Pagina 647 di 2651

The price of raw hides is a good deal lower at present than it

was a few years ago; owing probably to the taking off the duty

upon seal skins, and to the allowing, for a limited time, the

importation of raw hides from Ireland, and from the plantations,

duty free, which was done in 1769. Take the whole of the present

century at an average, their real price has probably been

somewhat higher than it was in those ancient times. The nature of

the commodity renders it not quite so proper for being

transported to distant markets as wool. It suffers more by

keeping. A salted hide is reckoned inferior to a fresh one, and

sells for a lower price. This circumstance must necessarily have

some tendency to sink the price of raw hides produced in a

country which does not manufacture them, but is obliged to export

them, and comparatively to raise that of those produced in a

country which does manufacture them.