Daily Richmond Whig

Prices paid in Richmond, South Carolina, &c., and the anxiety demonstrated by the Charleston, Richmond, Petersburg and Norfolk.

Fifty dollars a sack, equal to eleven cents per bushel, is the price at which it has sold. One or two sacks only can be purchased by the same person, even at this exorbitant price. The rich may supply themselves; the poor must be deprived of this article essential to comfort, necessary to health. The consequences which may follow from this condition of the country, are truly appalling. All animals are prejudicially affected by being deprived of salt. The flocks and herds will soon feel the influence of the present scarcity, and its effect will be manifest in their diminished vigor, and perhaps in the development of diseases which will destroy them by thousands. It will also soon tell upon our people, and they will realize, in acute suffering, the consequences of improvidence. The army may be scantily supplied and kept in the field for the next campaign. How and whence can it be fed in 1863? Where can the salt be obtained to preserve the meat upon which it must subsist? The only source now known from which can be drawn the supply for the army, and for nearly one half of the population of the Confederate States, is the salines of Washington and Smyth counties. The average consumption of salt in the Southern States has for a long period been nearly 60 lbs. per capita. It must be reduced to 40 lbs. or less, and this reduction of a third is a serious privation, and will require economy and care in every department of life. The lessees of those salines are manufacturing at the rate of 500,000 bushels a year, which is not more than one-fourth of the quantity required at the reduced rate of consumption. If aided by Government contracts as an advance of means, and not restrained in their operations, or disturbed from other causes, they might probably increase it to one million of bushels or something more during the year 1863—Many contingencies, however, render such a result uncertain. In view of them, as prudent business men, they may hesitate to invest capital in the construction of fixtures upon a leasehold estate, for which they can be reimbursed only by the high prices consequent upon the blockade, or guarantees and indemnities given by Government. Their action, therefore, will be slow and cautious. No extended plan for producing a supply adequate to the wants of another year of hostilities can be expected—no rapid outlay, to place beyond peradventure a supply for the population dependent upon them. Will the Commonwealth of Virginia acquiesce in and submit to this condition of things? Will the Legislature deliberately place the maintenance of the army—the preservation of the food for the whole people—the comfort and health of half the nation—at the will and under the control of four persons irresponsible to Government for their action? Will it hazard such consequences, upon conditions so liable to fail? In this matter Virginia must legislate for others as well as herself. Tennessee is more dependent upon those salines than she is, and so are large portions of the Carolinas, Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi. We have united our destinies—we struggle together for independence. The fate of one is the fate of all. Our privations, our sufferings, our comforts, our triumphs must be one. This unity of feeling, this sentiment of harmony, this oneness in all things for the general good, must embrace every interest and influence all minds and hearts, or our cause is lost, and our hopes of independent nationality will be extinguished amid the smoldering ruins of desecrated homesteads and the clanking chains of perpetual servitude. The brightest pages in the history of the Revolution of States, is illuminated by the generous, disinterested patriotism and sacrifices of Virginia. She will always be true to her history and herself, in small as great events, and vindicate her character by her conduct.—Her sister States turn to her in this matter for their supplies, to suspect that she will refuse them, is treason to her honor. Within her jurisdiction is this wonderful provision of nature for the wants of the people. God has entrusted her with its distribution, and the time is at hand when she must prove herself worthy of this high mission.

By an outlay of $1,200,000 a perpetual and abundant supply of salt will be secured to the citizens of Virginia and of a large portion of the Confederate States. This sum, small as it is, for the object attained, will not be drawn from the treasury. The property is offered at one-third in hand, and the balance in one, two and three years, with interest from date of possession. The first payment asked will not be quite $500,000. But suppose the amount be paid, and full possession of the entire salines be obtained. By applying the first receipts from the sales to the erection of vats for making salt by solar evaporation, a system would be commenced which would increase the production to one and a half million of bushels this current year or, if need be, to double that amount. Seventy-five cents a bushel would be most cheerfully paid by every man. If the cost of production were as much as 25 cents, the receipts in the treasury would be sufficient to pay nearly two-thirds of the purchase money the first year. But, it is a well ascertained fact, that the actual cost would not be over 21 cts.—for the charges of administration and management, or salaries of the superintendents, &c., can and should be met by the rent and use of the farms. Should the blockade continue another year, more than two millions bushels ought to be made. And is it not wise to provide in advance for such a condition? Is it prudent to rely implicitly upon the establishment of peace at an earlier period? Surely no patriot would risk the interests of the Commonwealth upon so uncertain an issue. Then, if two millions of bushels are sold at the same rate the second year, or in less, the property would be paid for in full, and this more than royal jewel be held by Virginia for the benefit of her children. If we take the more hopeful view of the future, and suppose our independence established, and peace confirmed and settled—the ports of the world opened to our commerce—and salt brought to our seaports as cheap as in )—will the purchase be a losing bargain and a perpetual charge upon the treasury? By the first year's operations, the first payment of $500,000 with interest will be refunded, and the improvements, costing $150,000, paid for, and a fund of nearly $300,000 provided to meet the second payment. This debt would then be reduced to $372,000. Were it paid in full, the revenue derived from the property would be 3½ per cent. upon the debt, which will discharge it in a fraction over three years. This statement is made upon the representations of gentlemen best acquainted with the business, and whose experience and accuracy are the best vouchers for the truth of their assertions.—They say the annual profits from the sales of salt will be at least $120,000—if an expenditure of $150,000 for fixtures and improvements are made, even when foreign salt is as cheap at the seaboard as it has ever been.

