cess of the power-loom, were made in 1803. In 1813 there were twenty-four hundred of these in use in England. In 1820 these had increased to fifty-five thousand, and in 1833 to a hundred thousand. 1800 were not less important than those which preceded it. The importations into England increased from 1800 to 1810 more than a hundred per cent., being from fiftysix to one hundred and thirty-two millions The steam engine of Watt was not less of pounds. The American war interrupted important to the manufacture of cotton than the progress in the next decade, but in 1820 these improvements in spinning and weav- it had risen to one hundred and fifty-two ing. The water power of England was lim-millions. For the next ten years the rate ited, irregular, and entirely insufficient for of progress was nearly a hundred per cent., the numerous machines that were soon in- the amount in 1830 being two hundred and troduced, and the new motive power was sixty-four millions. In 1840 the amount especially adapted to their work. Being was five hundred and seventeen millions, cheap on account of the abundance of coal, the increase being nearly a hundred per regular in its operations so as to give a uni- cent. In 1850 the imports were six hunform stroke to the loom, not liable to in- dred and sixty-nine millions; and in 1859 terruptions and strikes as human labor had they were eleven hundred and eighty-one been, it has contributed very much to the millions. progress of the cotton manufacture. Watt's first patent was taken out in 1769, but it was not until 1785 that steam was applied to the driving of a cotton mill. In 1800 there were thirty engines employed at Manchester, and in 1859 the number in the whole kingdom had risen to twenty-two hundred. Under the influence of these improvements, the progress in the manufacture of cotton has been of the most rapid description. In 1860 the amount received from the United States alone reached the enormous sum of eleven hundred millions, to which the East Indies have made an addition of two hundred more, and other countries nearly a hundred, making a total of fourteen hundred millions of pounds. This increase since 1780, when machinery was first successfully applied to the spinning of cotton, has been two hundred and eighty fold. Since 1800 the increase has been twenty-five times; since 1820 twelve times; and since 1840, three times. During the It was under the influence of those great year 1858 the value of England's manufacinventions that the importations of cotton tured cottons was four hundred and thirty rose in twenty years-from 1781 to 1801-millions, and in 1859 four hundred and from five to fifty-six millions of pounds, and eighty millions of dollars. the English exports of cottons from two mill- At the same time the manufacture has been ions of dollars to twenty-seven millions. growing rapidly in every other country. The In all this time the price of the raw material abundance of coal in England, the cheaprather advanced than decreased. Accord-ness of iron and machinery, and the low rate ing to Tooke's "History of Prices," the of interest on capital, as well as the enterrange for different qualities of West India and Surinam from 1780 to 1785 was from 13 pence per pound to 40; while from 1795 to 1800 it was from 15 to 55 pence. But the cost of yarns was very different. 1786 and 1787 the price of No. 100 was nine and a half dollars a pound; in 1790, seven and a half dollars; in 1795, four dollars and three quarters; and in 1800, two dollars and thirty-five cents. In prise, industry, and skill of her people, have placed her before other countries; but their progress has been rapid, and their demand for cotton large and increasing. From 1820 to 1840 the French imports of cotton rose from forty-four to one hundred and four millions of pounds, and in 1855 to one hundred and sixty-eight millions. And the recent abolition of the duty on raw cottons has made the increase still more rapid. In We thus see that the effect of the intro- some other countries of Europe, the progress duction of machinery was to give an im- has been greater than in France. mense increase to the consumption of cot- comparative magnitude of the manufactures ton, a large reduction in the price of cotton of other countries than England may be seen goods, and a substitution of cotton for wool, by our exports in 1860. To England, we silk, and flax, and an increase in the demand sent 2,669,000 bales; to France, 589,000; for labor. and to the rest of Europe, 515,000. The The improvements which were made after average of 1839 and 1840, when compared The lows: with the average of 1859 and 1860, is as fol- The former may therefore be regarded as representing quantities, and the latter values. Now the official and declared values of all kinds of goods for Great Britain. 1839-40. 1814 were $88,000,000 and $100,000,000 .1,022,000 1859-60. Bales. 2,344,000 1,069,000 Increase per cent. 130 136 Total 66 846,000,000 141,000,000 214,000,000 These numbers show that while the amount has increased nearly tenfold, the value has only doubled, and that therefore the goods are five times cheaper now than in 1814. We have now followed the cotton manufacture from its rise, a century since, down to the present time. Its immense magnitude in every country of Europe, its rapid progress, its exclusion of other materials for clothing, and the great decrease in the price of manufactured goods, are established facts which show how large and how intense is the foreign demand for our cotton. This is the first proposition we proposed to consider in our explanation of the high prices of labor and capital in our country, and we now pass on to the second, that the production of cotton is very profitable to the American planters. In proof of this, we shall show that the cultivation of cotton has attracted labor and capital from other pursuits in the cotton states, until it has concentrated almost their whole