| From the Richmond Dispatch |
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| October 2, 1861 |
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| Salt |
| We are glad to learn that the Virginia
& Tennessee Railroad Company have made preparations for
transporting salt from the works on their road, at Saltville. Smythe
co., as rapidly as it can be manufactured; and that notice of the
quantities it will transport per week has been given to the owners of
the Salines. Within a week or two past this road has brought down very
large quantities of the article from the Salines, as well as four
thousand bushels of
New Orleans
salt. Whether this action of the railroad will relieve the market and
put the price down to reasonable figures, will depend upon the success
of speculators in getting control of it, and holding it in [ quantities ]
to make it scarce during the packing season. |
| In order to prevent this sharp practice of
the speculators, it might be well for individuals, or clubs of
individuals, to send orders direct to the manufacturers at Saltville,
Smythe county, Va., accompanied by checks on any of the banks of
Richmond, Petersburg, Lynchburg, or Norfolk, for the purchase money.
The name of the manufacturing firm is Buchanan, Stuart & Co. We
believe the price at Saltville is seventy-five cents a bushel,
together with the cost of the barrel or sack it may be shipped in,
which is added. |
| This firm itself holds a monopoly of the
business, and have put their price too high; the usual price at the
Salines having heretofore been fifty cents. We believe, however, that
seventy-five cents will satisfy them, as it certainly should do,
being, if we are correctly informed, from four to six times the cost
of the article. On the principle, however, of "Live and let
live," the public may be willing to stand seventy-five cents as a
war price. By sending orders direct to the Salines, the public will
immediately be able to discover whether the manufacturers are willing
to supply the article to consumers rather than to speculators, and
whether the railroads are as ready to bring it down to the public as
to large dealers. If the manufacturers will fill these small orders,
and if the railroads will bring down the salt thus ordered, in
preference to the car loads and train
loads sent down to speculators; we think the monopoly will be crushed,
and the price of salt reduced to a fair figure. We see no other mode
of checking the speculation going on in this necessary of life, and we
suggest its trial in time for the people to procure their supplies
before the hog-killing season. |
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