To present the proposition more distinctly, the following statement is submitted in substance:

To purchase of property, $1,200,000

Be first payment $400,000

To interest one year, 24,000

$424,000

By sale of 1,500,000 bushels, at $0.75, $1,125,000

Deduct cost of manufacture, 25 cts. per bushel: $375,000

And cost of improvements, 150,000

$525,000

Net proceeds, $600,000

Extend the calculation to another year upon the same basis, assuming the blockade in force:

To balance of debt, $800,000

To interest 1 year, 48,000

$848,000

By sale of 1,500,000 bushels, $1,125,000

Deduct cost of manufacture and improvements, 525,000

Net proceeds, $600,000

At the end of the second year the State might well afford to liquidate this balance and hold a property yielding $120,000. In this estimate the revenue from the plaster banks and farms is not embraced. Put it at the moderate sum of $40,000 and in less than two years the debt will be discharged. The State would then be in possession of a property yielding a revenue of $160,000—equal to an investment, at 6 per cent., of $2,666,664.

The evidence before the Joint Committee of the Senate and House of Delegates, according to the minority report, established, beyond doubt, several important facts. One was, the existence of a deposit of fossil salt of great depth, lying beneath the point at which salt water is struck in sinking the wells. Another was, that salt-water is found at the extreme points of the valley or basin, indicating that this fossil salt underlies it everywhere. Another, of no less practical importance is, that the supply of water is inexhaustible, and that the largest use yet made of it caused no diminution in its strength. Another is, that it is the purest and strongest salt-water known. It takes only twenty gallons to make fifty pounds of salt. At Syracuse, New York, it takes from thirty to thirty-five gallons to make fifty-six pounds—at Kanawha, 75 gallons—and of sea water, 350 gallons. The wells at the Virginia salines are about 210 feet deep—at Syracuse, from 500 to 700—at Kanawha, from 500 to 1500.

Before hostilities commenced, the lessees of the salt works contracted to have salt manufactured and packed in barrels or sacks and delivered in the cars for ten cents per bushel. Since the great advance in the price of every article of consumption, they have allowed the contractors thirteen cents. An additional advance may yet be given, if prices of provisions, &c., continue to rise. It may be stated, however, that fifteen cents will be the highest figure reached. The barrels cost thirty cents and hold 300 lbs., or five bushels of salt—the Virginia bushel being 50 lbs. This adds six cents per bushel to the price of salt. The sacks cost twenty-five cents and hold 150 lbs., or three bushels—adding 8 cents to the cost per bushel. When put in sacks, therefore, the salt costs 24 cents, allowing fifteen cents to the manufacturers. The calculations, however, are based upon the assumption that all the salt is sacked and the cost twenty-five cents. This was done to give ample margin for contingencies of every kind and estop all cavil. Much of the salt is sold in barrels and nearly all of that taken by wagons is from the salt-houses, the purchaser furnishing his own sacks or barrels.

After presenting the worst aspect, it may not be uninteresting to glance at other views, and indulge in some speculations based upon probabilities, adhering always to established and admitted data. The State of New York owns the fee of the Onondaga Salt Spring Reserve, as it is called, and has in her organic law a provision, prohibiting the Legislature from disposing of or alienating it. The condition of things, there, is precisely that urged upon Virginia. By a wise policy, persistently adhered to, the value of that Reserve has been developed, until it is now one of the principal sources of wealth to a large district of country, and its benefits are felt from Albany to Buffalo.

