inasmuch as between 1761 and 1775 the average annual import of England was more than 48,000,000 lbs. and that of Scotland more than 36,000 lbs.; of which the former exported more than 39,000 lbs., and the latter more than 34,000 lbs. The article of tobacco has always composed about one third of our exports;-and from 1791 to 1801 inclusive-though the fluctuation was extreme -the average yearly quantity was about 80,000 hogsheads of the raw,—and about 174,500 lbs. of the manufactured *-together with about 80,000 lbs. of snuff:† and from 1802 to 1807 inclusive the first was about 77,000 hogsheads, the second about 303,000 lbs., and the third about 36,000 lbs.-value of the raw about $ 6,000,000 on an average; but the next year they sunk respectively to 9,576 hogsheads; 26,656 lbs., and 25,845 lbs.-value of the raw as before 8833,000. Between 1809 and 1812 inclusive the average export of raw was about 50,000 hogsheads-of the manufactured about 531,000 lbs.-of snuff about 26,000 lbs.-value of the raw, a little more than $ 3,000,000 on an average: but in 1813-14 the first was only about 4,000 hogsheads, the second $2,000 lbs. the third nothing,-value of the raw as before $189,000. From 1806 to 1814 the average prices per hogshead at the place of exportation were 79, 88, 87, 70, 60, 60, 70, 67, 74 dollars. "IV. Cotton is a native of the tropical regions, in every quarter of the world. It is mentioned by Herodotus as growing in India, at the time he wrote his history. It was found among the Mexicans and Peruvians, on the first discovery of Ame. rica; and among the latter, the manufacture of it was carried to no inconsiderable extent. Previous to the American revolution, it was eultivated in the southern states for domestic use. "Soon after the peace of 1783, small quantities were exported from Georgia. It was not, however, cultivated to much extent, for exportation, in the United States, until about the year 1791 or 1792. Since that period, it has become the great staple of the states of South-Carolina and Georgia, and next to grain, the most valuable of all the exports of the United States. "American cotton has been generally known by the names of sea-island and upland cotton. The former grows along the sea coast, has a black seed; is of a long staple, and is easily cleaned or separated from the seed; the latter grows In 1791 the number was 81,122-in 1791 only 12,801-but in 1801 no less than 472,282. † In 1791 only 15,689—in 1796 as many as 267,000—but in 1801 only 52,297. Ramsay's History of South-Carolina. on the upland, at a distance from the coast, has a green seed, is of a short staple, and until the invention of a machine for the purpose, was so difficult to be cleaned, or separated from the seed, as to be scarcely worth the trouble and ex pense of cultivation. This machine was invented by Mr. Eli Whitney, a native of Massachusetts, who was accidentally in Georgia, in the year 1795; a gentleman of education, and distinguished for his mechanical genius. This machine has enriched the southern planter by enabling him to cultivate, to the greatest advantage, one of the most valuable staples in the world. "Before its invention, very little upland cotton was cultivated, and scarcely 1 single pound was exported from the United States; afterwards, the culture of this species of cotton became the principal object of the planter in South-Carolina and Georgia; and in the year 1807, more than fifty-five millions of pounds of upland cotton was exported, and which was valued at more than eleven and a half millions of dollars. It has rarely occurred, that the invention of a single machine has, at once, changed the employment of so many thousand people, and has added so much to the wealth and resources of a nation. In the year 1792, the value of the exports of the United States, was only $20,753,093, (upland cotton, the growth of the United States, constituted very little, if any part of these exports,) and in the short period of fifteen years, a new article of export is produced, amounting in value to more than one half of that sum.” pp. 110-11. So rapid has been the increase in the culture of cotton that though in 1791 the export was but 189,316 lbs.; the amount in 1807 was about 65,000,000 lbs.!† In the following year it sunk to about 10,000,000 lbs.; and, though more than 90,000,000 lbs.‡ in 1810, it had dwindled down to 18,000,000 lbs. in 1814,-at the Great Britain has average rate of about 6,000,000 lbs. annually. always afforded the chief market for this article;-and though our mutual commerce has at times been restricted, she received her portion by the way of the Floridas, the Azores, Madeira, Spain, • Mr. Whitney obtained a patent for this invention, at an early period, under the laws of the United States; and has been liberally rewarded for the right of using it, By all the cotton planting states, except the state of Georgia. South-Carolina gave him, and Mr. Miller, who was concerned with him, the sum of 50,000 dollars, for the right of using the machine in that state. In the state of Georgia, his right to the invention was disputed, and his machine was used, with the exception of a few individuals, without making him any compensation. He was compelled therefore, in that state, to have recourse to the judicial tribunals for redress. Owing, however, to a defect in the first patent law, and to the powerful interest opposed to him, he was unable to obtain a decision in his favor, until thirteen years of his patent had expired. This decision was had, before the circuit court of the United States, in which judge Johnson, of South-Caro lina, presided. In his charge to the jury, on the trial of the case, the judge did ample justice to Mr. Whitney, as the