productive power upon this single article; that it has drawn wealth and labor from other sections of the country to be devoted to it, when other employments were inviting their attention; and that these and other facts demonstrate the profitableness of this culture. This large increase in the manufacture of cotton has been accompanied with a decline in the cost of the raw material, and a still greater decline in the cost of manufactured goods. The price of American cotton, from 1800 to 1820, averaged twenty-two cents per pound; from 1820 to 1840, thirteen cents; and from 1840 to 1860, only ten cents. In the same time the improvements in machinery, and in the art of manufacturing, and in The cotton plant of Europe is a native of the skill of the workmen, have reduced the India, whence it spread very slowly into price of yarns, and prints, and muslins, and China and Persia, Africa and Europe. But every product of the loom in a much greater cotton is a native of this continent, and was ratio. For number 100, the price of yarn diffused here everywhere before the arrival in 1786 was nine dollars and a half; in 1796, of the Europeans. It was found by Columfour dollars and three quarters; in 1806, one bus in Cuba, on his first voyage, in 1492, dollar and seventy-two cents; in 1812, one and by Cortes in Mexico, and Magellan in dollar and twenty-seven cents; in 1830, Brazil, on their first visit to those countries eighty cents; and in 1854, fifty-eight cents. in 1519. Pizarro saw it in Peru in 1532, In the lower numbers the decrease has been and Cabeça de Vaca in California in 1536. nearly as large. In all kinds of cotton goods In both divisions of the continent it had the decrease in price is made manifest by the change in the official and declared values of the exports of Great Britain. The official is a fixed nominal price for every article exported, and the declared is the real value. spread as far north and as far south as the climate would permit. All the three kinds of cotton were growing here: the herbaceous, or annual; the shrub, which lives three or four years; and the tree, which lasts for only 189,316 pounds-which is less than the product of many of our single plantations at the present time. In 1792 it was four hundred and nineteen bags, weighing 138,328 pounds; and in 1793 it was 487,600 pounds. At this period it took a sudden start upward, and rose in 1794 to 1,601, twenty years. It is only the annual which three preceding, 43,000 bales. The variety is now cultivated in the United States. Dur- of cotton that is planted in the interior is ing our colonial history, it was introduced the native Mexican species. It adheres here from the West Indies and from the closely to the seed, and cannot be separated Mediterranean, and was extensively culti- by the common roller gin. When first culvated in gardens and small patches for do- tivated it was separated by hand, but this mestic use from New Jersey to Georgia. A operation was slow and tedious, and limited few bags were exported before the Revolu- the cultivation for the purposes of comtion; but so little was produced, that a ship-merce. In 1791 the whole exports of the ment of eight bales from Charleston, in 1784, United States of all kinds of cotton were was seized by the custom-house authorities in England, on the ground that so large an amount could not have been grown in the United States. As it was cultivated to advantage in the West Indies, near to our coast, many attempts were made to extend its culture here. Some seeds were brought from the Bahamas, and successfully culti-000, and in 1795 to more than six millions of vated along the coast of South Carolina and pounds. The cause of this sudden increase Georgia, soon after the war of independence. was the invention, by Whitney, of the saw This was carefully improved from year to gin. year, by selecting the seed of the finest plants, by the application of the most suitable manures, and by choosing the best localities for its cultivation, until the fine, silky variety, known as the sea island cotton, was naturalized in our country, and brought to the greatest perfection of staple. The seed is easily separated from the lint by passing it between rollers, which push back the seed and permit the cotton to pass through. This is a tedious work, but the length and fineness of the fibre secured so high a price for the product, that the cultivation has continued profitable from its first introduction to the present time. It is mixed with the best wool or with silk, or is used by itself for the manufacture of the finest fabrics, and commands a very high price in the market, two, three, or four times more than the short staple cotton. Our country has a monopoly of it; for neither in Egypt, Pernambuco, or the Isle of Bourbon, where the best cottons are grown, can they produce a staple of the same length and fineness. Sometimes a dollar a pound is paid for it; and even higher prices have been offered for favorite crops. The cultivation of this variety is limited to the islands along the coast and a narrow belt near the sea, though in Florida it may be grown in any part of the peninsula. When planted in the uplands it degenerates quickly and is less productive. The whole value of this crop is now from eight to ten millions of dollars, and varies but little from year to year. For the last three years the crop has averaged 47,000 bales, and for the This ingenious gentleman was a native of Massachusetts, and had come to Georgia as a private tutor in 1792. While residing as a guest in the family of Mrs. General Greene, near Savannah, he was informed by some of her visitors from the upper country, where the short-staple cotton was cultivated, of the great desirableness of a machine for separating the cotton from the seed. To his inventive turn of mind, this suggestion was enough to attract his attention. He obtained some of the seed cotton from Savannah, and soon devised