RUSSIAN TARIFF FOR 1842. IMPORT DUTIES. Cotton Yarn,.... Dyed and Mixed, White and Colored,... Fabrics, Pure and Mixed, Non-transparent, such as Percals, Fustians, Handkerchiefs in piece of the same,. Rou- Co bles. pecks ..per pood 6 50 .pood Tissues dyed of one single color, and embroidered in designs in And so on to Shawls and Handkerchiefs of pure Cotton, or mixed with Silk Goods, pure or mixed, of one color and changeable, plain and with woven designs, of same color and shade, such as Satins, Taffetas, Levantines, Serges, as well as Velvets of Silk, pure and mixed, of one color,..... Cloths-Kerseymeres, Ladies' Cloths, Ratteens, Black, Blue Black, Green deeper than Gazon, of one color, or mixed with White, as well as white and blue whites,...................... ....pood Cloths as before, of every color not named, and of various colors, mixed,...... Having more than an inch flower,... ..pood ..pood Fabrics of Linen or Hemp, pure or mixed with cotton, (excepting as rated,). Handkerchiefs the same, and with small white or colored borders, not above an inch broad,................. Pocket handkerchiefs as before with borders or without,.. 06 90 85 10 90 20 prohibited. Pottery, varnished pieces, pots and objects of all sorts, white, varnished, and not varnished, except objects not specially denominated, Linen or Hempen Yarn, combed or not,..... 80 20 50 65 26 06/ COMMERCE AND TONNAGE OF THE UNITED STATES. The following statistical view of the tonnage and commerce of the United States is derived from a speech of the Hon. Levi Woodbury, the late Secretary of the Treasury. The data is taken from official documents. The tonnage owned by citizens of the United States was, in 1820, 1,280,165 tons; in 1830, 1,181,776; in 1840, 2,180,764; during the first ten years falling off nearly 100,000 tons, while during the second, it increased nearly 1,000,000 tons. The tonnage of the state of Maine was, in 1820, 140,373 tons; in 1830, 182,485; while in 1840 it had increased to 308,056. Of Massachusetts, in 1820, 315,000; in 1830, 350,000; and in 1840, 539,000. The registered tonnage, or that engaged in foreign trade, in 1820, was 619,000 tons; in 1830 it had decreased to 576,000; while in 1840 it was 899,000 tons. The enrolled tonnage, or that engaged in our domestic trade, was, in 1820, 661,000 tons; in 1830, 615,301, having fallen off, notwithstanding the high tariff; while in 1840 it had risen to 1,262,000 tons. The new tonnage built in the United States in the year 1820, was 47,000 tons; in 1830, 58,000 tons; while in 1840, it was 118,000 tons. In the state of Maine there was built in 1830, 3,364 tons; while in 1840 there was built 38,936 tons. He then adverted to the tonnage engaged in the carrying trade between this and foreign countries. In 1820 the American tonnage so employed amounted to 804,000 tons; in 1830, 971,000; and in 1840, 1,647,090. The foreign tonnage so employed in 1820 was 100,000 tons; in 1830, 133,000; and in 1840, 712,000 tons; showing that in a commerce to which foreign nations may lay claim to an equal share, our tonnage is more than double theirs. The American tonnage employed in the carrying trade of the four great southern ports, Charleston, Savannah, Mobile, and New Orleans, was, in 1820, 140,000 tons; in 1830, 231,000 tons; and in 1840, 494,000 tons. The foreign tonnage in the same trade in 1820 was 55,000 tons; in 1830, 70,000; and in 1840, 195,000 tons. The American tonnage engaged in the trade between the United States and England and her dependencies was, in 1820, 315,000 tons; in 1830, 343,000; and in 1840, 868,000 The nominal amount of the English tonnage in the same trade was greatly swelled by steamboats on the lakes engaged in carrying passengers on the lakes, which stop at the different ports, their tonnage being counted at every port where they stop. He called attention to a somewhat singular fact, that a port called St. Vincent, in the tons. state of Vermont, ranked as the fourth in the Union in the amount of tonnage entered and cleared during the year 1840, being exceeded only by New York, Boston, and New Orleans. Upon inquiry of the collector, he had ascertained this was occasioned by steamboats which make thirty or forty trips each year, and schooners making fifteen and twenty, the tonnage being counted each time. The American tonnage in the trade to England alone was, in 1820, 128,000; 1830, 192,000; and in 1840, 358,000 tons. The foreign tonnage in the trade between the two countries was, in 1820, 19,000; in 1830, 58,000; and in 1840, 129,000 tons. The American tonnage in the trade between us and the British West Indies was, in 1820, 22,000 tons; in 1830, 25,000; and in 1840 it had increased to 78,000 tons. The foreign tonnage engaged in the same trade in 1840 was 13,000 tons. The American tonnage engaged in the trade between us and the Hanse Towns was, in 1820, 17,000 tons; in 1830, 14,000; and in 1840, 17,000; while the foreign tonnage was, in 1820, 4,000 