of the Secretary of the Treasury, to Congress, concerning the Finances and Navigation of the United States, 1831

[37] Vide report of the Secretary of the Treasury, to Congress, concerning the Finances and Navigation of the United States, 1831

[38] In the United States official report of the commerce of the Republic, for the year ending September 30th, 1831, it is also stated, that of the value of the products of cattle exported that year from the United States, $307,027 was to the British North American Colonies; also to ditto $141,725 value in snuff and tobacco manufactured; and $298,066 value in butter, cheese, pork, hams and bacon, lard and live hogs, to ditto.

[39]              Tait’s Edinburgh Magazine October, 1832, has the following paragraph on Flour, and shewing that it is possible we may be supplanted in the trade carried on in Ashes:

“A new article of commerce, namely, East India Flour, is coming extensively into use for the making of Size and Starch; it is chiefly imported by the Calcutta Flour Mills Company, and is found to answer better than American Flour, which has hitherto been considered the best for this purpose. The manufacture of Soda from common Salt, for the purposes of bleaching and making Soap, is now carried on to a considerable extent in Liverpool; and this article is likely to compote with, if not to supersede, Pot and Pearl Ashes, for the above mentioned purposes, as it can be sold for about £20 a ton, whilst Ashes of equal strength cost £28 or 29, a ton. This new manufacture will be beneficial to England though injurious to the Canadas, whence we now obtain so large a quantity of Ashes.”

On this statement, Mr. Niles, in his Baltimore Register, thus remarks: “The preceding states a fact of much interest to the grain growers of the United States.”

“Except in year of scarcity, a large part of our exports of Flour to England was for the purpose of making size, or paste and starch; and sour flour had a fair market in that country when sweet could not be sold at all, because of the prohibitory duty upon it ; the first, as a raw material, being moderately taxed. The amount of the consumption of flour for these purposes may be partially apprehended from the fact, that the Cotton manufacture of the United States, only, requires 2,070,000 lbs. starch, and 18,500 bbls. of flour. Perhaps from 80,000 to 100,000 bbls. of flour are used in the United States for sizing, and in paste and starch.”

By the 4^th and 5^th, William 4th, chap. 89, (1834) “Crssava powder or Starch,” the produce of any British Colony in America, may be imported therefrom into Britain, on payment of 1s. per cwt. of duty.

[40] A nominal advantage is given to Canada in this—that four ground on this side the St. Lawrence is subjected to a less duty in England than if it were ground in the United States ; —to render this preference useless, it is a practice at Montreal and Quebec, to collect of Canadian flour as much as possible, for shipment to England, when the prices are high, and to import flour from the United States for consumption in the Provinces, in its room. Thus the flour of the Western States and New-York supplies the place of that which is admitted into England on payment of the least duty, and gives to the adjoining States, in reality, the same privilege as the Canadas. United States wheat is subject to a discriminating duty in England, but may be imported into Canada, ground there, and shipped as Canadian flour to England, or consumed in the Colony. Hence no preference in price is usually given to Canadian flour in the Montreal market.

[41] The American Treasury report to Congress, for the year ending September 1831, states the value of the exports from the United States to Canada, and the other British Dependencies in North America, as follows: Exports of articles, the growth, produce, or manufacture of the Union, $4,026,392; exports of articles which had been imported into the United States from other countries, $35,446; total, as per Custom-House reports to United States Government, $4,061,838.

[42] This further duty will, in every case, exceed the previous duty; the excess will therefore be charged. The amount payable cannot, however, be shown by table; and it will vary in every case according to the value of the article.