Page:American Historical Review, Volume 12.djvu/779

 Manufactures in the Miami Country 769 cultural products. Pittsburgh manufacturers, however, were soon demanding an increase of the tariff on cotton and woollen goods, plate glass and certain iron products. Their industries were more developed, they were four hundred and fifty miles nearer the Atlantic ports, and they had a comparatively small quantity of agri- cultural products for export. In fact, they were actually importing bacon from Kentucky.' It may be of interest to see how contemporaries viewed this question of establishing manufactures in the Miami Country. There were those who followed the lead of the East, and without good reason more than that of patriotism, were ranting against British goods because they were British goods. They forgot entirely that, so long as they had no manufactures of their own, it made very little difference whether they bought from Great Britain or from the eastern states.- More thoughtful men, as was natural, appreci- ated tlie true reason for the establishment of manufactures and used their influence to bring about the desired end. As an instance of this, we cite the following : Suppose, suggested a writer in Liberty Hall, that the country around Cincinnati produced six hundred thou- sand dollars annually, and that two hundred thousand dollars is consumed by our own inhabitants; another one-third is shipped to New Orleans to purchase sugar, coffee, cotton, molasses, and spices ; another third is sent over the mountains in specie to purchase Eng- lish goods. We ask candid men to inform us how and in what manner this kind of trade will increase the capital of the western country? We answer, that there is no increase whatever to our capital by the distribution of the products of the soil ; one-third is eaten up annually by its inhabitants ; one-third is sent out of the country to purchase British goods in Philadelphia and Baltimore and is discounted by a loss in exchange of paper; the other third is sent to New Orleans to purchase that which does not add to our national wealth, although it naay be very necessary to our comfort and living. Sugar, cotton, and coffee we do want; but we can manufacture almost every article of British manufacture that we drag over the mountains at such enormous expense. It may be asked, how shall we find a remedy for this ruinous British trade, which embarrasses us so much ; which drains us of our specie ; which twice a year sweeps away every dollar which can be scraped up in Cincinnati, without adding to our wealth? We answer promptl}' and without delay : " Put in operation in Cincinnati manufactures for woollen cloth, for cotton cloth, for glassware of every descrip- ' McMaster, IV. 344. ^Liberty Hall. 1814, 1815.