the saw gin. At first he used bent wires or teeth, like those of the common card, but much larger and stronger, and these were placed in rows on a revolving cylinder. The cotton was separated from this cylinder by a frame of parallel wires. As the cylinder revolved, the teeth extending through the wire frame caught the cotton and drew it through the grating, but the seeds being too large to pass between the wires, were separated from the lint. The teeth being found too weak to pull the cotton from the seed without being bent or broken, he substituted a circular saw in their place. The teeth of the saws being large, and shaped like the beak of a bird, had more strength and were equally efficient. Behind the saw-cylinder, brushes were arranged to remove the cotton from the saws, and thus the object was accomplished. When he had completed his gin, entirely by the labor of his own hands, he invited some farmers to see it tried, and all were satisfied with its work. It differed es COTTON CLEANING BEFORE THE INVENTION OF THE COTTON GIN. COTTON GIN FROM THE WAREHOUSE OF C. V. MAPES. sentially from the roller gin introduced from the Bahamas, and invented there by Joseph Eve, the son of a Pennsylvania loyalist, and afterward a resident of Georgia. The roller gin had also teeth and a wire frame, and the revolving teeth caught the cotton through the wire frame, but they only delivered it to the rollers which separated the cotton from the seed. In the saw gin the teeth and the wire did the work of separation. Though Eve's was like Whitney's, and may have suggested it, they were on different principles. The one was suited for the sea island, and the other for the upland. Before Whitney could take out his patent, many of his gins were constructed by the farmers and put to work. His patent was issued in 1793, and having obtained the cooperation of Miller, who furnished the capital, they undertook the manufacture of the gins for sale, and the ginning of cotton by the pound for the planters, and the purchase of the seed cotton, that they might clean it themselves. Although these plans required large capital, Whitney was poor, and Miller had but small means when this project was undertaken. In 1794, when they were preparing several machines for sale, Whitney was taken sick, and his workmen were prostrated by the fevers of the climate. These difficulties prevented the construction of many gins by the patentees; and as the want of them was great, and the machinery very simple, many were built by common mechanics, and thus extensively introduced. In 1795 Whitney's shop and all his machines were destroyed by fire, and this was another hindrance to the sale of the patented gin, and another incentive to those who were trespassing on his rights. To put a stop to these infringements of their patent, suits were instituted by Miller and Whitney. But the patent law had just been passed by Congress, and the general government was little known or respected. The juries were composed of men who were all interested in breaking the patent. The gin makers had strong interests prompting them to resist the suits. Witnesses were found who testified that they had seen the gin in Europe, where it was used for making lint! The suits were postponed and delayed by the ingenuity of lawyers, and as the United States courts only met at long intervals, these delays were the more serious. Under these difficulties, the patentees often failed in their suits, or obtained but small damages, or were engaged in long, vexatious, and expensive litigation, so that the courts became an expense to them instead of a protection. The gins were everywhere introduced, with or without the patent-right. This was the case both in Georgia and South Carolina; but the delay and failure of the suits in Georgia induced the patentees to propose to the legislature of South Carolina to sell the right for that state for $100,000. An offer of $50,000 was made them and accepted, and this was nearly all that was ever received by the inventors. Whitney, unlike Arkwright, only received barren honors for his great invention; for even the purchase money of South Carolina was expended in the prosecution of the suits he had instituted against the trespassers on his rights. The introduction of Whitney's gin acted like magic on the planting of cotton. In eight years, from 1792 to 1800, the exports of the United States increased more than a hundred-fold. The value rose from $30,000 to $3,000,000, and the amount from 138,000 lbs. to 18,000,000. The whole of this was wanted in England, and the rapid increase in the demand there that followed the general introduction of Arkwright's inventions prevented any decline in price. The population of South Carolina and Georgia, where all of this cotton was raised, was only 507,000 in 1800; so that the amount was $6 to each individual, including the young and the old. This was not enough to purchase the manufactures and the foreign supplies they needed; rice and tobacco being both added to cotton in the exports of Charleston and Savannah. Those of rice alone were larger than cotton, and the production of tobacco was considerable. The immigrants from Virginia and North Carolina brought this cultivation with them, and it formed a large part of the trade at the sea-port towns at this early period. But it was soon to disappear, under the progress of cotton. In the next ten years, from 1801 to 1810, the production increased more than fivefold, from 18,000,000 to 93,000,000 of pounds and the value from $3,000,000 to $15,000,000. As the population had only increased 30 per cent. in these ten years, and as the exports of rice had risen from 94,000 to 119,000 tierces, the great change was in the transfer of labor from tobacco to cotton. The exports of cotton and rice in 1810 were more than $30 to each person, white and black, young and old, male and female; an amount which sufficiently indicates that nearly the |