In 1836, there was produced at these Salines, 827,508 bushels; in 1857, they yielded more than 6,500,000. In thirty years previous to 1849, they paid into the treasury $4,000,000 of taxes, an average $133,333 a year.—One half the cost of the Erie Canal was paid by these taxes, and the tolls collected for the transportation of salt and produce, &c., for those engaged in the manufacture. It built up a city of about 100,000 inhabitants employed in 1849, 6,000 laborers, and has saved to the State untold amounts, by retaining at home what would otherwise have been sent abroad. It made parts of the States of Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Pennsylvania and some others, tributary for this necessary of life. Such grand results may not be attainable in Virginia, but similar consequences would follow like causes, and the attainable upon the soil of the Old Dominion is tempting enough to justify the Legislature in trying the experiment. Let a comparison of the two places be made.—Our brine is fifty per cent better than that of New York—our salt season is fifty per cent longer—our labor is nearly fifty per cent cheaper.—Our fuel more than fifty per cent cheaper. We possess all those advantages for production. Our disadvantages are, difficulty of transportation, and a settled prejudice among our people against every domestic article, and a fixed apathy towards every Southern enterprise, apart from politics, or planting and farming.

At Syracuse the salt season commences about the first of May, and ends, for the boiling, early in November. and for solar salt in October. In Virginia we continue to boil the entire year, and we could make solar salt from March till November, and some seasons till December. The range of the thermometer is about the same, and the barometrical condition of the atmosphere is not materially different at each place during the salt season. Our March and November, for evaporating water, compare favorably with their May and October. In New York a series of three vats is required to make solar salt—in Virginia only one is necessary. The New York brine contains bittern, which is an acid poison, and must be separated from it before the crystallization of salt commences. In Virginia there is no trace of this substance. Wood (the fuel used at both places) costs in Syracuse from $3.50 to $4 a cord; in Virginia from $2.50 to $3.50. The cheapest labor in Syracuse is $1 a day—in Virginia it is not over 55 cents. This estimate is based on the hire of negro men at $150, and allowing $50 for feeding and clothing. The price now paid for negro men is not over an average of $125, and this allows $75 for feeding &c.

In Syracuse the price of salt, barrelled, inspected, and the State tax paid, has been on an average for some years, about 30 cents. The barrel contains 280 pounds, and costs, usually, 50 cents. These various charges reduce the price to nearly 22 cents. At this price very large fortunes have been realized by those engaged in the solar salt manufacture.

The system of administration adopted by the New York Legislature is strikingly simple. The only appointment it makes is that of Superintendent, whose duties are defined, and he appoints as many deputies as may be necessary, with salaries fixed by law. His principal duties are to supply the brine to the manufacturers free of charge, to inspect the salt and brand it, collect the State tax and assign lots to applicants who desire to engage in the business. The tax is fixed by the Legislature. In 1826, it was 12 cents—in 1846, it was reduced to one cent. All improvements are put up at the cost of the manufacturer. The leases run for twenty years, with the privilege of renewal, and are forfeited for non-payment of taxes and some other causes specified by act of Legislature. This is an outline of the simple and effective system which has wrought such wonderful results. Cannot Virginia approximate it, with so many advantages in her favor? If she could supply, at all times and under all circumstances, one-half of her own population, it would save more than $800,000 annually, assuming that the average price of salt per sack at Richmond is $1.75. Were she to supply Tennessee and portions of other coterminous States, she would receive from them a contribution directly to her treasury, of whatever tax was imposed upon the salt they consumed, and indirectly the tax upon the enhanced value of the property, or the wealth derived by her citizens from this trade.—To these States, more than a million bushels salt could be sold every year, if transportation to the Tennessee line could be commanded at the rates now charged.

Turn again to the subject of the investment and price of production.

It is estimated that a vat for making solar salt would cost $35, complete. They are eighteen feet long by sixteen wide, and made of lumber two inches thick, and that sixty-five vats would cover an acre. Sixty acres would hold 3,900 vats, and they would cost $136,500.—Upon the assumption that these vats will yield 500,000 bushels, and the salt were sold at twenty-five cents, the gross receipt would be $125,000. Deduct the cost of labor to gather the salt and attend to the vats, and suppose it will take fifty men at $200—equal to $10,000; and also the interest upon $136,500—$8,190—and we have $106,810 profit. If the salt were sold at seventy-five cents, the gross receipts would be $375,000, and the profit $356,810.

View it as we may, the State cannot lose by the purchase of the property. As an investment, nothing approximating it has ever been offered. As to the policy of the State owning it, that is vindicated by the history of some of the wisest nations of antiquity, and exemplified by the action of New York. It is time some decisive action should be taken. Precious moments are rapidly passing. Now is the season for obtaining lumber for the construction of vats or furnaces; this is the period for making the arrangements for the year's work. Whilst the Legislature hesitates, the lessees pause in the completion of furnaces actually under way. The eyes of a waiting and suffering people are turned towards their representatives. Action, action is demanded. This is no time for chaffering, bargaining and jewing. If the property is worth the price asked, take it; if not, appoint appraisers, and let them do justice between the State and the citizen. When the Commonwealth proposes to pay, let her take the whole salines and control and direct all salt operations. Let this interest be a royalty, pertaining and belonging to the sovereign State. Should this property pass into the possession of a joint stock company, what guarantee have the people that the price of salt will not at once rise to $1.00 or $2.00, or to any other amount the company may ask and the necessities of the people compel them to pay? Will laws be passed limiting the price? If they are, the salt may be transferred to the Carolinas or Tennessee. Legislation cannot prevent extortion. If it does, it will cut off the supply, and the sufferings of the community, instead of being palliated, will be intensified.

