IMPORTS INTO THE UNITED STATES FROM CANADA FOR THE YEAR Imports free of duty, $636,454; paying duties, $4,285,470. Imported in American vessels, $2,027,569; in foreign vessels, $2,257,901. The aggregate of Merchandise, & in deducting the specie is : June, 1848........$2,395,074 June, 1849 3,763,632 1850.........$4,465,587 1851......... 4,099,014 COMMERCE AND COMMERCIAL REGULATIONS OF NEW ORLEANS. The following facts are extracted from the speech of Mr. Payne, a member of the General Council of the city of New Orleans, as reported by the "Commercial Bulletin."* Many of our readers will doubtless be surprised at the enormous charges to which the commerce of the West has heretofore been subjected at that port. Another fact is disclosed by this speech, which has been overlooked by the people of the West, the gradual, and, we may say, rapid decline in the commerce of New Orleans. This is a new feature in the history of American cities and deserves the attentive consideration of the citizens of the Western States. We intend noticing this subject more at large hereafter. Mr. Payne addressed the Council upwards of half an hour in favor of the system proposed by him, and his remarks were listened to with profound attention, and we give an abstract of them: We copy from the St. Louis Intelligencer. Under the present law, he said, it was generally known that steamboats and sailing vessels were most unjustly called upon, whether they were in port one day or sixty days, to pay wharfage sixty days. The injustice of this was obvious. As well might a tavern or hotel-keeper make a rule that he would charge his boarders for sixty days, whether they remained in his house one day or sixty. Every principle of sound policy, that should govern a city like this, was violated in such a rule. The true policy was that of strict honesty, and was this system honest? The evils arising from this system of overburdening commerce were many. The live oak, cut in our forests was taken to the North to be wrought, for no vessel could afford to lie at our wharves to be repaired. This was but one and a slight one among many great evils. Not only was a vessel charged full sixty days, though she should be but ten days in port, but if she chance to remain one day over sixty, she was charged for a second full term. The effect of all this was visible in our declining commerce. He wished he could present another picture than that laid before him by the papers in his possession. But he had a duty to perform, and that duty required a painful exposition of facts. He would lay before the Council some statistics, gathered from the public records, which would show the necessity of reform. From the Custom house, we learn that there arrived from sea, the past four years: 66 of 883,753 t'ns. of 837,697 t'ns. of 708,821 t'ns. 1st April, '47, to M'ch 31, '48, 3127 ships & ves. of 905,861 t'ns. 1st April, '48, to M'ch 31, '49, 2624" 1st April, '49, to M'ch 31, '50, 2435 " 1st April, '50, to M'ch 31, '51, 2019 " Showing a diminution of 1108 ships and nage. 66 197,030 tons of ton The steamboat arrivals in 1847 and 1848 were 2977. 66 66 66 Showing a falling off of nearly 100 steamboats, annually, while flatboats, in the same time, fell from over 3000 to less than 700 the last year. With these facts before us, it was plain that New Orleans, instead of occupying the position as a commercial city, that her great natural advantages entitled her to, was fast falling off. And the decline of her prosperity was as perceptible in the enumeration of her population, as it was in the reduced number of ships visiting her harbor. The census of 1840 showed her to be the third city in the Union in point of population. New York then stood first, Philadelphia second and New Orleans third, but now, according to the census of 1850, she stands the seventh. He would proceed to show the causes of this declension; and he wished it to be understood that his object was not to censure the gentlemen filling the places to which he should have occasion to advert. The offices they filled were created by law, and no blame could attach to them for filling them. The law as it now stands "gives to pilots $2 50 per foot for all vessels drawing 10 feet of water, and under; all over that $3 50 per foot IN and OUT of the Mississippi." According to the annual statement of the Price Current for 1848, 1849, and 1850, there arrived in these three years: 2396 Ships of an average, say of 15 ft.e., $3 50 per ft., in and out..... $105 each.....$274,490 00 489 Steamships 1334 Barks, 13 feet.. 7335 Vessels-Pilot's fees on same by law for three years....... $615,152 00 By an accurate calculation of the exact tonnage of the vessels for one year, we find the ships to average 608 tons each, barks 363, brigs 197, and schooners 104 tons. The towboats receive them from the pilots, and according to their published rates, (1850) these ships paid towage up to the city, as follows: 2396 Ships, 608 tons cach, $380 each ship..........$910,480 00 1334 Barks, 363 tons each, $252 each ship..... 1199 Brigs, 191 tons each, $160 each ship 336,168 00 191,840 00 1917 Schooners, 104 tons each, $100 each ship..... 191,700 00 The towboat delivered them to the Harbormasters. regulating Harbormasters' fees, reads as follows: The law Three cents per ton is allowed the Harbormasters for every ship or vessel that may enter the port of New Orleans, and load or unload, or make fast to said Levee, within the limits of said port; provided, the same do not extend to chalms, flat, or keelboats." These same 3 years, there were in 1848......905,861 tons. 1849......883,753 66 66 Total tons..... At 3 cents....... .2,627,311 .....$78,819 33 On steamboats there were in 1848......2977 arrivals. The Harbormaster now hands them over to the Portwardens. The law regulating Portwardens' fees, reads thus: "Portwardens are authorised to demand and receive from each vessel, arriving in port from sea, five dollars, whether they be called on for any service or not." But this gives them, as well as the Harbormasters, fees for all services they may be called upon to perform, besides the rates here set down. This sum of $5 on those 7335 vessels for nothing, in the same three years, amounts to $36,625. The Portwarden now turns them over to the hands of the Collectors of Levee and Wharfage dues, and in the same three years, They collect........ To this let us add the Pilot Fees.. The Towboats....... Harbormasters Portwardens... $941,273 35 615,152 00 2,207,886 25 154,752 06 Total............ 36,625 00 .$4,035,788 66 To this we must add the following additional allowances: Pilots are allowed extra by law, Towboats are allowed extra by regulation; Harbormasters, axtra by law; Portwardens, extra by law; and when all these extras are put on, we may safely suppose this enormous sum is swelled to $4,500,000 for the three years, being an average of a million and a half of dollars annually levied on our commerce to get to our wharves. [A proposition was offered by Mr. Payne and adopted by the Council, which provides "That sailing vessels shall hereafter be charged per diem at the rate of half a cent a ton; steamships, two and a half cents a ton; and steamboats, two cents a ton; and that no vessel shall be charged, in any municipality, for a longer time than she was actu ally moored in the harbor of that municipality."] |