MEMORIAL 
 
 OF THE 
 
 CHAMBER OF COMMERCE, 
 
 OF THE 
 
 Printed by order of the Senate of the United States. 
 January 24th, 1 803. 
 
/AVER* 
 
 IEx IGtbrta 
 
 SEYMOUR DURST 
 
In Senate of the United States. 
 
 JANUARY 24th, 1803. 
 — 
 
 Mr. Morris prefented the Memorial of the cham- 
 ber of commerce of the city of New-York, which 
 was read. 
 
 Ordered, That it be printed for the ufe of the 
 Senate. 
 
 Atteft, SAMUEL A. OTIS, Secretary. 
 
 To the honourable the Senate and House of Re- 
 presentatives of the United States. 
 
 THE MEMORIAL OF THE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE OF THE 
 CITY OF NEW-YORK, 
 
 RESPECTFULLY SHEWS— 
 
 AT your memorialifls view with much alarm 
 the renewal of an attempt to repeal the ads mak- 
 ing difcrimination between American and foreign 
 duties on imports and tonnage, and pray leave to 
 fubmit to the confideration of Congrefs the follow- 
 ing objections. 
 
 First. — It will diminim the revenue to an amount 
 which, taking paft years as the guide, would not be 
 lefs than 450,000 dollars per annum. 
 
Secondly. — It will efTentially injure the commerce 
 of the United States,' as its effefts will be, by opening 
 the market for freight to the lowefl bidder, to fhift 
 the carrying trade from the hands of our own mer- 
 chants into thofe of foreigners. This your memo- 
 rialifts believe will appear from the following con- 
 fiderations : 
 
 Fir/I. — Foreigners build their veflels much cheap- 
 er than we can do. From actual calculation it is 
 found that a veflel built o/ European oak, and 
 equal to thofe built of our live oak (which, befides, 
 is nearly exhaufted) cofts, when equipped for fea, 
 at the rate of 36?- dollars per ton; and if built in 
 Finland, of their fir, of which they have abund- 
 ance, equal in duration to our common oak, and 
 fitted for fea in the fame manner, {he will cofl at 
 the rate of 19 dollars per ton: while the American 
 vefiel, built of our common oak, and not fo well 
 equipped, will coft at the rate of from 40 to 45 
 dollars per ton ; but if built of live oak and cedar, 
 fhc will coft at the rate of from 50 to 55 dollars 
 per ton. 
 
 Secondly. — The materials compofing equipment, 
 fuch as ir.-m, hemp, fail-cloth, &c. are all cheaper 
 abroad than they are here, and the price of labor 
 for working them is fuppoled to be 50 per cent, 
 lefs there than in the Uuited States. 
 
 Thirdly. — Foreigners navigate cheaper; feamen's 
 wages are lower, and many of their crews confifr. 
 of apprentices without wages. The apprentice-aft 
 
5 
 
 of Great Britain renders it incumbent on every 
 owner or matter of a vefiel to take with him a cer- 
 tain number of apprentices, and this they find fo 
 advantageous, that they frequently double or treble 
 that number; more efpecially veffels from the north 
 of England. Every merchant engaged in commerce 
 knows that the Hollanders, Hamburgers, Danes, 
 Swedes, &c. man their veffels with a ftill greater 
 proportion of apprentices : and in the cheapnefs of 
 their living, clothing, &c. they have a very material 
 advantageover the veffels of the United States. Thus 
 it appears that foreigners can build cheaper, equip 
 cheaper, and fail their veffels cheaper than we can : 
 and it may be added that Europeans are generally 
 fatisfied with a Iefs gain than the American mer- 
 chant can afford to receive. 
 
