21st CoNG. 2d SESS.] Duty on Imported Salt. siderable influence: it was the imposition of a duty of tion is no longer required. If this is correct, the ar- The committee consider the duty imposed by the Government of New York is both just and equitable. This, it is fully believed, can be sustained, without resorting to the particular interests of that State for assistance. But the committee are fully convinced that no manufactory of salt, of any importance, could bear taxation, except that in the State of New York. The causes are apparent. One is, the superior quality of the salines, and the inexhaustible supply of mineral water which they afford; another, the extended and unceasing market found along the great Western lakes, along the valley of Lake State. Hence, a capital of above three millions of dollars Champlain and the Hudson, through the interior of the The great canal policy of New York has been executed. has been invested, and labor stimulated to its utmost exerAs was anticipated by the liberal and expanded views of tion. Another, the facilities afforded by canal navigation her statesmen, the benefits would not, could not, be con- in the transportation of fuel from places at which it is the fined within her own boundaries. They would be carried, most abundantly and most cheaply supplied; but, above in a greater or less proportion, to every part of the Union; all, the ease, the economy, and rapidity, with which it can they would promote, in an ample degree, the commercial be distributed to millions of consumers, from Champlain It the United States enjoy these advantages in so great a deoperations of our country with the whole world. To a to Green Bay. No other manufacturing establishments in A tax, which may be safely laid on the manufacgreat extent, it equalizes the inequalities of nature. places our people of the interior, in some degree, in pos-gree. session of comforts and enjoyments, which, without it, fure in that State, would prostrate every other manufacble to subject all the manufacturing establishments of the would be confined to those who occupy the banks of some tory in the Union. It would, therefore, seem unreasonafrith of the ocean. Among other considerations which urged on the com-country to the pains and penalties of destruction, because pletion of the Erie canal, were the benefits to be derived New York, at the price of enormous expenditures on her from the improvement of the rich salt springs near the own account, has improved her natural resources beyond Unless in time of war or commercial any other State; especially when, with the duty imposed, That State has a perfect centre of the State. embarrassments, when the article of salt could command she furnishes the article of salt as cheap as it can be supany price which want and suffering could pay, they were plied from any other source. of little value to the State or the country at large. Hence right, and possesses the power, to counteract the effects was derived one of the strongest inducements to perform of national legislation on this subject. If it is exercised, that great work. The effect has fully answered expecta-none have just reason to complain. tion. Every farmer, the middling classes, and the poor, now enjoy a full proportion of the advantages which have resulted. The committee do not suppose that every manufactory the last session should take full effect. Some few possess of sait in the United States will be destroyed, if the act of such natural advantages, that they may continue in full or partial operation. But it is considered that the greatest proportion must surrender to inevitable ruin. In 1829, the quantity of salt manufactured in that State was 1,291,000 bushels, or nearly one-seventh of all conIt has been repeatedly urged, that the quality of domessumed in the United States. This, by inland navigation, is added to the common stock of the country, and tends Before tic salt is decidedly inferior to the foreign, and wholly unto diminish the common price to the consumer. the canals were constructed, our farmers remember that fit for some of the most important uses for which it is rethey cheerfully paid six or seven dollars per barrel for quired. Some suppose it wants strength; others, that it is Onondaga salt of a miserable quality; now they obtain a combined with ingredients which render its use unsafe. superior article for one-third of that price. The differ-This might have been partially true in the beginning of ence in price is mainly caused by the difference in ex- its manufacture, when skill and experience had not been pense between land and water transportation. If the acquired: but no person of intelligence is now unacquaintErie canal had not been completed, the manufacture would ed with the great perfection to which the article is brought. have been trifling, and the benefits confined to narrow The best qualities are now produced on the seacoast in limits. In times of scarcity, produced by any cause, the Massachusetts, at the salt springs of New York, and at people of the great Northern section of the country could some of the salines of the Western country. They have have no relief from that source, unless at the most enor-stood the most rigid tests of analysis, and are found to posmous expense. Now, happen what may, they are secure of an abundant supply, at reasonable prices. just beginning to be understood in the country at large. sess even greater purity than the