ge in which they were exported. Yet
everybody sees that both might be equally beneficial to the individual
and to the public. I believe, Sir, that, in point of fact, we have
enjoyed great benefit in our trade with India and China, from the
liberty of going from place to place all over the world, without being
obliged in the mean time to return home, a liberty not heretofore
enjoyed by the private traders of England, in regard to India and China.
Suppose the American ship to be at Brazil, for example; she could
proceed with her dollars direct to India, and, in return, could
distribute her cargo in all the various ports of Europe or America;
while an English ship, if a private trader, being at Brazil, must first
return to England, and then could only proceed in the direct line from
England to India. This advantage our countrymen have not been backward
to improve; and in the debate to which I have already so often referred,
it was stated, not without some complaint of the inconvenience of
exclusion, and the natural sluggishness of monopoly, that American ships
were at that moment fitting out in the Thames, to supply France,
Holland, and other countries on the Continent, with tea; while the East
India Company would not do this of themselves, nor allow any of their
fellow-countrymen to do it for them.

There is yet another subject, Mr. Chairman, upon which I would wish to
say something, if I might presume upon the continued patience of the
committee. We hear sometimes in the House, and continually out of it, of
the rate of exchange, as being one proof that we are on the downward
road to ruin. Mr. Speaker himself has adverted to that topic, and I am
afraid that his authority may give credit to opinions clearly unfounded,
and which lead to very false and erroneous conclusions. Sir, let us see
what the facts are. Exchange on England has recently risen one or one
and a half per cent, partly owing, perhaps, to the introduction of this
bill into Congress. Before this recent rise, and for the last six
months, I understand its average may have been about seven and a half
per cent advance. Now, supposing this to be the _real_, and not merely,
as it is, the nominal, par of exchange between us and England, what
would it prove? Nothing, except that funds were wanted by American
citizens in England for commercial operations, to be carried on either
in England or elsewhere. It would not necessarily show that we were
indebted to England; f