At the period which we name, or during the Revolution, our ability to produce iron was greater than that of England, and the amount actually produced was not much less. Had we been protected by tariff, or war, ever since, against the cheap labor of Europe, the amount of iron consumed in this country would have been increased per haps tenfold, and the prices reduced much below those which have ruled. We should long ago have substituted the steam-engine for the negro slave, and have saved blood as well as treasure by the exchange.
The wealth of England at the close of the Revolution was not one-tenth of its present proportion. Our wealth to-day may be stated at $20,000,000,000, inflated as all values are now ; while that of England is $100,000,000,C00, on a substantial basis. Our $20,000,000,000, however, is not now productive.' We are going in debt every day; her $100,000,000,000 is constantly accumulating.
Our census returns show an average increase of over 8 per cent. per annum in the loyal States; but they also made the increase of wealth in the Southern States over 9 per cent. Was that real or productive wealth? If so, where is it now ? The war cost the North more than it cost the South; yet war made us richer, while it made them poorer. Their wealth was not productive.
During the war we accumulated wealth, though we spent nearly $2,000,000 per day in sustaining our armies. To-day we are losing it in vain competition with the cheap labor of Europe. Then, every man not in the army was at work, with mind or limb, and thousands of steam-engines were laboring unceasingly. Now, hundreds of thou sands are comparatively idle, and our steam-machinery finds scarce half employment.
Ten years of free trade, such as we now suffer, would bring crash, crisis, and ruin, with repudiation and shame; while ten years of war with all Europe would wipe out our debts and make our natural resources available. But a protective tariff will secure by peaceful means better results than can be obtained by war.
Productive wealth does not, therefore, consist in fields of coal or mountains of ore, in bales of cotton or hundreds of thousands of slaves, but in our own ability to make them available and profitable. We may own $20,000,000,000 of inflated stock, but if it does not pay it is not wealth. Our furnaces, mines, mills, factories, and ships are not productive of wealth if they cannot supply our wants. We may mortgage them, as we are now doing, and live on the proceeds thus obtained for a season; but crisis and ruin come at last.
We cannot compete with the cheap labor of Europe, or the labor-saving machinery of England, unless our people will work for the starvation prices of the Old World; and even then we cannot do so without the assistance of steam and machinery.
The Irish in Ireland labor cheaper than the English in England, but they do not grow rich. Labor in Turkey, Hindostan, and South Carolina has always been lower than it has been in England, but can it compete? Japan is rich; her labor is cheap; but how long would it take England to fleece her, without protection to her industry ? It is scarcely possible to express the wealth of nations in a word; but by THRIFT it is acquired, with that knowledge which turns all it touches into gold. In this sense,