foreign article. This is The great It cannot, therefore, be unreasonable or unjust in the The domestic salt, at first, like all new productions in any State of New York to demand some remuneration for her country, was undoubtedly defective. Prejudices existed exertions and expenditures from those who participate so against it, which required time to remove. largely in the advantages which have been produced. The mass of the people are slow and cautious in changing their tax sinks into insignificance when the causes of its impo- pursuits, or the use of any valuable article to which they sition are understood. To require a surrender of the duty are accustomed, and in which they have confidence. at this time, and under circumstances which have been These prejudices are rapidly giving way in favor of deexplained, is clearly inequitable and unjust. When the mestic salt; and if the manufacture may be permitted to canals were first finished, and while their first benefits were advance, it will, the committee are fully convinced, obtain flowing wide, then the State tax on salt was never made a decided preference by all classes of consumers. the subject of complaint. What was considered, a few years ago, a just and honest claim, is now, in the minds of many, nothing short of palpable oppression. It is also urged, that, if the State of New York can lay a duty on the domestic article, it affords evidence that the manufacture has gained such an ascendancy that protec It is natural, in a country like the United States, where tivity and ardor, that anxiety should exist to see every the people engage in their pursuits with unparalleled scobject which may be undertaken most rapidly accom. plished. The development of skill, as applied to the use ful arts, often becomes too tardy for excited hope and ex pectation; and, unless perfection is obtained at a single quate to a sufficiently rapid development of the resources : effort, apprehensions are felt that it can never be ac- of the country; and, on the 30th September, 1797, Conquired. In other countries, numerous branches of manu- gress augmented the duty on foreign salt to twenty cents factures required centuries to bring them to their present per bushel. state of improvement. Many of them have been equalled, if not surpassed, in the United States, within twenty or thirty years; others are advancing with a steady pace, and with perfect certainty will be successful, if the Government will adhere to the policy which it has given the most solemn pledges to maintain. The protecting policy is not intended solely for the present day, but to operate during national existence. The manufacture of salt has been in operation but little more than fifteen years. Its progress has been as great and beneficial as could have been expected. It had never been more productive in quantity, or more improved in quality, than at the time of the passage of the law in question. Preparations were extensively making, in various parts of the country, for a great and continued extension. These have been arrested, and are now waiting the decision of the Government on the application for relief. Upon this will depend renewed exertion, or a general abandonment of the manufacture. While the committee are of opinion that the passage of the law of the last session was impolitic, much evil may be averted by a repeal of so much as remains to take effect. The manufacture may struggle on and survive. The experiment can be made, under a reliance that the wisdom of Congress will be exercised as any future occasion may require. The committee, therefore, report a bill to repeal so much of "An act to reduce the duty on salt," passed May 29, 1830, as has not gone into operation. Memorial of the manufacturers of salt in Kenhawa coun- To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United The manufacturers of salt in the county of Kenhawa, in the Commonwealth of Virginia, have seen, with the most serious apprehensions and concern, the proceedings had in Congress at its last session, in relation to the protective duty which heretofore sustained and extended the salt business in the United States. The great variety, however, of commercial objects which then attracted the limited capital of the country, left but little for investments in manufactures of any kind; and salt remained among the most languid. Under these circumstances, the experiment was made during Mr. Jef ferson's administration, when the resources of the Government were superabundant, and but little capital invested in salt making, of introducing supplies from abroad, without charge; and, by the act of 3d March, 1807, all salt imported into the United States after the 31st of December in that year was declared free of duty. Happily was it for the interest of the country that this experiment was made! Salt was imported, without impost, from the 1st of January, 1808, until the 1st of January, 1814; and we affirm, without the fear of contradiction, that the article was higher throughout the United States during those six years, than during any period of the same length, from the close of the war of the revolu tion up to the present time. But this interesting fact will be again adverted to, and more fully examined. During the late war, the disastrous effects of relying upon others, in time of peace, for an article which enters so essentially into the very existence of civilized society, and the baneful influence that had