IMPORT DUTIES.

REASONS WHICH HAVE INFLUENCED THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE AT LIVERPOOL TO ASSIST IN ADVOCATING A REVISION OF THE IMPORT Duties.

1. The magnitude of the trade between Liverpool and the United States of America, as compared with that with the British West India possessions, including Demerara and Berbice, in whose favor prohibitory differential duties are sought to be maintained, in illustration of which the following table is annexed :—

2. The United States take from this country, in manufactures, on an average of years,

the whole value of the produce imported from thence,

as shown by the following table:

Value (in dollars) of
Exports from Great
Britain and Ireland
to the United States.

..24,539,214
.36,921,265

.37,845,824

..47,242,807

..61,249,527

..78,645,968

..44,886,943

..44,861,973

..65,964,588

3. The approaching termination of the tariff compromise act in the United States, when 20 per cent ad valorem will be the highest duty levied upon any article imported into that country; and, as we impose a duty on tobacco of 600 per cent, on wheat and flour a duty varying from 10 per cent to 75 per cent, and virtually exclude rice (clean,) ashes, timber, and staves, it is naturally to be expected that the states of which those productions are the growth, comparing the moderate maximum duty to which our manufactures are subjected with the burdens we impose on the products of their labor, will unite with a portion of their manufacturers for the purpose of establishing a tariff based on a prin. ciple of retaliation.

4. The sliding scale of duty on wheat and flour places countries so distant as the United States on an unequal footing with those less remote; because, whenever grain is admissible at a low duty, the demand is so rapidly supplied from the continent of Europe, that the duty is generally at a prohibitory rate before supplies from the United States can reach this country; and, as above shown, that our imports from the United States are paid for by an equal amount of exports of our manufactures, it is reasonable to assume that the whole value of grain and flour received from that country would be paid for in the same medium, and not in gold.

5. That if timber were allowed to be imported from the United States at the same duty as previous to the year 1808, the flourishing trade formerly carried on in that article would be re-established, to the great benefit of both countries, as it is notorious that such is the superior quality of timber the growth of the United States, to that of British Ame

rica, that vessels built of it are insurable as first class for double the length of time allowed to ships built of the latter.

6. The circumstances of the manufacturing interests have materially changed during the last few years; formerly we consumed the greater portion of our manufactures at home, but now more than two thirds of our cotton fabrics are exported, showing the vital importance of encouraging trade with those countries which, like the United States, are willing to receive to any extent the productions of our industry in exchange for theirs. NICHOLAS ROSKELL,

Liverpool, May 10, 1841.

President of the American Chamber of Commerce.

COMMERCIAL STATISTICS.

TRADE OF GREAT BRITAIN WITH THE UNITED STATES AND FRANCE. IMPORTS AND EXPORTS.

The London Times of April 10, 1841, contains the following valuable information, which shows the importance to that country of the trade of the United States :

"The interchange of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland with all coun tries, given in English money, according to a scale of official value settled in the year 1698:

"The interchange of France with all countries, given in English money, at the rate of 256. for each pound sterling, according to a scale of official value settled in the year 1826:

The interchange of the United States of America with all countries, given in English money, at the rate of 50d. for each dollar, according to the actual worth of the mer. chandise at the time and in the place where landed or shipped, in the year ending as under :

"The interchange of France with Great Britain and her dependencies, by official va. lue, given in English money, at the rate of 25f. for each pound sterling :

"The interchange of the United States of America with Great Britain and her dependencies, (by declared value,) given in English money, at the rate of 50d. for each dollar :

66

"Perhaps few of our readers were prepared to see that France, as we are shown by her returns, is already importing from England and her dependencies direct, to an amount exceeding £5,000,000 sterling; and the import or custom of France is larger consider. ably than here appears, inasmuch as under existing regulations all products not being of European growth or manufacture cannot be received into the French market direct, but are sent from this country to Belgium or Holland, and thence into France. The excess of the French exports to this country and her dependencies, compared with the imports, is in some degree accounted for by this cause.

“In like manner, out of the exports from the United States to this country, a certain portion of the amount (between £100,000 and £200,000) represents not the products of the United States, but goods sent there; as, for example, the gum of Senegal or the an. nato of Cayenne, which are dependencies of France, in order that they may afterward be imported by British vessels into England.

"The excess in the amount of the general exports over the imports of this country shows, that we are a saving and a lending people; our merchants lend to the merchants of other countries, and individuals of acquired fortune invest a portion of their capitals in foreign stocks, or in the purchase of lands in our colonies.

"In the general interchange of the United States we see a condition of trade, com paring the amount of imports and exports, the opposite of our own. We see that they are a borrowing people, and that the extent of their purchasing our products is measured by the degree of our lending the capital by which they are to be paid for. We say this in no invidious spirit, because we are among those who are of opinion that the bond of any solvent community is as good and convenient a return for our industry as commodi. ties in the ordinary sense; only, we speak of it as a fact, attested by all reasonable observation, and by such returns as are here before us, that when this country is in a spirit to invest in American securities, then it is that America is an unusually active customer for British goods.

"In the general interchange of France, we see a steadily increasing trade, and that a remarkable equality obtains throughout, if the exports be compared with the imports. It may be stated incidentally, with regard to French commerce, that about one third of the amount of imports, and about one fourth of the amount of exports, are transported by land.

