It may be well to notice here, that the exports of sperm oil to England this year have exceeded those of any previous year, from 15 to 20,000 barrels having been exported, which would leave about the same quantity for home consumption in 1840 as we had in 1839. The great and continuing decrease of import (nearly two-thirds decrease within 20 years) into Great Britain, will hereafter exercise a greater influence on our prices of sperm oil, than we have heretofore felt, as the different manufacturers have greatly increased the use of sperm oil; thus, in case of an over-import into the States, and the prices are low, it will be taken for export.

Arrivals of Oil into the United States in 1840.

IMPORT DUTIES OF GREAT BRITAIN.

A late number of the London Commercial List, contains a review of the "Report of the Select Committee of the House of Commons, upon Import Duties." The report, which, it appears, is a volume of over 300 pages, strongly recommends a change in customhouse legislation. It states that 1150 articles are subject to import duty, besides articles unenumerated. The total amount of revenue from these 1150, is £22,962,610, and out of this amount nine articles alone produced in 1838, £18,575,071, and ten more produced £1,838,630; thus nineteen articles out of the 1150 produced £20,413,701, leaving 1131 articles, producing, for such a great number, the very insig nificant contribution to the revenue of only £2,548,909!

The committee express a conviction that prohibitory duties are totally unproductive to the revenue, and operate as a very heavy tax upon the country at large. Protective duties they also consider as of but little service to the parties professedly protected. They recommend that, as speedily as possible, the whole system of different duties, and of all restrictions, should be reconsidered; and that a change therein be effected, in such a manner that existing interests may suffer as little as possible in the transition to a more liberal and equitable state of things.

A persuasion is expressed that the difficulties of modifying the discriminating duties

which favor the introduction of British colonial articles, would be very much abated if the colonies were themselves allowed the benefits of the free trade with all the world. Among the witnesses examined before the committee was John M'Gregor, Esq., one of the Joint Secretaries of the Board of Trade. He stated that the ten leading articles, which produced £20,502,566 revenue in 1839, were

COLLECTOR'S OFFICE, CLEVELAND, (Ohio,) January 1st, 1841.

Of property on which toll is charged by weight, there arrived at Cleveland, by way of

the canal, during the past year,.........

During the year 1839, there arrived...

Being an increase of..........

..pounds 280,233,820 186,116,267

94,117,553

The following are the principal articles of property that arrived at Cleveland, by way of the canal, during the years 1839 and 1840:

:

1839.

1840.

Of property on which toll is charged by weight, there were cleared at Cleveland, by the way of the canal, during the past year,..,.....

During the year 1839 there were cleared....

Being a decrease of...........

..pounds 42,772,233 64,342,361

21,570,128

The following were the principal articles of property that were cleared at Cleveland, by the way of the canal, during the years 1839 and 1840:

Barrels Salt,...................

do Lake Fish,.

Pounds Merchandise,.

do Furniture,

do

Gypsum,.

Feet Lumber,..

M. Shingles,.......................

Pairs Millstones...........................................................................

76,729 8,959

110,447

9,062

..17,455,703

9,563,396

AMERICAN SOAPS, OIL, &c.

J. S. Sleeper, Esq., the editor of the Boston Mercantile Journal, has recently been led to investigate this rather important branch of domestic business, to some extent. The details furnished, are well worthy of observation, and some among them of perma. nent record. It seems the quantity of common washing soap manufactured in Boston and its vicinity, for exportation and domestic use, from the most correct data, is— Of yellow, of different qualities, for shipping,.. ..lbs. 10,000,000 White, for

do

75,000 1,500,000

150,000

11,725,000

In the manufacture of this quantity of soap, there are made use of, 4,800,000 pounds of tallow, of different qualities; about 12,000 barrels of rosin, and 12,000 casks of lime. A large quantity of salt is also required. The alkali is obtained from several sources. Large quantities of barilla are imported from Teneriffe and the Straits. An artificial barilla is made in the vicinity of Boston, by the decomposition of common salt, and recently the market has been supplied with an excellent article prepared by the Tennants, of Glasgow, called carbonate of soda. A small quantity of potash is used. A very considerable article of alkali is the house ashes, carefully saved and collected by the soap-makers. This, it is rather notable, after being used, is shipped to New York, and sold to the farmers on Long Island, who consider it indispensable in bringing their soil into cultivation. About 170,000 bushels are shipped annually for this use. Some of the manufactories within a few years have made use of whale oil, in various proportions, in their soap. This has injured the reputation of Boston soap quite as much as the process adopted in '92, in the manufacture of the celebrated Portland soap. It will take some time to wash out this stain. At that time, one man paid a verdict of $1,500 for vending this mixture, and affirmed that he made money by it still.

EXPORTS FROM RUSSIA TO THE UNITED STATES, 1840.

The following exports were made to the United States from Russia during the year 1840:

TRADE AND TOLLS OF THE NEW YORK CANALS.

