Part 8 (1/2)

Undoubtedly! an increased supply, or rather an increased consumption, would tend materially to restore, in England and in America, to build up the landed interest, by increasing the product of the land at diminished cost. If farmers could buy guano at lower prices, it is argued all would use it. Undoubtedly again! Because their profits would be greater. So great in fact, the temptation to make money out of the purchase and use of guano few could withstand ”such a chance for a speculation.”

But as they cannot induce the Peruvians to let them have it at a lower price, and as they can make money out of it at the present price, is it not a suicidical measure upon the part of the owners of unprofitable land, to refuse to use guano, because they cannot get it at their own price, while they can certainly profit by its use at present prices.

_The Guano Monopoly._--Much prejudice has been excited against the agents and princ.i.p.al dealers in this country by the cry of monopoly. Are those who cry _wolf_ the loudest, entirely clear themselves, of a fondness for fat mutton? The following extract from a letter of Edward Stabler of Maryland, gives a more fair, impartial view of the subject.

He says; ”Odious and grinding as monopolies usually become, and hard as this one seems to bear upon the agriculturist's interests, it still appears to be about as fair as ordinary mercantile transactions. The Peruvians may be considered the producers, and like our farmers and planters, may at times require advances from the commission merchant; and in proportion to the prices obtained, are his profits increased; nor does any one censure the merchant for selling at the highest price he can. Dealers, or speculators, if you please, are always censured for raising the price of guano. Is not the same thing done every day, and every hour in the day, by the purchase and sale of flour, wheat, corn, and tobacco--and is not the price of almost every article of commerce regulated in a great degree by the supply and demand? Most certainly; and so long as there is a probability of profit by the purchase and sale of this article, and just so long, and no longer, will the 'trade in second hands' continue. If the present supply is inadequate to the demand, by an almost undeviating rule in commerce, the price is enhanced, until at a point to drive the consumer from the market. This however, is not quite so soon attained with guano, under the present excitement, as with many other things. I have viewed this matter in a different light from some others, though erroneous as some may suppose, and do not think that censuring the dealers will cover the true ground of complaint, or at all tend to remove the existing difficulty. Their agency is, if I may use the term--but in no offensive sense--a kind of necessary evil; for the importer will not retail, and it suits but few of the consumers comparatively, to club together, and purchase in large quant.i.ties. The price of guano is owing mainly, if not entirely, to this monopoly in the import trade; and it would be the same thing, and a monopoly still, whether in the hands of English or American merchants; with also, about the same amount of liberality to be looked for, from one as from the other.”

Is there anything so unfair in this, that we should cry out ”wicked monopoly.” The Peruvian government, after the revolution, finds itself deeply in debt, and greatly in want of money, and in possession of one of the most valuable fertilizing substances in the world, which the people of other governments are in want of, or rather, may profit by the use of, which she offers to sell at what she deems a fair price; and for the purpose of enabling her to borrow money for immediate necessities, as well as to pay the war debt, she has given some of her citizens--rich merchants, who can advance money, certain privileges and advantages in the guano trade, upon condition that they will send a supply to all the countries where it can be sold, and in as great quant.i.ties as they will buy at fixed prices. This is the monopoly. A parallel case can be found nearer home. The government of the United States, also incurred a revolutionary war debt, and also came in possession of an article which the people of all other countries want, and unlike that possessed by Peru, an article which they must have. Upon this necessity of life, our government has fixed a price, which any one may pay or let it alone--buy or not, just as he pleases. The government will neither sell to citizens or strangers at half price, nor let them have the use of it without pay; in fact, will not let us carry away anything of value from this property, although it might not materially injure the sale of the princ.i.p.al and most valuable portion, which is immovable. Such is the ”guano monopoly” of one government, and such is the ”land monopoly” of the other. Which is most wicked?

Of the right of each government, no honest man will dispute. That Peru has as much right to the guano upon her desert islands, as the United States has to the live oak timber in the deserts of Florida; or as England has to the codfish in the waters of Newfoundland, seems to be as clear as any right ever exercised by any power on earth. Each protect their own by hired agents, so far as they are able, to prevent dishonest men from carrying away that which each considers valuable.