"We cannot close this subject without subjoining one more table, for the purpose of exhibiting from our own customhouse returns, the progress of that portion of the exports to France and to the United States, consisting only of British and Irish produce and manufactures, which, by declared value, were as follows, viz :

"As the exports from Great Britain to the United States extend little or nothing beyond our own produce and manufactures, it is at first sight not easy to reconcile what we return as the amount of our exports to the United States with what the United States gov. ernment returns as the amount of their exports from this country. Among the causes which seem to explain the excess of the United States return, one is, that the freight of the goods is only earned and added to their value after arrival, and the other, that all the imports into the United States, south of New York, will for the last two or three years have been estimated, we might perhaps add, paid for, in depreciated money. Still, explain it as we will, the irregularity of the United States, as a customer of this country, is remarkable. The trade is large, but occasional disorder is one of the conditions under which we enjoy it.

HOPS, MALT, BREWERS, ETC., OF ENGLAND.

The total number of acres of land in England and Wales, under the cultivation of hops, in the year 1840, amounted to 44,805; the duty on hops of the growth of 1840, amounted altogether to £62,253; the quantity of British hops exported from Great Britain to foreign countries, from the 5th of January, 1840, to the 5th of January, 1841, was 923,881 lbs.; the quantity of foreign hops imported into the United Kingdom, in the year ending January 5, 1841, was 11,966 lbs. It further appears, from the above return, that the total number of quarters of malt made between the 5th of January, 1840, and the 5th of January, 1841, in the United Kingdom, amounted altogether to 5,337,107, out of which 3,564,411 were used by brewers and victuallers, and 420,858 by retail brewers; that the number of persons licensed to sell beer "to be drunk on the premises," in England, between the 5th of January, 1840, and the 5th of January, 1841, amound to 36,871; and the number licensed to sell beer not to be drunk on the premises, to 5,742. The number of bushels of malt consumed by the former was 2,913,978, and the number consumed by the latter 452,890. The quantity consumed by brewers in the whole of the United Kingdom, during the same period, was 19,866,154 bushels, and the quantity consumed by victuallers 8,649,145 bushels,

QUANTITY OF SOAP MADE IN GREAT BRITAIN, IN 1840. The total quantity of hard soap made in Great Britain from January 5, 1840, to Janu ary 5, 1841, was 159,220,068 lbs.; and the total quantity of soft soap made during the same period was 13,535,856. The quantity of hard soap exported from January 5, 1840, to January 5, 1841, was 22,004,075 lbs.; and the quantity of soft soap, 7,008 lbs.; the amount of drawback paid thereon being £140,745. The quantity of hard soap exported to Ireland was 9,930,108 lbs., and that of soft soap 187,244 lbs. The total quantity of foreign hard soap imported into Great Britain was 642 cwt., and the amount of duty received thereon £1,279 188. 8d. The total quantity of foreign soft soap imported was 87 cwt., and the amount of duty received thereon £203 2s. 6d.

EXPORTATION OF COCOA FROM GUAYAQUIL.

The London Journal of Commerce gives the following statement of the quantity of cocoa exported from Guayaquil for the last eight years-that is, from the year 1833 to 1840, showing a total of 80,960,965 lbs., and an increase in 1840 of nearly 8,000,000 lbs. The quantity exported each year is as follows:-1833, 6,605,786; 1834, 10,999,853; 1835, 13,800,851; 1836, 10,918,565; 1837, 8,520,121; 1838, 7,199,057; 1839, 12,159,787; 1840, 14,266,942 lbs. The countries to which the cocoa was exported were Spain, England, France, United States, Mexico, Central America, New Granada, Peru, Chili, Manilla, Hamburg, Genoa, St. Thomas, Rio Janeiro, Rio de la Plata. Of the quantity exported, England receives but a small portion, being no more than 864,177 lbs. Spain takes the greatest proportion, and Mexico follows. The quantity shipped to the former place for the period stated is 37,477,503 lbs., and to the latter 10,865,561 lbs.

PRODUCTION OF COFFEE IN THE WORLD.

The British Almanac states that "according to an approximative estimate prepared by Mr. McQueen, the quantity of coffee produced in the various countries in which it forms a commercial export, is as follows:

The consumption of coffee in Great Britain, during the year 1838, was 24,920,820 lbs., being more than double the quantity supposed to be produced by the British West Indies.

PRODUCTION OF SUGAR IN THE WORLD.

The following approximative estimate of the quantity of sugar produced in different parts of the world, is taken from the British Almanac :—

Brazils, (exact quantity of white not disting'hed) 2,400,000
Spanish West Indies,.....

4,481,340

Java, (without distinction of quality,)................................. 892,475
For internal consumption, exclusive of China, In-

The official statement of the commerce of Cuba, in the year 1840, has been made public. It appears, from this document, that the exports of that most productive spot of earth, amounted, in the year 1840, to almost twenty-six millions of dollars, being four millions and a half more than in 1839. The quantity of sugar exported was six times as large as the quantity of beet sugar grown in France during a similar period. The immense wealth of Cuba, and her great productiveness, in despite of all the embarrassments imposed upon her by Spain, render her an interesting object for the contemplation of political economists. The foreign trade of that island is equal to one fifth of the foreign trade of the whole United States, including cotton, tobacco, breadstuffs, and all the rest. Her internal trade is, however, comparatively small, as there is very little variety in the pursuits of her people, almost all of them being engaged in agriculture, and that confined to two articles, the sugar cane and coffee tree.

The statement exhibits, in detail, the following general results:

1. Total Value of Imports,........

Total Value of Exports,.......

island open to foreign commerce :

$24,700,189
$25,941,783

(a)

2.-Number of vessels of various nations which have entered the twelve ports of the