tons; in 1830, 10,000; and in 1840, 42,000. This showed a balance against us, for which he considered there was more than an equivalent in the markets opened to our goods into the very heart of Germany. Having disposed of the tonnage, he would turn to the value of our commerce at the different periods. In 1820 our exports amounted to $69,000,000; in 1830, $73,000,000; and in 1840, $132,000,000. Of these there were of domestic origin, in 1820, $51,000,000; in 1830, $59,462,629; and in 1840, $113,762,617. Our imports amounted in 1820 to 74,000,000; in 1830, to $76,000,000; and in 1840 to $107,000,000. Our exports to Great Britain and Ireland amounted in 1820 to $28,000,000; in 1830 to $31,000,000; and in 1840 to $70,000,000. Our exports to the British provinces in North America amounted in 1820 to 2,000,000; in 1830 to $3,000,000; and in 1840 it had swelled to $5,889,015; of this a large proportion are breadstuffs, which go to feed the troops in Canada, and to be transhipped to England, where it gets in free of duty, and this of course increases the tonnage of Great Britain in her trade with these provinces. The value of breadstuffs exported in 1820 was $5,000,000; in 1830, $6,000,000; in 1840, $12,993,545, of which $9,353,402 was to England and her dependencies. Our exports to the Hanse Towns in 1820 amounted to $1,500,000; in 1830, $1,500,000; and in 1840 to $3,367,963; and this gain in our exports he considered a full equivalent for our loss in tonnage. The whole amount of our exports and imports in American vessels in 1820 was $137,000,000; in 1830, it had fallen to $129,000,000; and in 1840 it rose to $198,000,000. The amount in foreign vessels in 1820 was $17,000,000; in 1830, $14,000,000; and in 1810, $40,000,000. Thus demonstrating that five times as much of our commerce was carried on by American vessels as those of all other countries. Of our exports to England, American vessels carried in 1820 to the value of $41,000,000; in 1830, $48,000,000; in 1840, $88,000,000: and English vessels in 1820, $10,000,000; in 1830, $9,000,000; and in 1840, $21,000,000, or less than one fourth as much as the Americans. Mr. Woodbury next proceeded to show the great augmentation of our commerce with those nations particularly whose products were admitted free of duty, of which France will furnish a fair sample, the imports from which to this country in 1820 amounted to $6,000,000; in 1830 to $8,000,000; and in 1840 to $17,000,000. Our exports to that country amounted in 1820 to $9,000,000; in 1830 to $11,000,000; and in 1840 to $19,000,000. Of the carrying trade of the four great southern ports, Charleston, Savannah, Mobile, and New Orleans, American bottoms conveyed in 1821, to the value of $12,500,000; in 1830, $31,000,000; and in 1840 $50,000,000. While foreign vessels had in 1820 $7,000,000; in 1830, $6,000,000; and in 1840 $13,000,000. MERCANTILE MISCELLANIES. THE EXCHANGE AT MANCHESTER, ENGLAND. The Manchester Exchange may be regarded as the parliament-house of the cotton lords; it is their legislative assembly; the affairs of the executive are intrusted to a smaller body, which meets in the Chamber of Commerce, located in a different part of the town. This parliament assembles every Tuesday, and the attendance is greatest about one o'clock, being the hour of "high change." There is, perhaps, no part of the world in which so much is done and so little said in the same space of time. A stranger sees nothing at first but a collection of gentlemen, with thoughtful, intelligent faces, who converse with each other in laconic whispers, supply the defects of words by nods and signs, move noiselessly from one part of the room to another, guided as if by some hidden instinct to the precise person in the crowd with whom they have business to transact. A phrenologist will nowhere meet such a collection of decidedly clever heads. The physiognomist who declared that he could find traces of stupidity in the faces of the wisest philosophers, would be at a loss to find any indication of its presence in the countenances assembled on the exchange at Manchester. Genius appears to be not less rare than folly; the characteristic features of the meeting, collectively and individually, are those of talent in high working order. Whether trade be brisk or dull, "high change" is equally crowded; and the difference of its aspect at the two periods is suffi. ciently striking. In stirring times, every man on change seems as if he belonged to the community of dancing dervishes, being utterly incapable of remaining for a single second in one place. It is the principle of a Manchester man, that "nought is done while aught remains to do;" let him but have the opportunity, and he will undertake to supply all the markets between China and Peru, and will be exceedingly vexed if he has lost an opportunity of selling some yarn at Japan on his way. When trade is dull, the merchants and factors stand motionless as statues, or move about as slowly as if they fol. lowed a funeral; the look of eagerness is exchanged for that of dogged obstinacy; it seems to say "My mind is made up to lose so much, but I am resolved to lose no more." An increase of sternness and inflexibility accompanies the decline of the Manchester trade, and foreigners declare that the worst time to expect a bargain is a season of distress. 