If English and United States citizens have a right to go and seize upon the guano and bring it off in defiance of Peru, because the guano islands are not inhabited, then have we a right to seize all the codfish in the waters of the sea, because n.o.body lives there--they cannot live there--they only live on the lands adjacent, and therefore have no right to anything except what they stand upon. Then by the same rule may the lands of the United States be seized upon, because they are unoccupied.

By virtue of decrees now in force, no vessel, either under the national or any foreign flag, has a right to go to the Peruvian guano deposits, without first obtaining permission from the Peruvian Government under penalty of confiscation.

Foreign vessels, furnished with government licences, are allowed to load at the Chinche Islands only.

Finally, any attempt to load vessels without the proper licences, would subject them to be seized by the Government vessels appointed to cruise off, and visit the different guano deposits, in order to prevent not only the illegal extraction of guano by foreign trading vessels, but also to prevent the natives of Peru from violating the Government orders against visiting those localities, and destroying or disturbing the birds.

Notwithstanding this cuts off the free trade in the article, it goes to show what we have always endeavored to impress upon the minds of American farmers, that the supply is inexhaustible--at least in this age and generation--and as every one grows wiser and wiser, it is probable the next will have no occasion to use such an old fas.h.i.+oned article as bird dung for manure. During the present, however, our advice is to every person occupying land which needs something to improve its fertility, to use guano--genuine Peruvian guano--purchased of reliable merchants--and the fewer the better between the importer and consumer.

_The Quant.i.ty inexhaustible._--By those surveys, the quant.i.ty was ascertained to be upwards of TWENTY MILLIONS OF TONS. As this must appear so enormous as to be almost incredible, we present the annexed cut, supposed to represent a vertical section of one of the Chincha islands and the depth of the deposit according to the government surveys. The paralel lines at the bottom represent the level of the water--the crooked line above, the surface of the rock; its position having been ascertained by boring and observations of the surveyors. The rounded line is the surface of the island as it now appears; all between that and the rock being guano. The almost perpendicular line at the left hand, 100 feet high, is the rock at which s.h.i.+ps lay to take in cargo.

The s.p.a.ce under the dotted line show a comparison of the quant.i.ty taken away, as it relates to the whole upon the island. The well hole represented in that section was dug some fifty feet deep to prove the guano was of equal quality at the bottom.

The Chincha Islands are three in number; not remote from each other or differing very materially in size or general feature. The Geological formation presents the appearance of ma.s.ses of rock jutting out above the surface of the ocean--and occasionally rising nearly perpendicularly to a height of from 50 to 100 feet. At a distance, the islands present to the eye a somewhat conical form; owing probably to the greater deposits of guano in the centre; and all appear equally rich in quant.i.ty and quality.

The ”North Island” is estimated to be about 300 feet at its greatest elevation; it is about 1-1/2 miles in length, and from 1/2 to 3/4 of a mile average width. In sailing round them, the guano appears to many places to extend to the water's edge.

[Ill.u.s.tration: SECTIONAL VIEW OF THE NORTH CHINCHA ISLAND.]

All the guano islands are uninhabited, except by the laborers, mostly Indians or poor Chinamen, who are employed in the work of digging, carrying and loading the guano into the s.h.i.+ps. When a vessel is ready to take in cargo, she is moored alongside of the rocks almost mast head high, from the top of which the guano is sent down through a canva.s.s shute directly into the hold of the s.h.i.+p. Thus several hundred tons can be put on board in a day. The tr.i.m.m.i.n.g of the cargo is a very unpleasant part of the labor. The dust and odor is almost overpowering; so the men are obliged to come often on deck for fresh air. The rule is to remain below as long as a candle will burn; when that goes out, the air is considered unfit for respiration. If the labor had to be performed by a Yankee, he would think it unfit at first; and thereupon set his ready wit at work to construct a machine to spread the guano as it fell, from one end of the hold to the other. The guano in position upon the island, is so compact it has to be dug up with picks. It is then carried to a contrivance made of cane, at the edge of the rock, which conveys it into the canva.s.s conductors. The ma.s.s is cut down in steps, receding and rising from the point of commencement, and has not yet attained a depth of 100 feet, and with all the labor of hundreds of men digging, and numerous s.h.i.+ps carrying away to the several countries using it, there is but a bare beginning of removal made upon the ma.s.s upon one island only, as may be seen by reference to the diagram.

