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Total, 2,150,000,000 lbs.

During the five years of war, the consumption was reduced more than one
half by the deficiency; Great Britain was compelled to pay twice the
usual amount for half the usual quantity, and cotton rose from ten cents
to sixty cents in gold. The world was ransacked for cotton, and the
whole addition made to the supply (chiefly from India and Egypt) did not
exceed the increase of three years in the United States previous to the
war. The Revenue Commission have made a very elaborate report upon this
subject, and base their conclusions upon the advice and opinions of the
chief manufacturers of New England, who concur in the opinion that the
tax will be chiefly paid by the foreign consumer; that it will not give
an undue stimulus to the culture of cotton abroad; that Japan and China
have, since the decline of cotton to twenty pence in England, ceased to
ship it, and are drawing upon Surat and Bombay; that Egypt, our chief
rival, has nearly or quite reached her full capacity of production,
while India makes little progress.

The late Confederacy, by imposing an export duty of twenty cents per
pound, to be paid in gold; France, by her export duty on linen and
cotton rags and skins of animals; Russia, by various export duties;
Portugal, by her duties on wine exported; Great Britain, by her export
duties, imposed in India, on gunny-cloth, linseed, jute, saltpetre, and
opium; and Holland, by her monopoly and export duties on the coffee of
Java,--give precedents for a tax on cotton. The United States are
prohibited by the Constitution from levying an export duty, but may
nevertheless impose an internal tax which will cling to the cotton both
abroad and at home. A tax of five cents a pound will add but one cent to
the cost of a yard of calico; and with a crop of 2,000,000,000 pounds,
like that of 1859, will yield a revenue of $100,000,000, although the
Commission do not anticipate more than half that revenue for a few years
to come. It seems but reasonable that King Cotton, who made the war,
should aid in defraying its expenses; and it is also just that England
and France, his chief allies, should pay their tribute for the
suppression of the revolt they did so much to encourage. The planters
and free blacks of the South have sufficient incentives to the culture
of cotton in the high prices it must bear for years to come; and the
Commission have very wisely recommen