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    MERCANTILE AND COMMERCIAL

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    Untitled Article

    EMPLOYMENT FOR SURPLUS CAPITAL . The surplus capital in the different banks of the commercial world to which we referred last week is not the result of the labour of any one nation . Bullion is procured in many countries , and the use of it is common in all . We must not , accordingly , confine our view to our own or to any one country as the exclusive sphere in which , it may be employed . Nor must we limit the employment

    exclusively to any class of occupations . At present the foreign tonnage entering and leaving our ports is almost as great as the tonnage of our own shipping . Nearly half our trade is carried on by foreign bottoms . Our own shipping lias increased wonderfully since the navigation laws were repealed , and the shipping of all other countries has increased in an equal , or even greater , proportion . Being the movable or carrying capital of nations , shipping is the most easily lent or transferred of all implements , and extremely useful to borrow . Hence the shipping of one nation continually carries the goods ot another . So , after we had acquired great skill in making railways , and had much capital ready for such work which could not acquired great skill in . making railways , and had much capital ready for such work which could not

    be employed at home , we lent it iu large masses abroad , and contributed to form railways in all parts of the commercial world . According to the report on railways made by the Board of Trade , there was in June of the present year 24 , 592 miles open in Europe , of which 9019 miles were in our country , and i 5 , 55 f 3 miles in the other parts of Europe . Of the latter a large proportion has only lately come into use . In Germany , for example— 'including Austria and Prussia—at the end of 1855 , the number of miles open was 5414 ; in June , 1858 , it was 7560 . la . France the number of miles open at the end of 1854 was 2913 , in June , 1858 , 4509 . In Sardinia , at the end of 1855 ,

    the number of miles open was 234 , in June , 1858 , 390 . In Tuscany the number of miles open at the end of 1856 was 132 , and in June , 1858 , 150 . To the formation of all these roads English labour , skill , and capital have contributed . Their effects in promoting the prosperity of Europe and adding to our own wealth , are as yet only very partially and incompletely developed . By them the grain , flour , and fruit of France , and the minerals and wool of Germany , have been brought more and in larger quantities to the seaboards of these countries ; more of our coals and

    iron have been by them carried further inland , and our own trade , as well as the trade of other countries , has been promoted by the loan of our capital We should have made less progress than we have made had we not by this means contributed to the improvement of other countries . The poorest of nations have nothing to sell , and only rich nations can buy of others . Whatever may be the jealousy or animosity of individuals , one nation can only prosper , according to the order of nature , by others prospering . Because England haa preceded other nations in a number of branches of industry , her capitalists must now look abroad quite as much as

    at home to find out where surplus capital may be moat judiciously employed . Bearing in mind these leading faote , let the reader consider the following description , which * if somewhat exaggerated , is , we believe , m tUe main , true , of the present condition of agriculture in France , and ia not far out as a representation of the condition of agriculture in a great part of Europe :- " - A gentleman ( says the Paris corespondent of the Times ' ) whoso official connexion with agricultural improvements in Ireland , entities his opinion to respect , has lately made' a tour in France with the view of ascertaining the real cause of the depression of agriculture , and the destitution of the labouring classes . He

    which probably does half the work , and which certainly gets all the beating ; cattle not half-fed either in winter or summer ; poor milch cows and bony-looking oxen creeping along oh the dry , hard road with waggon-loads of sand or timber , not half what a single Scotch cart -would carry ; pigs as they probably were in the days of Dagoberr , long-legged , big-eared , with bodies flat as pancakes , every point about them turned the wrong way , curved backs that might serve as a model for the arch of a bridge , noses that would do as good work , if properly directed , as half the ploughs in the country , and , on * the whole , the animals looking as if they were quite , sick of the world . The sheep , too , would be regarded with pity by any one who ever saw a flock of Leicesters ruminating in a clover-field—wiry , weedy , unhealthy-looking things , with tails that crack like a whip , bones that look as if they were already picked , and hopping about on the roadside in search of a stray mouthful . According to the views of my informant , the efforts lately made by the French Government to improve the breeds of cattle in France and encourage improved husbandry in the provinces , have been of little benefit , so far as he could judge . The introduction of costly cattle for breed and cumbrous implements for work has failed to produce the anticipated results ; for the fact is , the people were not yet prepared for their use , or in a position , to turn them to account . For what can men do who are tied up by prejudices or absurd customs , and always ¦ looking to Government to help them ? He noticed the want of cordiality and union between the three classes—the proprietor , the fanner or occupier , and the labourer—which must impede substantial improvements . Except on the banks of some large rivers , he saw few country gentlemen's dwelling-houses—little beyond detached villages and small plots of ground , scattered here and there , and marked by all the vice of ¦ the subdivision system- JTe pronounces it impossible for these struggling occupiers to till their patches of land with advantage , or derive any benefit from modern improvements . Through the greater part of Europe the condition of agriculture requires to , be improved . That it should be ^ improved is a matter of first necessity . Manufacturing and commercial enterprise has everywhere been roused into activity . In England there is now no great advance in the price of agricultural produce , but a large advance has on the whole in late years taken place throughout the Continent , and if it do not suffice to stimulate the exertions of the agriculturists , or if they be so bound that they cannot readil y increase their produce , a very considerable and inconvenient rise will soon ensue , in the price of it checking all progress and all prosperity . We see no way by which English capital and skill could tend directly to improve agriculture in France ; nevertheless , this is an object in which all Europe is interested . Taking a long series of years , it is found that France imports as much grain as she exports , and every seven or ten years her people suffer irom want of food . Every revolution m that country , including tho first , had its origin in the distress of the Erenoh , and no surer means could be found to guard against violent revolutions than to make them continually prosperous . Napoleon is much more indebted to the gold discoveries , to the great stimulus they have given to trade , to the extension of railways , and to a succession of good harvests , for the quietness of the people and the success of his government , than to his own skill . The domestic tyranny of the contomptible bureaucracy of which he ia tho hoad would not have been borne had not the nation been , from causes over which ho had no control , extremely prosperous ; and , should that prosperity cease , his throne and tho poacc of Europe will be endangered . "Wq arc far from saying , however , that capitalists should bo induced b y suoh considerations to advance capital for industrial enterprises in Franoo or elsewhere . They ought to bo , and must be , guided only b y the probabilities of tho enterprises paying well } "but suoh considerations should , provont the public , and especially journalists , from condemning tho capitalists who invest their property abroad because they find this more advantageous than investing , it at home . Capital originates in no country especially , and owes allegiance to no one in preference to another . Capitalists show their patriotism by making tho most they can of their means , whioh is their best method to enrieU their own country and the world . Tho bulk of Europe is far behind' England in many of the arts common to all ,