Supposing like many others, the supply of Peruvian guano was like the Ichaboe, destined to run out--that is all be dug up and carried away; we inquired of an intelligent captain of a s.h.i.+p just returned with a load, how long it would be before the supply would be exhausted. ”Exhausted!”

said he, with a look over the gangway, as much as to say how long would it take to exhaust the ocean with a pint cup; ”why not in one hundred years, if every s.h.i.+p afloat should go into the trade, and load and unload as fast as it would be possible to perform the labor; no, not from the Chincha islands alone. Exhausted! they never will be exhausted.” With due allowance for the captain's enthusiasm, we may be very certain from the government surveys, the quant.i.ty is so great, that no probability exists of the supply being exhausted until all the present inhabitants of this earth have ceased to move upon its surface.

We may be certain of another fact; that unless we commit a great national wrong upon Peru, by seizing upon some of her guano territory; a thing which the sober second thought of this nation will never sanction; we shall not be able to obtain the article only through her government agents, at such prices as her rulers think proper to affix to it. While the demand and the result of the use of guano continues as at present, there is not much probability of any material change.

The Peruvian Government are, of course, anxious to sell all that the world want, and are willing to pay for at remunerating prices. The Peruvian minister, in reply to the Secretary of State at Was.h.i.+ngton says:--”The Peruvian Government, in leasing out its rights and interests, as a proprietor of the article, adopted the only system that was supposed likely to create a demand for guano; while, on the other side, it was bound to leave the consignment as security, in the hands of those persons who had hazarded their capital in meeting the heavy expenses attending the process of freighting, and in making the advances which were required to facilitate the exportation and construct the depots. Far from establis.h.i.+ng a selfish monopoly, which would have proved injurious to its own interests, or fix a high, deliberate, and conventional price upon the article, it has only aimed to secure a net profit, reduced to the lowest possible standard, exceeding very little the actual amount of expenses; and there have been accounts of sales rendered exhibiting both loss and damage.

”The guano, therefore, is not monopolized; the government as the proprietor, has forwarded it, on its own responsibility, to those markets where it was in demand; selecting as consignees, as it was natural and proper it should do, those persons or houses who have advanced the capital necessary to defray the expenses; and, as these are much greater in all cases of remittances to England, and it follows that the sale of the article in this country is at the rate of ten pounds sterling per ton, the net profit has been less than what is realized in the United States, where the farmers obtain it at lesser prices. Nor has my government imposed any restrictions, duties, or determinate value on the exportation of guano, although it might and could do so with perfect propriety; because such action would have militated to the detriment of its own interests as the proprietor of the article. Its object has been to send it to those markets where it was in demand; because, as it had not yet become an object of decided and positive interest to the consuming world, and there being no certainty of its attaining saleable prices, to create a market as it was impossible for individuals to send to Peru for supplies, with any prospect of even moderate profit.”

This is a fair statement of the case; and ought to be perfectly satisfactory to the consumers. The disposition of some men to create prejudice against the government of Peru, or the agents who sell guano in this country, because the price is too high, is a wicked one. Men can make money by purchasing at the present prices; and the owners of the article think they cannot make it by selling at a lower price. We have heard it urged as a reason why it should be sold at lower prices, that the agents and merchants engaged in its sale are making fortunes. So are flour merchants--so are farmers who grow the wheat--but that is no reason why it should be sold lower.

With all our heart, we wish the Peruvians would give us guano at half price; but because they will not, there is no reason why the people of this country should refuse to use an article which will most a.s.suredly make them grow rich faster than those who are engaged in selling it.