AGRICULTURAL PROSPERITY. THE wheat trade of the United States has undergone a great development in the last ten years, and has now, in relation to England and th west of Europe, reached a position in which a continued and extensive expansion may be looked for, if only that principle of reciprocal interchange of industrial products is adhered to, through the operation of which the markets of the world have become open to the fields of the world; the excessive productions of one locality become available to the excessive demand of another region. Since England adopted, in 1842, the policy of admitting foreign food to English consumption, legal and artificial barriers to the interchange of produce have been removed, to an extent which has sufficed to impel the currents of trade in a new direction, and to deepen and strengthen its channels, so as to present a swelling volume of national wealth rolling into the lap of industry, instead of the coffers of capitalists under the restrictive system. The high price at which food had ruled, for many years, down to the modification of the duties in 1842, had circumscribed the consumption in a double ratio. The fact, that indispensable food absorbed most of the earnings of the working classes, prevented them from buying necessary clothing, which, in turn, dimin ished employment, and lessened emoluments, narrowing, in a farther degree, the means of buying food. The population was thus moving in a ruinous vortex, of which the gyrations were momentarily increasing in velocity. The national earnings, although diminishing in amount, were absorbed by the monopoly land-holders, whose fears were also awakened by the swelling number of paupers charged to the poor rates. The great evil of the state was dear food, of which the prices were unnaturally sustained by legal enactments; that is to say, the whole earnings of industry were, by law, poured into the pockets of food growers to the exclusion of other interests. The remedy was obvious, viz., to throw open the granaries of the world to the supply of the people, in order that English industry might be able to obtain other necessaries, in addition to food, for its exercise. From the moment of the accomplishment of that event, the prosperity of England has been on the increase, as measured by the increased employment of the people, and greater wages-not money wages, but more of the actual comforts and necessaries of life, for a given amount of labor. In proof of this material progress, may be taken a table of the quantities of raw materials of manufacture and of food, imported into England, for a series of years, for the use of the people. The following table shows the leading articles of food and manufactures imported into Great Britain: IMPORTS OF FOOD AND RAW MATERIALS INTO ENGLAND FOR CONSUMPTION. This is a most incredible result. We have given the details of the articles for these three years, in order that the precise nature of the increase may be seen. The following table, composed of the aggregates for each year, shows the progressive nature of the increase: QUANTITIES OF ANIMALS, GRAIN, FOOD, AND RAW MATERIALS IMPORTED INTO GREAT BRITAIN Raw Materials--Lbs. Years. Animals.No. Food--Lbs. |