There is another aspect of this question which should not be overlooked. It is more general in its bearing, and may be a part of the policy which alone can liberate us from commercial dependence. Too long, alas! has the South relied upon other countries for many articles of prime necessity. Immense amounts have been levied upon her productions, through the channels by which they are obtained. The expenditures of her citizens for such things as should be produced at home, have sustained the commerce, built the cities and enriched the people now waging upon her a war of subjugation. Wherever an article of prime necessity is disposed of in large quantities, there heavy purchases are made, and trade and traffic established. This general truth is impressively illustrated by the course of trade from the Kanawha Valley. More than three millions of bushels of salt are annually sent from there upon the waters of the Ohio. The largest market for this salt is at Cincinnati. To the merchants of that city it is consigned, and they receive and re-sell it. The manufacturers make their purchases there, and so complete is the dependence established by this system, that the food eaten and the clothes worn by those engaged in the production of salt are all purchased in this queen city of Ohio. These heavy transactions attracted population and capital, and aided in concentrating at that point all the various occupations and business of a commercial centre. As much as four tons per week of merchandise is shipped weekly from Cincinnati to Charleston, Va. The merchants receive large profits from the purchase and sale of salt, and on the goods sold to the Virginia manufacturer.—This tax on Virginia labor and production contributed no little to the mercantile prosperity of a city conspicuous for its hostility to the South and Southern institutions.

Now suppose the course of trade were so directed that Richmond, Petersburg, Lynchburg, and other cities were the points where the products of the State were bought and sold, and from whence distribution was made. The first advantage and gain would be the keeping at home the money now sent away. The amount expended for the two articles of salt and plaster, is quite $500,000 every year. The profit to the merchant may be safely estimated at $100,000 more. Add to these sums the profits on the goods of various kinds, sold or exchanged in these transactions, and it would present an aggregate of much more than $600,000, retained to enrich our own citizens. The extent of this saving—or profit, is not fully represented by these figures. There is nothing truer than that capital attracts and produces capital, and the resulting advantages of this concentration and accommodation are developed by the growth of cities—the expansion of trade, and the general prosperity of a people. A striking exemplification of the truth of this principle is presented in the history of the city of Syracuse, New York. A few years ago it was a straggling village, scattered along the margin of a morass. Now it is a magnificent city of about 100,000 inhabitants, compactly built, with broad, well paved streets—adorned by public edifices rivalling in magnitude and beauty those of the emporiums of the sea board, and surrounded by private residences, which, for architectural grace, and dimensions compare with the houses of the aristocracy of Europe. The nucleus of trade which started and sustains this city, is the Salt manufactured from the Onondaga Salt Springs. By wise legislation, this State property has not only contributed largely to the revenues of the treasury, by the tax on the salt, and the tolls on the Canal, but has accomplished far more by retaining at home the money which would otherwise have been expended in other communities. The beneficial influence of this policy is diffused over the various trades and occupations of all classes of society.

Should the Virginia Legislature decide to inaugurate similar policy, the purchase of the entire salines of the counties of Smyth and Washington is necessary. They could be had for less than the value placed upon them by the sworn agents of the State, and upon which they are now paying taxes. If the sum for which the two estates are rented can be taken as any criterion of their productive and relative value, then the capital they represent at lawful interest is about $800,000. If lessees can afford to pay for the Preston estate an annual rent of $30,000, and for the King estate $20,000, and estimate the cash value of the lease, having seven years to run at $300,000, the true value of the realty, in fee simple, is far more than the sum at which the estates are assessed. Since this assessment was made, improvements costing from $50,000 to $75,000 have been put principally upon the Preston property. The buildings at the Plaster banks, and the mill with five sets of runners, driven by two engines of forty-horse power, each would be especially valuable for grinding salt if it be made by solar evaporation. These buildings were put up in 1857-'59.

The appointment of a sensible, energetic superintendent, clothed with ample authority to act, and furnished with adequate means to commence and complete a system of manufacture upon a scale commensurate with the demands of the people, would ensure to the State in one year compensation for the appropriation now suggested. It is true, the whole of the purchase money for the property might not be realized, but the saving to the country, and the sense of relief imparted, would be more than remuneration for any obligations assumed and advances made.