original inventor, as well as to the importance and utility of the invention states. Portugal, and Sweden. In 1807, according to our own custom-house books, the value of cotton exported to England was $ 11,953,378; but according to the valuation of the English inspector-general the sum was about $13,481,580; which together with what Scotland received could not have made the whole value of the import into Great Britain less than about $15,000,000. In 1787 Great Britain imported more than 22,000,000 lbs. and in 1800 about 56,000,000 lbs. of cotton; not one pound of which was shipped from the United States:-but in 1807, when the former imported 282,667 bags, our own country furnished 171,267,-at least 40,000 more than the half; and the same proportion was continued up to 1810-11 when the whole amount in the respective years was 561,173 and 326,281 bags, of which 240,516 of the former, and 128,482 of the latter were the produce of the southern Each bag or bale contains about 300 lbs; and accordingly we furnished the English in 1810, by their own accounts, with 72,154,800 lbs.-considerably more than half of their whole import. By our own custom-house books it appears that the export from the United States in 1800 was about 16,000,000 lbs.,—and in 1807 about 53,000,000 lbs.—showing an annual increase of more than 4,600,000 lbs., on an average. In the following year they fell down to 7,992,593 lbs; but between 1809 to 1811 they rose again from 13 up to 47,000,000 lbs. by an average yearly increase of more than 11,000,000 lbs.-Europe must always depend upon tropical countries for a supply of cotton. It was one among the many projects of the late emperor Napoleon to make France supply her own consumption of this article. Circular requests were sent to the prefects of the different departments for the encouragement of its cultivation: a treatise was written by M. Lasteyrié du cotonnier, et de sa culture;' the seed was sent for to Spain, Italy, and our own country; a premium of about 10 cents was offered on every pound which should be raised; and—that was the last we ever heard of it. France has always received the greater part of her fine cotton fabrics from Great Britain; and in 1806 her import from that country was estimated at no less than $13,000,000. From our own country she imported about 3,800,000 lbs. upon an average between the years 1800 and 1808;-but if she received any during 1809, 10, and 11, it was by some indirect transporta tion. During 1811, 12, and 13 our own consumption was on an avarage about 20,000,000 lbs. annually. The next article of importance is flax-seed; of which, in 1770, the North-American colonies exported 312,612 bushels,-6,780 to England and 305,083 to Ireland,-valued then at about $139,000. From 1791 to 1802 inclusive the yearly average export was about 280,000 bushels; and from 1803 to 1807 the number was nearly 300,000,-value about $445,000 on an average; but in the following year the former fell to 102,000,-the latter to 131,000; and though from 1809 to 1813 inclusive the number averaged more than 224,000 bushels, and the value about $393,000, the one sunk in the next year to 14,800 and the other to 31,000. Ireland has been the chief market for flax-seed. Indigo is indigenous to Hindostan only;-but it was naturalized in South-Carolina, about 1741, by a miss Eliza Lucas, daughter of George Lucas, who was then the governor of Antigua;-where as well as in the other West-India islands it had been cultivated with success. Before cotton became an object of so much importance indigo was one of the principal articles exported from SouthCarolina and Georgia;-inasmuch as in 1794 the quantity shipped from these two states was no less than 1,550,880 lbs.;* but in 1814 it was hardly worth the trouble of being reported. In 1748 the British parliament granted a bounty of 6d. a pound on plantation indigo, when it was worth three-fourths as much as the best that was brought from France; and in 1754 the quantity exported from South-Carolina alone was 216,924 lbs. From Nov. 1760 to Sept. 1761 the export amounted to 399,366 lbs.; and, soon after the revolution, to 1,107,000 lbs. But besides our agricultural produce we export some manufactured articles; such as, 1st, those of domestic materials,—soap, tallow-candles, leather, boots, shoes, saddlery, hats, spirits, beer, starch, furniture, coaches, cordage, canvass, linseed-oil, iron, snuff, silk-shoes, wax-candles, tobacco, bricks, turpentine, wool, cotton-cards;-and 2dly, those of foreign materials, rum, refined-sugar, chocolate, gun-powder, brass, copper, and medi This is the greatest quantity ever exported in one year; and a part of it was probably of foreign production. cines. From 1803 to 1807 the export of the first class amounted to an average value of $1,512,000; and that of the second to about $604,000; in all to a little more than $2,116,000: but in the following year the numbers stood respectively at $309,000 and $35,000,-total $344,000; and though through the four next years they almost recovered their lost amount and were above $1,455,000 of domestic materials-$333,000, of foreign-of both about $1,788,000 on an average; yet during 1813 and 1814 they were lower than ever,-being about $300,000 of the former and $16,000 of the latter-in all $316,000.-The subjoined table will exhibit a summary view of the value of each department of our domestic exports from 1803 to 1814: From this it appears that in ordinary times the produce of agriculture constitutes about one-fourth,-of the sea about one-fifteenth, of the forest about one-ninth,-and of manufactures about one-twentieth, of our domestic exports. In 1813 a great deal of flour and provisions was exported to Spain and Portugal; and ac |