66 High change" lasts little more than an hour; after the clock has struck two, the meeting gradually melts away, and before three the building is as silent and deserted as one of the catacombs of Egypt.—England in the Nineteenth Century. ENDORSING NOTES. What (asks the Boston Transcript) can be more vexatious than to become involved by endorsements? You meet with a friend who wishes to get a discount at a bank. It is necessary to have an endorser. He asks you to put your name on the back of his note, merely as a matter of form. Out of kindness or good nature you do it, though you reap not the least benefit by so doing. By and by, the note becomes due. It is not paid, and you are forthwith notified that you, being the endorser, must hand over the needful. There is no remedy. Your name is down in black and white, and you cannot erase it. Can any thing be more provoking? Here you have done a good-natured act of disinterested benevolence, and your pocket must suffer for it. A debt accrued by another must be paid by yourself, and all the satisfaction you receive is that you must "pocket the loss" with the best grace you can. Yet, you can learn a lesson of wisdom from such an event, which is, NEVER to do so any more. Such are the bene. fits of endorsing, and such will they be till the whole system is abolished. A MATHEMATICAL PROBLEM. To the Editor of the Merchants' Magazine: I have seen with much gratification that your pages are open to the discussion of such mathematical problems as need frequent solution in commercial transactions; and I doubt not that proficients in the several departments of business and clerkdom, by the publication of their processes, the simplification of rules, and elucidation of principles, may do much to diminish the labor of computation and ensure accuracy of results, and confer vast benefit upon the mercantile community. I regard all these simple and rapid methods to be as entitled to consideration and application as any labor-saving processes or machines, and consider the inventors of them entitled to the gratitude of those whose tasks they would relieve. I would ask permission through the medium of your pages, to propose to your mathematical contributors for the readiest solution the following problem. A consignee, having received from various consigners several parcels of the same commodity, of different qualities, and known or appreciable difference in market value, and having sold the whole at an average price, wishes to apportion this price to the several owners, so that each may receive his equitable share. Required the simplest and readiest solution. For instance He receives the 1st lot from A, of 820 pounds, gallons, yards, or other quantities. Now the first lot is worth one cent per lb. more than the 2d; the 2d is worth cent more than the 3d; the 3d cent more than the 4th; the 4th cent more than the 5th; the 5th cent more than the 6th; and the 6th cent more than the 7th. He sells the whole at an average price of 144 cents. How shall this price be apportioned among the owners? Questions of this nature, in some mercantile establishments, are of quite frequent occurrence, and a simple and easy solution is much desired. I propose this problem in the hope that some of your contributors may be able to solve it by a process shorter than the usual one, which is extremely tedious and unsatisfactory. COST OF MONOPOLIES. Three pamphlets have recently been published in England, against monopolies. The author of the first, which is entitled The Many Sacrificed to the Few," estimates that the monopoly of grain, of all kinds, costs the country £21,860,928 a year; of meat, £10,583,333; of butter and cheese, £4,246,666; of timber, £7,000,000; and of tallow, £500,000. Total, £44,790,927 a year! The author of the second of these pamphlets, which is entitled "The Advantages of Monopoly, proved by the effects of the Sugar Monopoly," shows that the nation paid £9,060,794 (exclusive of duty) for its sugar in 1840; and that the same quantity of Brazil sugar would only have cost £3,952,945, leaving the enormous sum of £5,207,049 as the cost of the sugar monopoly to the nation in that one year! The author of the third, entitled "The Preference Interests, or the Miscalled Protective Duties shown to be Public Oppression," shows that the taxes paid exclusively by the landed interest amount to £1,531,915 out of £52,226,959-or equal to one pound for every thirty-three of the whole taxation; while the landed interests of France, Flanders, all Germany, and all Italy, pay at least one half of the taxation of their |