followed the abandonment of the attempt to bring the resources of a home supply into useful development, and their products to an elevation somewhat commensurate to the national demand, became strongly apparent to all; and, under the liberal and enlarged national policy which then marked the course of the executive and legislative departments of the Governsalt was renewed, and, by the act of the 20th July, 1813, ment, the duty of twenty cents per bushel on imported was reimposed on all salt imported after the 1st of January, 1814. It may not be unworthy of remark, that the same act which renewed this duty, gave the drawbacks and bounties for the encouragement of the fisheries, by which that important source of national wealth, and invaluable school of seamen, has been sustained and preserved to the Union. This act, although rendered_temporary by the limitation which it contained, was, in 1816, made permanent. The close of the long and sanguinary war which had They had not been inattentive to the manifestations of desolated Europe for nearly a quarter of a century, unfriendly feelings towards this branch of American in- brought into the field of foreign commerce a host of comdustry; and took early measures, by which they placed be- petitors, by which the profits on commercial capital prefore the Government some of the facts and reasons tend-viously employed in foreign trade became greatly lessening, as they thought, to show that the home manufacture ed, and its owners, seeking for it more secure and advanta of salt could not be given up to a less restrained foreign geous employment, turned their attention to manufactures. competition, without eminently endangering the home re- In estimating the safety and security with which such sources for one of the most important and essential arti-investments might be made, it could not escape the sagacles of domestic use and public interest; and their memo- city of the more observing part of the community, that rial, now on the files of Congress, and printed by order of the genius of the Government had steadily and permanentthe Senate of the 21st of January, 1828, is most respect-ly tended to the protection and fostering of our manufacfully referred to, and its consideration carnestly solicited.tories, particularly such as relieved us from dependence The duty on salt, as a source of revenue, and as an en- on foreign nations for supplies of commodities of primary couragement to domestic enterprise in its production, is necessity. coeval with the Government. The first Congress which assembled under our present constitution, by an act, approved by the President on the 20th of July, 1789, imposed a duty of six cents per bushel on all salt imported into the States. The same Congress, at their next session, by an act of the 10th August, 1790, increased the duty to twelve cents per bushel. The earliest operations of Congress had uniformly coupled the encouragement and protection of manufactures with the support of Government, and the discharge of the national debt. General Washington, in December, 1796, had used the following language: "Congress have repeatedly, and not with success, directed their attention to the encouragement of manufacThese enactments laid the foundation for the experi- tures. The object is of too much consequence not to enments which were made in the production of salt along sure a continuance of their efforts, in every way which our Eastern coast, and added additional stimulus to the re-shall appear eligible. As a general rule, manufactures, searches making in the West for the discovery of supplies on public account, are inexpedient. But where the state of this necessary of life. of things in a country leaves little hope that certain The encouragement, however, was not deemed ade-branches of manufacture will, for a great length of time, obtain, when these are of a nature essential to the fur- therefore, to the prompt and constant guardianship of nishing and equipping of the public force in time of war, Congress.” are not establishments for procuring them on public ac- Mr. Monroe, equally devoted to the great interest of the count, to the extent of the ordinary demand for the pub- republic, and earnestly desirous of placing the American lic service, recommended by strong considerations of na- people beyond the reach of foreign control, as to the netional policy, as an exception to the general rule? Ought cessaries and comforts of life, pressed the subject upon our country to remain, in such cases, dependent on fo- Congress in terms the most decisive. reign supply, precarious, because liable to be interrupt ed?" Mr. Jefferson, in 1808, less than two years after the repeal of the salt duty, pressed upon Congress the necessity of protecting duties, as the only means of rendering our manufactories permanent, in the following strong and decisive terms: Extract from Mr. Monroe's message of 4th March, 1821. "It cannot be doubted that the more complete our internal resources, and the less dependent we are on foreign Powers for any national as well as domestic purpose, the greater and more stable will be the public felicity. By the increase of domestic manufactures will the demand for the raw materials at home be increased, and thus will the dependence of the several parts of our Union on each other, and the strength of the Union itself, be proportionably augmented." "The suspension of our foreign commerce, produced by the injustice