A Table, showing the amount of tolls received on all the state canals of New York, from the opening of navigation to the first of August, the first of September, and to the close of navigation, for each of the last six years :

HUNT'S

MERCHANTS' MAGAZINE.

MARCH, 1841.

ART. I. THE AMERICAN COTTON TRADE.

It is well known that a wide and fertile tract of territory stretches along the southern borders of our republic, from the Florida coast to the Gulf of Mexico, even beyond the Mississippi, that is distinguished by moral and physical features that are entirely different from those of any other part of the country. These moral features, although depending in some measure upon the stock from which the population is derived, are more directly attributable to a particular mode of the cultivation of the soil. The tract to which we allude is comprised within the states of Virginia and North Carolina, Florida and South Carolina, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Tennessee, Alabama and Arkansas, which may be considered the cotton-growing region of the republic. This extensive portion of the domain, consisting in great part of an alluvial land, is warmed by a vertical sun, and is adorned with magnificent vegetation. Groves of the palmetto, with lofty branches and broad leaves, are spread through its level plains and swamps, like the tasselled ruins of sylvan temples. Forests of the magnolia, with their snow-white flowers, lift themselves in beauty and grandeur toward the heavens, and canebrakes oppose impassable barriers even to the progress of the elk and the deer. Flowers of varied hue bloom amid the low woodlands, and the orange sends forth its fragrance upon the marshes, bayous, and everglades. But the sun that quickens the vegetation into luxuriance, calls forth from this varied beauty the seeds of pestilence. The turbid and sluggish streams, which serve to enrich their banks, roll up a miasmatic vapor which bears death upon its wings, and harbor uncouth reptiles and swarms of noxious insects. Even in its refined and intelligent metropolis, the city of Charleston, the turkey-buzzard is made a scavenger, and is permitted to fly through the streets, and to prey upon the garbage which even the negro is too much occupied to clear away.

We shall here attempt to sketch the progress and the present condition of the cotton trade in that portion of the country, constituting as it does the principal object of its agricultural enterprise, and a species of product

the most prolific of wealth to the nation. The importance of this traffic, and the great proportion which it bears to the total amount of our commerce, is obvious to all who are acquainted with our general trade. Not only are the wharves and storehouses of our principal seaports crowded with its bales, but if we examine the cargoes of the ships which are constantly setting sail from our docks for foreign countries, we shall perceive that cotton constitutes in value the greatest proportion of the freights that are exported abroad. Even the manufacturing establishments which are beginning to be scattered upon the waterfalls of our northern states are, in the main, fed by the products of southern cotton plantations, and upon those products they must continue to depend for their future supplies.

The vegetable production known by the name of the cotton plant is clearly destined to be the most useful and widely diffused of any product of the soil, used in manufacture. The downy softness and fineness of its texture, and its flexibility, which enables it to be spun into a minute thread, and to be wrought into manufactured fabrics, equally remarkable for beauty, pliancy, and cheapness, the extent in which it is required for dress, and the abundance in which it may be produced, all exhibit combined advantages that render it of the greatest value to man. It possesses striking advantages over linen, in the fact that it is cheaper and is more comfortable and healthful for a changing climate, and would supersede its use without inconvenience were the latter fabric stricken from the products of manufacture. It is a bad conductor of heat, and, in consequence, preserves the body at a more equable temperature. It is in color white, of a cream color, or possesses sometimes a yellowish hue; but the former, it is well known, is the most common in our markets. The annual herbaceous cotton, comprising the principal product of our southern states, and distinguished from the cotton tree, is enclosed in pods, which are ripened and burst open by the action of the sun when it reaches to a fit state for gathering.

we may

And this production, although comparatively recently introduced into this country, has been long known. It has been stated by an English writer* that it was manufactured as early as linen was used in Egypt, and if credit the authority of Herodotus, it was known even before his day. In his account of the Indians, he says, "They possess, likewise, a kind of plant, which, instead of fruit, produces wool of a finer and better quality than that of sheep. Of this the Indians make their clothes." Other accounts equally authentic clearly show that the cotton was used as an article of dress, during the time of ancient Greece. In the age of Pliny, it was known in Upper Egypt, and also upon the island of Tylos, in the Persian Gulf. In his description of that island, this writer, in alluding to its productions, mentions certain wool-bearing trees, that "bear a fruit like a gourd, and of the size of a quince, which, bursting when it is ripe, displays a ball of dewny wool, from which are made costly garments, of a fabric resembling linen."‡

The first account of this production as an article of commerce, however, is derived from Arian, an Egyptian Greek, who lived during the first or second year of the Christian era, and who sailed around the coast from the Red Sea to the farthest extremity of India. This writer, in de

* Baines' History of the Cotton Manufacture.

+ Herodotus, book 3, c. 106.

Pliny, Hist. Nat., book 12, c. 10.