    and whatever facilitates its progress , such as an extension of railways and telegraphs , an increase of manufactures , or an improvement of agriculture cannot fail to contribute to the growth" and prosperity of England . The very worst-devised undertaking not a regular and ]> redctermined fraud to obtain wealth by any kind of industry , is , in a cosmopolitan point of view , better deserving the support of capitalists than such Governments as those of the petty republics in America , which seem to borrow moncyonly to can y on predatory warfare . The interest on the loan to Turkey may be quite secure , but except as it may be employed in restoring the currcnev to a sound

    condition , it will no more yield a revenue to pay the interest than if it were thrown into the sea . Wasted on the Harem , or the Pashas , it may contribute tp their personal gratification * but . will be less reproductive than the wildest mining speculation . Almost every other employment of capital than that of fostering war or contributing to regal or ministerial waste , pays large bodies of labourers , and much of it is reproduced with a profit . This is the case even of that portion of t lie capital employed in war which pays the peaceful manufacturers and providers of tup instruments and clothing and food

    consumed in war . The employment of capital , however , which tends continually to reproduction with a large profit is most beneficial to society , and ultimately secures the largest reward to capitalists ; though some of them may gain more temporarily by supplying the waste of war and regal extravagance . We see therefore with no dissatisfaction that some of the first demands on surplus capital arc springing up abroad to construct railways or < o promote mercantile and manufacturing enterprises . Already in October the Bank of France had ; begun to part with a considerable amount of . the bullion in its

    vaults . According to the latest statements it continues to parbwith . it . A larger demand was made on it for discount—25 , 000 , 000 fr . on Thursday weekthan on any day for many weeks . Trade is improving in Prance ; and the railways are recovering . Bullion has also been leaving the Bank of England , and whoever may in the first instance lend the capital for industrious undertakings on the Continent , it will be sure to flow into such as promise to be

    successful , and operate as effectually on the market lor capital hero as if it were directly advanced by the bankers of London . In fact , in consequence of the demand abroad for capital , gold is leaving the Bank of England , and our public securities arc declining in price . As communication has become quick and continuous throntyhoutEurope , the employment of capital has censed to depend on merely local circumstances . It is held ni common by the whole commercial world , and will be employed accordingly .

    states that it was sad to see the misapplication of time And labour in many places , and the way in -which the resources of so fine a country were neglected' or abased . In the darkest days of Connaught farming he declares he never bow anything worse than in boasted Normandy ami some of tho most favoured districts of th « south and west ; small fields and impenetrable hedgerows ,, scourging and exhausting crops , and little or no manure to supply the denoienoy ; ploughs that might have been used by the early Druids , tugged along by a motley crew of dispirited cows , horses , and oxen , with a poor , industrious , well-disposed donkey in the van ,

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    London , Friday Evening . Oou advices from tho manufacturing districts confirm what we have previously stated ia reference to the improving tendency of trade , though m sonio branches complaints of want of activity and lowering prices continue to be heard . Tho greatest appearance of briskness is visible in tho iron truae , and judging from the orders which are arming from abroad , and the gradual hardening ot prices , wo may look for prosperity in this important stup . o trade for some timo to come . . The cotton market has shown considerable activity owing to tho latest accounts from America , wlucn state that tlie yield of the new cotton crop is oa « - matod to vnry between 3 , 600 , 000 und 8 , / 0 P , UUV The stocking trade looks well , and activity is apparent among the various branches of tins nianu-The coal trade ia considerably brisker , and though a good deidof dissatisfaction still continued amo g the miners in tlio various districts whero tho strico has boon most visible , yet thoro aro uninifltnkiipio symptoms of a , bqttor feeling taking tho P' » « ° * that foolieli hostility which has for some tl . ne pro vailed , and tlint the minors , seeing the folly , inut »»| g and injury to their families of their proceedings , wo gradually returning to work . We liono to seeiini ft very short timo a renewal of that oonfldonco between employers and employed whicu ought over to F °

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    GENERAL TRADE REPORT .

    Mercantile And Commercial

    MERCANTILE AND COMMERCIAL

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    1202 __^_____ THE LEAD E R . [ No . 450 , November 6 , 1858 .

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 6, 1858, page 1202, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2267/page/26/