of the belligerent Powers, and the consequent losses and sacrifices of our citizens, are subjects of just concern. The situation into which we have thus been forced, has impelled us to apply a portion of our industry Again, in his message of December 2d, 1823, he says: and capital to internal manufactures and improvements. "Under this impression, I recommended a review of The extent of this conversion is daily increasing; and little the tariff, for the purpose of affording such additional prodoubt remains that the establishments formed, and form-tection to those articles which we are prepared to manuing, will, under the auspices of cheaper materials and sub- facture, or which are more immediately connected with sistence, the freedom of labor from taxation with us, and the defence and independence of our country." of protecting duties and prohibitions, become permanent." The same gentleman, in 1816, when unconnected with the Government, and indulging in a retired and calm review of the policy of the country, with all that ardent devotion to the liberty, independence, and prosperity of the American people, which so strongly characterized him through life, poured forth his feelings in glowing terms to his friend, as follows: The uniform views of the Executive branch of cur Government did not, however, constitute the only guaranty on which the capitalists relied for the permanent security of their investments in the manufacture of salt. In the year 1818, a committee of the House of Representatives was charged with inquiring into the expediency and propriety of repealing or reducing the duty on salt. After a patient and full examination of the subject in all its rela"We have experienced what we did not then believe, tions, that committee, through its chairman, Mr. Lowndes, that there exists both profligacy and power enough to ex-placed its veto on the proposition, in which the House of clude us from the field of interchange with other nations; Representatives concurred. Mr. Crawford, then at the that, to be independent for the comforts of life, we must head of the Treasury Department, was also applied to for fabricate them ourselves. We must now place the manu- his opinion of the policy which the salt duty created and facturer by the side of the agriculturist. The former sustained; and his reply to the House of Representatives question is suppressed, or rather assumes a new form. was decisive of its preservation, so far as the opinion of that The grand inquiry now is, shall we make our own com- distinguished statesman could influence the opinions and forts, or go without them at the will of a foreign nation? policy of the country. He, therefore, who is now against domestic manufactures, must be for reducing us either to a dependence on that nation, or be clothed in skins, and to live like wild beasts in dens and caverns. I am proud to say I am not one of these." Mr. Madison's frequent exhortations to protect and foster the several branches of manufacture which had been recently instituted or extended by the laudable exertions of his fellow-citizens, are numerous; and from among them the following are selected: At this period the most sceptical gave up their doubts; the most timid relinquished their fears of an oscillating policy on the part of the Government, in relation to the manufacture of salt. The early and increased protection given to the home production of this indispensable article by the first and fifth Congress; the concurrent opinions of all who had administered the Government, from its foundation upwards, with the exception of Mr. Jefferson's experiment, the history of which furnishes the most obvious security against its repetition; the deliberate determination of the Government, in 1818, to render the country indeExtract from Mr. Madison's message of November 29, 1809. pendent of foreign and uncertain supplies, by giving per "In a cultivation of the materials, and the extension of manent security to the domestic manufacture, induced the useful manufactures, more especially in the general appli- most liberal investments in salt making. New sources of cation to household fabrics, we behold a rapid diminution supply were sought out: old establishments, organized to of our dependence on foreign supplies. Nor is it unwor- meet the pressing and perhaps temporary demands ocea thy of reflection, that this revolution in our pursuits and sioned by the war, underwent extensive renovation, adapthabits is in no slight degree a consequence of those impo- ing them to permanent use and more economical operalitic and arbitrary edicts, by which the contending nations, tions. New establishments grew up in every quarter, unin endeavoring each of them to obstruct our trade with the til scarce a State in the Union is now without salt furnaces other, have so far abridged our means of procuring the or salt vats! productions and manufactures of which our own are now taking the place." In his message of the 18th February, 1815, he uses the following earnest language: "There is no subject which can enter with greater force into the deliberations of Congress, than a consideration of the means to preserve and promote the manufactures which have sprung into existence, and attained an unparalleled maturity, throughout the United States, during the period of the European wars. This source of national independence and wealth I anxiously recommend, During the revision of the tariff laws in 1824 