Download or read book Minority Report of the Committee on Federal Relations, Respecting Certain Resolutions Relating to the Importation of Slaves (Classic Reprint) written by South Carolina; General Assem Relations and published by . This book was released on 2015-07-13 with total page 46 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Excerpt from Minority Report of the Committee on Federal Relations, Respecting Certain Resolutions Relating to the Importation of Slaves The reason is obvious. The lower the first cost, the lower may be, and where there is competition and free trade the lower will be the second, third, and all succeeding costs attached to the article in its various stages of transfer, manufacture and consumption. It is thus the interest of consumers in general, that the first cost of production in general shall be low. But all men are consumers of the great staple products of the earth; some of one sort, some of another. It is, therefore, a general truth, that cheap production is to the interest of all departments of industry. - That is to say: It is the interest of all "flesh" that "grass" should be abundant - cheap; of all men, that food, raiment, and all the means of subsistence should be abundant - cheap. And since it is only by labor that these can be had, it follows that it is the general interest of mankind that labor should be abundant, available, cheap. This general position maybe obnoxious to special objections. Every man wishes to sell at a high and buy at a low price. One has corn to sell - he wishes the price high; but he buys everything else he consumes, and of course, wishes the price of everything else low. The same is the case with those who sell cotton, rice, or any other property. From which it appears that every producer wishes some particular product high, and all or most other products low. And since no one particular product represents the united interests of the community, it follows that the high price of none can be the sole interest of that community. How then are these conflicting interests to be reconciled? The answer is, by letting free trade establish its own equilibrium. Let every particular interest, with its own special objections, find its appropriate level in the scale of progress and development, its true interest lying, not in theoretical desertation, but in a hearty and open competition, a true economy and cheap labor. Labor, then, being in universal requisition, the quantity present in any country, as compared with the demand for its produce, may ordinarily determine its price. If this is unusually high, we may be assured there is an excessive, or at least a growing demand for produce, to meet which there is a deficiency of labor. Such deficiency, it will hardly be denied, now exists in the agricultural department of Southern industry, and particularly in South Carolina, and is the chief reason why the price of slave labor is so high. No other than negro agricultural labor is available at the South, and there are but two means of increasing - it by the natural propagation of the race here and by importing Africans. The first of these does not suffice for the wants of the country, or the deficiency would not exist; to the latter, then, alone can we look for the requisite supply. But so far as the price of slave labor depends upon the quantity present, or the rate of its increase, the means by which an increase may be effected is of no consequence. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.