From which must be deducted operating expenses, as follows: Tansportation... cars... build'gs. $200,845 $251,229 $306,656 $402,374 $428,779 $435,911 24,969 223,098 34,397 375.493 27,624 27,045 491,827 349,110 57,546 39,194 55,184 89,681 109,306 79,901 66 bridges.. 66 fences..... {{ 18,718 33,428 9,516 14,354 Oil and waste... 6,165 8,636 12,066 17,931 $535,005 $634,170 $898,703 $1,264,185 $1,550,622 $1,254,017 Profits from operations.......... $728,248 $1,090,747 $1,303,240 $1,235,163 $835,510 $679,6S3 These profits were disposed of on the following accounts: 32,017 The amount of materials used in track repairs in each year was as fol The financial condition of the company at the close of each year, as appears on the general Balance Sheet, is summed up in the following stateinent of liabilities and profits: 1861. 1862. 1863. 1864 1865. 1866. $4,746,200 $5,000,000 $6,000,000 $6,000,000 $6,000,000 $6,000,000 510,000 510,000 510,000 491,500 $5,917,359 $6,454,130 $7,232,513 $6,919,435 $6,843 260 $6,771,246 The following table, deduced from the above, exhibits the relation of capital, earnings, profits, &c., and the rates of dividend paid in the several years: Cost of road, &c., per mile.. Expenses per cent. Net earnings per cent per mile. Net earnings per cent.. Net earning to capital per cent... Net earnings to cost, &c., per ct.. Dividends per cent-cash.. Dividends per cent-stock.. 35.00 35.19 The net earnings, as above, are the gross earnings less operating expenses, and before any deduction is made for taxes or other extraordinary accounts. The market price of the stock of the company (range) for each month is stated below: The efforts recently made by the English Government to develop the resources of its vast emrpie in Hindostan, evince remarkable energy and sagacity. Probably no country in the world has made more material progress within the last few years than British India. Notwithstanding the discouragements arising from the mutiny of the Sepoys, and the disasters of famine and financial collapse, the present condition and future prospects of the people have been greatly improved. Railroads have been built, highways have been thrown up, canals widened and deepened, obstructions removed from rivers, bridges constructed over rivers and mountain chasms, and the jungle has been rendered passable for the first time. These great changes in the condition of the interior of British India were initiated, or, at least, actively commenced in accordance with a policy adopted at the commencement of our civil war. England, in place of attempting to break up our monopoly of the cotton trade by an open and formal assistance of the South, resolved to effect the same object by other and surer means. Her statesmen, with far reaching sagacity, resolved to improve the opportunity afforded by the American crisis, so as to attach the tottering Indian Empire to the imperial government by a bridge of gold. India has always been famous for cotton manufactures of unrivalled fineness and elegance, and it was known that her climate presented admirable facilities for the culture of the raw material. Under the stimulus of high prices the whole world was invited to compete for the production of cotton. But special measures, as is well known, were adopted to develop its culture in British India, and for this purpose the wealth and experience of the English people and government were brought into requisition. The opportunities were favorable. The Imperial Government had got rid of the cumbersome and obsolete machinery of the East India Com. pany, and assumed direct control of the vast Empire of India. In 1860-61, the Marquis Dalhousie, Governor General, inaugurated the extensive system of internal improvement, which was to enable the people of Hindostan to compete with America for the cotton trade of the world. To effect this object great changes were required. The most favorable cotton regions of India were inaccessible for want of proper facilities for communication. In order to get the staple to a market, it was necessary to carry it by man and horse power over vast tracts of jungle, across mountains and ravines, and ferry it over great rivers. To obviate these difficulties, the railroad movement inaugurated was of the most comprehensive character. The population of India subject to the English government is probably not less than two hundred millions. The country comprises an area of 1,364,000 square miles, stretching 1,800 miles in length and 1,500 miles in breadth from east to west. There is a coast line of 3,200 miles, of which 1,900 are on the Indian Ocean and 1,300 on the Bay of Bengal. The climate is tropical, but embraces every variety of temperature from the extreme cold of the Himmalayan mountains to the warmth of the tropics. This great country is broken up into an almost endless geographical diversity. There are vast and impassable jungles, huge forests, mighty rivers, mountain chains and extensive plains, the whole being combined with a wonderful luxuriance of vegetation, which at every step obstructs progress and almost prevents any passage by man or beast. It was over this country, presenting so many difficulties, that Lord Dalhouse contemplated his admirable network of railroads. The system was, of course, planned with reference to the geographical features of the country, so as to connect the extremes of the vast empire with grand trunk lines, from which branch lines, or feeders, might be constructed, according to the future requirements of local commerce. Four thousand six hundred miles of railroad were to be built, at an estimated expense of $400,000,000. The credit of the Imperial Government was granted to private companies, guaranteeing a certain amount of interest on all money invested in Indian railroads. The government wisely left all details of construction and management to the energies of the companies themselves, which had every motive for economy, as all money earned above the guaranteed dividends was clear gain. This system worked so well, that last year_several Indian railways exceeded the 5 per cent. guaranteed interest. During the half year ending December 31st, the East Indian and the Great Peninsular railroad companies were able to declare surplus dividends. Half the amount of surplus income was devoted to the repayment of former advances for interest by the government, and the other half was divided among the stockholders. The net amount of guaranteed interest paid by the government diminishes every year. In 1865 the amount was £1,450,000; in 1866 it was £800,000, and this year only £600,000 was required. These figures indicate the profitable character of these Indian railroad enterprises. The original system of Indian railroads contemplated the establishment of communications between Bombay, Madras and Calcutta, the three great centres of military and commercial power. The extremes of the empire were united, and roads were cut through the great agricultural and producing districts. The East Indian Railroad Company has now under its management 1,310 miles of railway, constructed at an expense of $100,000,000, and is the longest line of road in the world under one company. The Great Indian Peninsular road will be 1,233 miles long when completed, and next year it will be open for traffic along its entire length. In 1868 from Calcutta to Bombay, a distance of 1,458 miles, there will be an unbroken railroad communication. The branch lines connecting with the main stems are of great extent, and will cost as much money as the main roads. To show the progress Indian railroads it may be stated that it is only fourteen years since the first line was opened in that country. At the present time there are 3,200 miles in operation, and next year a thousand additional miles will be completed. of This development of railroads in British India is of the highest importance as affecting the cotton trade. Formerly we enjoyed a monopoly of the market; now, nearly one-half of the cotton manufactured in England is derived from India alone. A late Liverpool circulars estimates the quantity of American cotton now on hand and to arrive before December 31st, 1867, at 680,000 bales, while the supply of India cotton for the same period is estimated at 925,000 bales. Without expressing any opinion as to the correctness of these figures, the more important fact for us to remember is that the manufacturers of England have so altered and improved their machinery as to be able to use in much larger proportion than formerly the shorter India staple, while, at the same time, the quality of cotton from that country has been decidedly and steadily improved, and is being more carefully prepared for market. Judging then of the future from the past, it may be expected to equal the American article at no distant period. The establishment of railroads in India removes the chief obstacles to the growth of an almost unlimited supply of cotton. The country is admirably adapted for it, and the teeming population has long been familiar with the staple, and exhibit great aptitude in its culture. The best cotton regions have not yet been opened to the world; the only facilities for reaching a market being the slow and expensive process of cattle teams. The new railroads, however, will convey the products of these regions to market cheaply and expeditiously. And it is a noticeable feature of Indian railroad companies that their revenues are derived from goods rather than from passengers. Of $35,000,000 income of Indian railroads during the three years ending June, 1866, two-thirds were received from merchandise traffic. These facts throw considerable light on the future of the American cot-t ton trade. They indicate that American cotton will henceforth be subjec to a keen and active competition. The cheapness of labor in India wil also tend to place us at a disadvantage, as it is doubtful whether the freedmen can work as cheaply as the Hindoo, who lives on a handful of rice a day, and whose clothing consists of a yard of calico a year. It is evident therefore that the trade in our chief staple will be subject in the future to new conditions that may seriously affect our entire country. In this view it is of the utmost importance that every facility should be extended to the cultivation of the staple in the Southern States, and that every obstacle should be removed. The injudicious cotton tax, that operates as a direct bounty to foreign production, should be instantly repealed, and new capital should be tempted into the production of the staple by the indispensable guarantees of security and political quiet. THE GROWTH OF OUR CAPITAL AND INVESTMENTS. In every country where a high degree of industrial activity and material prosperity prevails, there is continually going on an increase and accumulation of capital; and the laws by which that increase is governed have received some attention from political economists, though far less, probably, than their importance deserves. Of these laws, one of the best established is that the capital of any nation increases in proportion as individual property is protected by law and as safe remunerative investments are easily accessible to all classes of the community. In Mexico and some of the South American republics, property of all kinds being insecure, capital increases very slowly, if at all; and when the insecurity reaches a certain point, capital undergoes an actual diminution, and the country grows poorer every year. In England, on the contrary, and in this country, where the central principle of the laws rests on the security of person and property, and where the rights of capital are fenced round with all the safeguards which the wit of man can contrive, wealth grows very rapidly, and the increase of capital has surpassed anything ever realized in the history of modern nations. Next to the security of property, one of the most important conditions for the increase of wealth is that good investments shall be easily accessible to all classes of men who have the ability, by frugal thrift and skillful industry, to amass a surplus above their wants. In this respect, for some years past we have had an advantage over other countries. It is true that our currency for three or four years after the commencement of the war, was being gradually inflated. But the effect of the redundant issue of paper money was twofold. It acted in favor of the poor and of the great masses of debtors throughout the country, by enabling them to pay their debts in a denomination of money of less value than that in which they were incurred; and what is of more importance for our present purpose, it gave that stimulus to all kinds of industry which an abundant currency among an industrious, energetic, ingenious, versatile people never fails to develop. The rapid, steady growth of wealth, and the extraordinary material prosperity which resulted astonished our political economists, because it was realized in apparent defiance of some of those general facts and laws which they had been accustomed to regard as equally stern and unyielding with the laws of gravitation. Notwithstanding that in the prodigious expen |