and 1828, no serious purpose was manifested from any quarter to reduce or abolish the protection given to domestic salt; so that the previous confidence reposed in the apparently settled policy of the Government annually acquired strength, and led to corresponding expenditures in this branch of business. This delusive state of security became so universal, that, at the close of the last year, the investments in salt making could not have been less than six millions of dollars; nor could the number of persons in the United States, sustained by this field of industry, have been less than three thousand ing the labor of the country in excess, must feel the injusix hundred, besides their families. Even at the com-rious consequences of converting this portion of our peomencement of the last session of Congress, the general in-ple from consumers into producers. And to this act we dications of security were increased. A motion to inquire may safely ascribe the diminution of that confidence which into the expediency of a repeal did not meet with the usual alone induced the enterprise and capital of our country to courtesy of a reference, but was rejected by a large vote; embark in support of its real independence, by freeing us it was reserved for a period of the most unsuspecting con- from reliance on the workshops, the ore banks, and salt fidence, towards the end of the session, when the policy mines of Europe. of almost forty years was suddenly abandoned, and property probably to the amount of six millions of dollars surrendered up to a ruinous competition with foreigners, by the passage of "An act to reduce the duty on salt." The abolition of one-half of the duty on foreign salt could not have resulted from any supposed incapacity of the country to produce an adequate supply; for no nation possesses so great a variety of inexhaustible sources. Two That a measure so disastrous to a large portion of the thousand miles of coast is washed by a brine yielding a American people should have been so unexpectedly re- bushel of salt from 350 gallons of water. The saline dissolved upon, and so speedily executed, was as much a mat-trict of the interior stretches from Lake Onondaga, in New ter of surprise and of inscrutable mystery, as that, of the York, to Saline lake, in Louisiana, following in its general long list of protected articles, the one entering into the course the Appalachian range, and extending to a breadth food and sustenance of every human being in the country of upwards of one hundred miles from the western base of should have been singly seized upon, and placed almost this chain of mountains. At various places throughout without the pale of protection, and the whole community this vast district, the sources of the salt have been penerendered in a great measure dependent upon the preca- trated at great expense, and manufactories commensurate rious and fluctuating resource of foreign supplies. to the extent of population, and the wants of the country, have been carried on with water varying in strength from forty-five to four hundred gallons to the bushel. Among the incidents connected with congressional legislation on this subject, it is a remarkable fact, that no petition from the people has ever reached the legislative hall, complaining of the salt duty either as oppressive or injurious to their interests, and satisfactorily shows the light in which they have regarded this protection, and its tendency to secure them a pure and cheap supply, independent of foreign resources. That the extent and importance of the salt business in the United States may be in some measure appreciated, and that the number of persons engaged in or dependent on this employment may be more justly estimated, a tabular statement is appended, marked A, principally compiled from the documents accompanying a letter from the Secretary of the Treasury to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, on the 8th of February, 1830, with means of correction and additions derived from an extensive correspondence with gentlemen engaged in the salt business throughout the Union. On the western border of the great valley of the Mississippi, this important mineral is still more abundant, presenting itself at additional points to almost every explorer of that interesting region. And the Saline lake of Louisiana, the salt springs of Ouachita, those of the Illinois branch of the Arkansas, Boon's salines on the Missouri, Lockhart's on the Lemoyne, the almost saturated brine of the Neosho, and the masses of salt brought from the sources of the Arkansas, of pure quality, strongly attest the value and importance of retaining in the hands of the American people the production of salt for their own use, as well as from the prospect of its forming at some future period an important branch of our national exports. Formerly, the argument was urged with some plausibility, that the repeal of the salt duty would not affect the manufactories of the interior. It, however, required but a slight examination of the course of the Western trade, From this statement, it appears that salt is manufactur- the multiplication of steamboats on the Western waters, ed in greater or smaller quantities in two of the Territo- and the disparity between the ascending and descending ries, Arkansas and Florida, and twenty out of the twenty- cargoes, to produce universal conviction of the destructive four States. So universal are the resources