It is then only that new States present an opening to us Europeans;but it is evident this cannot be in their infancy:for that purpose it is necessary that their population should have had time to increase,and that their agricultural productions should have become so abundant,that they are under the necessity of seeking to exchange their value at a distance.Then,and by the natural progress of things,instead of transporting rough articles,they will transport articles which will have already received some shape,and which consequently containing a greater value in less compass,can bear the expences of a long voyage.Such productions will find their way to Europe through New Orleans,a city destined to be one of the greatest depots in the whole world.
We have not yet reached this point;is it then wonderful that the productions of the United States have not vet offered facilities analogous to the commercial ardor which followed the Peace?Is it even wonderful that commercial productions,brought by the Americans themselves into their ports,at the end of an exaggerated development of their nautical industry,should be found there in superabundance?
You see,Sir,that this fact has nothing in it that is not very conformable to the doctrine professed by your antagonists.
Reverting to the painful situation in which every kind of industry in Europe is at present,I might add to the discouragement which results from the costs of production multiplied to excess,the disorders which these costs occasion in the production,distribution,and consumption of value produced;disorders which frequently bring into the market quantities greater than the want,keeping back those that would sell,and whose owners would employ their price in the purchase of the former.
Certain producers seek to indemnify themselves by the quantity they produce,for a part of the value eat up by the taxes.Certain productive services find means to evade the avidity of the tax-gatherers,as often happens,for the service of capitals which in many instances continue to receive the same interest,whilst lands,houses,and industry,are surcharged.
A workman who can with difficulty support his family,repurchases sometimes by excessive labor the low price of work.Are not these the causes which derange the natural course of production,and which occasion a production in some articles,beyond what would have been produced,had the wants of the consumers only been consulted?The articles of consumption are not necessary to us in equal degree.Previously to reducing our consumption of wheat to one half,we reduce that of meat to one quarter,and that of sugar to nothing.There are capitals so employed in certain enterprises,particularly in manufactures,that the enterprisers are frequently content to lose their interest and sacrifice the profits of their own industry,and continue to work solely for the purpose of keeping the enterprise going until more favorable times,and to preserve their funds;or they are afraid of losing good workmen,which the suspension of work would disperse:and humanity alone is sufficient to induce enterprisers to continue a manufactory for whose productions there is no longer any demand.From whence proceed disorders in the progress of production and consumption,still greater than those which proceed from the obstruction of the customs and the vicissitudes of the Seasons.Hence proceed unadvised productions,recourse to ruinous means,and a ruined commerce.
