In Virginia, the exports
the same year were $5,858,024, and the imports $1,326,249; total of
both, $7,184,273; clearances, 80,381 tons, entries, 97,762 tons; total
of both, 178,143 tons. (Table 14, Register of United States Treasury.)
Revenue collected from customs same year in New York, $37,788,969, and
in Virginia $189,816, or 200 to 1 in favor of New York. (Tables U. S.
Com. of Customs.) No returns are given for the coastwise and internal
trade of either State, but the tables of the railway and canal
transportation of States show nearly the same proportion in favor of New
York as in the foreign trade. Thus the _domestic_ exports from New York
for the above year abroad were $126,060,967, and from Virginia
$5,833,370. (Same Table, 14.) And yet Virginia, as we have seen, had
much greater natural advantages than New York for commerce, as well as
for mines, manufactures, and agriculture. But slavery has almost
expelled commerce from Virginia, and nearly paralyzed all other
pursuits.
These Tables, taken from the Census and the Treasury records, prove
incontestably, that slavery retards the progress of wealth and
population throughout the South, but especially in Virginia. Nor can the
Tariff account for the results; for Virginia, as we have seen, possesses
far greater advantages than New York for manufactures.
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