of domestic effects of such a measure upon the salt business, from the salt, that no quarter of the Union is without adequate Alleghany to the Rocky Mountains. So obvious has this means of producing it, to any extent which present or fu- result become, that a prominent advocate of the repeal ture demands may require; and so equally is it placed with- has placed his recommendation of the measure on the exin the reach of industry and enterprise along the whole press ground of supplying the Western States with foreign coast, and from Ontario to the Sabine, that no protected salt! That no misconception may arise, his words are source of national wealth, except that of iron, is so gene- given. Speaking of the effect of a repeal of the duty, he rally diffused throughout the Union, and so equalizes the burdens (if any should result from the fostering policy hitherto pursued) or the certain and extensive benefits that must follow the general development of this mineral treasure. says: "The levee at New Orleans would be covered; the warehouses would be crammed with salt; the barter trade would become extensive and universal, if this odious duty was suppressed. A bushel of corn or potatoes, a few The act of the 29th of May, 1830, although levelled at pounds of butter, or a few pounds of beef or pork, would a particular article, and carrying injury to the community purchase a sack of salt; the steamboats would bring it up only to the extent of its production and consumption, can- for a trifle; and all the upper States of the great valley, not fail to produce apprehensions and alarm in the minds where salt is so scarce, so dear, and so indispensable for of all who are engaged in the great business of manufac-rearing stock and curing provison, in addition to all its vaturing. rious uses, would be cheaply and abundantly supplied with that article." Iron, which is so extensively consumed in the salt business, as to render it probable that from 125 to 200 tons of malleable, and from 380 to 400 tons of cast metal, are annually required, can scarcely sustain the protection now yielded to it, if these important sources of demand are crippled or destroyed. This argument proceeds upon the ground that a repeal of the duty would cheapen the commodity to the consu mer in a degree equivalent to the injury to be inflicted on the manufacturer. It is true, that, so long as the contest for the markets is well sustained by importation and home The consumption of protected cotton and woollen fa- production, as is the case at present, salt will be afforded brics, and of sugar, by more than three thousand five hun- throughout the country at its minimum price. It is now dred persons engaged in salt making, together with their brought to the United States almost, if not altogether, as families, must be influenced by their reduced means of ballast, or to fill that tonnage which would otherwise repurchasing. Agriculture and planting, already employ-turn home unemployed; but if the conflict is yielded by the American manufacturers, the increased demand for foreign supplies must immediately rise to an amount beyond what can be brought in this way, and consequently it must come charged with the freights and profits of ordinary merchandise, and immediately rise to sixty and eighty cents in our ports, as in 1807. salt were consumed by a population of twelve millions, and under which the residue of the demand was supplied by the demoralizing practices of evading the revenue. These hateful taxes were not imposed on foreign supplies only, but were taxes levied on salt produced within those re spective kingdoms, advancing the price to the subject, and restraining the manufacturer in the same grievous proportion. With the tax which was payable at the salt-pans, Napo leon was enabled to complete the grand entrance inte Italy, over the Simplon. In England, the duty, amount ing to $3 33 per bushel, besides the cost of production, was paid on consumption within the kingdom, while all salt exported to foreign countries was exempted from this burdensome imposition. The present supply of salt in the United States presents the most conclusive evidence that the duty on importations has augmented, not lessened, the quantity in market; and that its redundancy has cheapened the article to the consumer below what a repeal of the duty could have effected. In 1800, when not more than seven hundred and fifty thousand bushels were annually made at home, our importations of salt amounted to 3,441,819 bushels. The total population of the United States then was 5,303,666, which gives about 44 pounds of salt as the yearly consump- The striking dissimilarity of the governmental exactions tion of each person. Salt, during that year, under a duty in France and Great Britain, and in the United States, is of twenty cents, averaged about sixty cents per bushel at manifest. In the two first, it was made the engine of the ports of delivery, and ranged from one dollar to two draining from the people most exorbitant sums of money, dollars and fifty cents in the interior. In 1807 and and of diminishing the amount of the manufacturer's busi 1808, when salt was imported free of duty, and before the ness, in the same ratio; compelling the inhabitants not price or the supply was affected by commercial restric- only to reduce the quantity made and consumed at home tions, its range in the maritime ports was from fifty to one to one-fourth of the supply