 Lajlly. — Although it has been faid that for us to 
 meet the advance on the part of Great Biitain, and 
 to repeal our countervailing acts, would place the 
 two nations on an equal footing, yet your memo- 
 rialifls conceive that while Great Britain retains her 
 prefent navigation act, this would be very wide of 
 the truth. We, on our part, mould thus permit 
 Great Britain to bring hither not only goods, the 
 growth or manufacture of that country, but of all 
 others; while on her part, by the navigation act we 
 have jufl: referred to, we {hall be exprefsly confined 
 to the carriage of goods the growth or manufacture 
 of the United States. To this may be addjd, that 
 
Britifh vefiels would then bring a freight from their 
 own country to this; take a freight here to their 
 colonies, where our vefTels are not admitted, and 
 from thence a third freight home, making thus 
 three freights in one voyage. The value of the im- 
 portation cargoes is fo much greater than the value 
 of our exportion dutiable cargoes, that the extra 
 duties paid by the foreigner are in many cafes equal, 
 and in fome cafes more than equal to the whole 
 fn ight ; fo that the ads now propofed to be abo- 
 lifhed, operate nearly as a prohibition to the foreign- 
 er, and leave us, in a meafure, without competi- 
 tors in our own market. 
 
 After all that has been faid, it hardly needs to be 
 added that if our ports are thrown open to foreign- 
 ers on the fame terms with our own vefTels, as by 
 this repeal is contemplated (for it is in vain to at- 
 tempt to confine the meafure to the Er!:ifli) they 
 will crowd our wharves, underbid our freight, mo- 
 nopolize the markets, and leave the American vef- 
 fels idly to rot in our docks. Your memorialifts 
 have, therefore, no hefitation in declaring that, in 
 their opinion, this meafure will be a fatal blow to the 
 American carrying trade. 
 
 It would be eafy to mow in the detail that this 
 would, in its confequences, prove extremely inju- 
 rious to the agricultural and mechanical clafTes of 
 our citizens; a few general obfervations only will be 
 indulged. 
 
First. — As to the agricultural. 
 
 Although, generally fpeaking, freight is paid by 
 the confumer, and, therefore, it may be faid it is 
 immaterial to the farmer how high or how low it 
 may be, yet this is not the cafe, when the demand 
 ceafes or flackens ; it then falls back on the huf- 
 bandman. But to transfer our carrying trade to 
 foreigners will be to lefien very much the chance of 
 the demand. The active enterprize of the Ameri- 
 can merchant is conftantly looking abroad to every 
 part of the world for a market, and if it is any 
 where to be found, or if there is only a reafonable 
 prefumption that it may be found, the fanner 
 meets with a ready vent for his produce. Perhaps 
 the calculations of the merchant may be difappoint- 
 ed, and he even ruined, yet the misfortune reaches 
 not the farmer; he has the fame benefit of a good 
 market. But mould the American veffels once dif- 
 appear, he mufl then lie entirely at the mercy of 
 chance adventurers for a market, and when the 
 demand is not very great the price of the freight 
 will be deducted from the article itfelf. All this 
 mufl necefiarily tend effentially to leffen the value of 
 the farmer's produce. 
 
 Secondly. — As to the mechanical. 
 
 That numerous clafs of mechanics who are con- 
 nected with (hip-building; the carpenter, theblack- 
 fmiih, the fail-maker, the rope-maker, &c. will of 
 
courfe be deprived of employ; their labor will be 
 neither wanted nor paid 'or. 
 
 To conclude: Our {hips being thus banifhed from 
 our mores, we mall no longer furnish a nurfery 
 for our feamen, but that valuable claf's of citizens 
 will be driven to feek for tru-ir bread in other coun- 
 tries ; and in any future European wars which may 
 happen, and which are conflantly liable to happen, 
 we mall find ourfelves without feamen or fliips to 
 avail ourfelves of that neutral pofition, which reflec- 
 tion and experience equally warrant us in calculat- 
 ing upon as one of the bleffmgs allied to our re- 
 mote and fecure fituation. 
 
 On the whole: Your memorialing cannot refrain 
 from expreffing the belief with which they are 
 ftrongly imprefled, that to repeal the difcriininatinfr 
 laws which have operated fo happily to incretft 
 our navigation and commerce, would be a meafure 
 highly prejudicial to various and important interefts 
 in the communiry, detrimental to the revenues of 
 the country, and, in a national point of view, ex- 
 tremely impolitic. 
 
 They, therefore, pray that the repeal may not 
 take place. 
 
 New-Tor k, 15 /A January, 1 8 03. 
 
 JOHN MURRAY, President. 
 J. H. LAURENCE, Secretary.