enjoyed by the American peohundred cents, and from one to two dollars in the Western ple, but for which they were compelled to pay seven times States. the price, per bushel, which the article commands in the These admonitory facts, contrasted with the present United States. That a system so oppressive and disas state of supply and price, at once demonstrate the fallacy trous to the working classes, both of manufacturers and of looking to a reduction of the duty, rather than to com- consumers, should have been suffered to exist so long, is petition in the markets, for the cheapening of this article. our only ground of surprise, except the singular corollary We imported last year 5,901,157 bushels, besides the deduced from it by some of our leading statesmen, who quantity reshipped; and the home manufacture for the infer, that, because England has relieved her people from same period, according to the information collected by those odious burdens, the American Government ought the Secretary of the Treasury, corrected and somewhat to give up her citizens to the rapacity of foreign salters enlarged by private correspondence, amounted to 4,444,- and exporters: because Great Britain has relieved her ma 929 bushels; which, if our population amounts to twelve nufacturers of salt from the most oppressive restraints, and a half millions, gives a consumption of 44 pounds to Congress ought to withdraw its protecting care from our each individual, and leaves a surplus of 524,650 bushels infant establishments. in the hands of the importer and manufacturer, towards The English and French internal duty uniformly and the supply of the succeeding year. The effect upon the steadily diminished the quantity of salt manufactured with price or value of any commodity, by introducing a redun- in those kingdoms, while the light protecting duty of the dancy into the market, is familiar to all, and cannot be United States has as uniformly advanced the home supply. more strongly exemplified than in the present instance. In 1820, the marshals reported the quantity manufac In 1807 and 1808, when salt was introduced without tax tured in that year at 1,149,725 bushels. In 1827, the or duty, but only commensurate to the wants of the coun- quantity manufactured within the United States was, on try, the price varied at the most favorable points from careful examination of the subject, estimated at 4,113,000 fifty to one hundred cents. Throughout the year 1829, bushels; and, notwithstanding the embarrassing apprehenunder a duty of twenty cents, it has averaged, in the prin- sions which have recently hung over this branch of indus cipal importing towns, about forty-five cents. try, it will be found that the present annual product of our In the Western States, the mean price of salt, in 1807 salt works is not less than 4,444,929 bushels. The duty and 1808, was two dollars per bushel. In 1829, the price, hitherto paid has effected, as has been shown, a reduction from Pittsburg to Natchez, and on the principal tributa- of price to the consumer in every part of the Union: in ries of the Mississippi and Ohio, has fluctuated between the West, by placing the foreign and domestic article in thirty-seven and a half and seventy-five cents. Yet those such fair competition as to reduce each to its minimum who advocate the abolition of the duty proceed upon the price; in the East, by home production, and by excluding ground of cheapening salt to the consumer! and of ren- so great a portion of foreign salt from the Western Water dering it more abundant in the interior of the country. Recent occurrences have, in some measure, tested the der, by which the price has been there reduced from as to leave a large surplus along the whole Atlantic bor accuracy of these conclusions. The Cincinnati and Louis- twenty-five to fifty per cent. below what the commodity ville markets, generally well supplied from the Virginia commanded in 1807 and 1808, when imported free of duty. of the past autumn. The price had been steadily kept in Has the shipping interest suffered by this protective redown to forty-five and fifty cents; but, on the first appear-portations? From the year 1792 to 1800, inclusive, the ance of a scarcity of Kenhawa salt, the holders of the fo- average amount of foreign salt received in the United reign commodity put it up to seventy-five cents per bushel, States was 2,769,745 bushels. The quantity imported and would have continued this exorbitant price, had not from 1801 to 1806, inclusive, averaged 3,750,622 bushels the Virginia manufacturers, at more than double the ordi- From the commencement of 1807 to the 1st of January nary expense, replenished those markets, and reduced 1814, as no duty was collected, no evidence of the qual tity brought in is to be found in the Treasury Department. to the grand gabelle of France, which reduced the con-portation was manifested, and the average increase of those The American duty on imported salt has been likened But, from 1815 to 1820, the progressive increase of im Isumption of the taxed provinces to nine and one-sixth six years amounted to 4,009,855 bushels per annum. pounds to each individual; and to the felo de se system of From 1821 to 1826, inclusive, the rate of increase was not Great Britain, under which about 50,000 tons of taxed preserved, owing, it is presumed, to the rapid multiplica works, became somewhat bare during the very low water the article to its accustomed rate. |