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j 358 . —COMMEKCIA'L - IIISTOEY . We uave elsewhere briefly referred to the chief political events of 1 S 58 , aud confining ourselves to commercial or social events we must at once notice that tliey have been ¦/ uniformly quiet and progressive . The events which have convulsed Europe politically , end angered thrones , overthrown ministries , filled all the journals with angry arid controversial leaders , and altered the relations of Governments , have not ruffled commerce . Sometimes , as in ISIS , when revolution paralysed it , arid in 1854-55 , when war diverted it from its ordinary course , political events
have a serious or disastrous effect on social wellbeing ; but in contrast to those years 1858 has seen commerce quietly but steadily progressive . ¦ The disease which smote it came in 1 S 57 . At the beginning of the year it was suffering from a disaster peculiarly its own . At other epochs * as at 1793 , 1 SI 1-12 , 1822 , 182 G , &c , it could be fancied and said that a change from peace to war , or from war to peace , or a great change in commercial or money laws , had made commerce bankrupt . No such pretext could be urged in 1 S 57 , further than the general , interference ot Governments with trade ,
readied two-and-a-half per cent , at the close of the year . Now the Bank has 19 , 100 , 000 / . of bullion . Gradually the number of paupers diminished till it fell at the end of July as low as it was in 1 S 57- According to the latest monthly return it was in October 16 , S 05 less than the number at the same period in 1837 , or had decreased 2 . 03 per cent . Gradually both the import and the export trade increased , till in the eleventh month of the year the value of the exports exceeded the value of the eleventh month of 1857 by 1 , 690 , 621 / ., though it
fell short of the value in the same month of 1856 by 295 , 639 / . Considering how vast was the derangement—the value of our exports to the United States alone having fallen off in the first six months of the year from 11 , 722 , 952 / . in 1 S 57 to 5 , 939 , 92 */ . in 1 S 58—remembering the great number of stoppages and bankruptcies wliich occurred at the close of 1 S 57 and the beginning of 1 S 5 S , the country has gone through one of the widest commercial convulsions ever known , and has received only slight w T ounds , which are already almost seared over . All the substantial interests of the
community—its agriculture , its manufactures , its milling , with the single exception of i ts shipping , which cannot long continue to suffer as trade revives r—are all in a sound and healthy condition . Food is cheap , and employment plentiful . The present revived prosperity , the former great expansion and sudden collapse " trade , are all plainly due to trade itself—the Government has in no wise interfered .. ' with it . Thus our free trade , imperfect though : it be , has carried the nation with great
success through as remarkable a scries of changes , natural and political , as ever the world has seen in the short space of ten years ^ including the gold discoveries , the wonderful improvements in art and science , and the establishment of new Governments in Europe—and has also , relieved the Government from all care on the subject and all odium and all discontent from public suffering . Good and evil are now seen by the people to be the natural and necessary results of their own well'advised or ill-directed exertions .
The prices of the funds and of some railways were at the beginning aud end of the years as follows : — First Week . Last Week . On opening . On shutting . Consols .... 95 J 93 Keduced 954 97 f Exchequer Bills ... 3 s . to 7 s , p . m . 36 s . to 39 s , p . m . Great Western 56 $ 55 i North-Westem 98 J 95 £ Brighton 107-109 113-114 Caledonian 855 88 Groat Northern 97-98 107-108
Securities of all kinds were higher priced at the close I ban at the beginning of the year , but had scarcely risen so much as might have been expected . The public , it may be inferred , had not much money to invest .
substituting at all times false rules for true Ones , and the convulsion of that year was exclusively the consequence of the mismanagement of commercial men . They were in too great haste to get rich , took too much credit , traded beyond their means , got wildly excited by the gold discoveries and other means of great prosperity , indulged in vain dreams ; and entered into fruitless enterprises that ended in general failure . The disgraceful conduct of bankers and banks and great merchants , of which so
many instances have of late years been forced on our notice ^ and which have been much discussed in 1858 , when the evil deeds of the Glasgow Western Bank were brought to light and the directors of the Royal British Bank were punished , were the consequences of a general delirium which had . come to an end before | 185 S began . Now , instead of emulating such proceedings the public bears against them an emphatic testimony and warning . From that convulsion , 1858 at its commencement was sober , depressed , arid sad .
The Bank of England was gradually increasing its resources—aud the law which purports to regulate it , and had been suspended to enable it to continue its operations , had again come into force , but the bullion in its coffers did not exceed 11 , 500 , 000 / ., and its minimum rate of discount was $ per cent . The money-market was in a condition stultifying for trade In the last two months of 1857 the value of the exports had declined 4 , 800 , 000 / ., and in the first two months of 1858 3 , 800 , 0007 . The imports followed the same rule , and in the first four months of 1 S 5 S were upwards of 10 , 200 , 000 / . less than in the four mouths of 1857 . Pauperism , which at the close of 1857 had increased from 881 . 795 , the number of paupers
in England and Wales at the close of 1856 , to : 938 j 408 , continued to increases in 1 S 5 S , and in the . second week of March the number was 1 , 003 , 204 tan augmentation from the beginning of the year oi - . 64 , 730 . The increase was chiolly in the manufac-? turing districts ; in the metropolis there was a dc"creaso throughout the year . In Lancashire and . " . Cheshire . the increase in the early part of tho year , v « s compared to tho sa » no period of 1857 , was 50 percent . Tho partial suspension of exchange caused la suspension of work in our factories , and the people rflufferedj'particularly in tho cotton districts , more than « t any period since 18 > 13 . They bore tho re'Verao without a murmur , though it would have been TOoro to their credit had they not been so extensively pauperised after a considerable period of prosperity .
. doom , ihowever , things began to mend . There was mo deficiency in broadstuiVa or in tho raw nmtcriuls ? jjjf . our fabrics ; tho harvest of 1 S 37 was oxcollont .. 1 iTheoldftrado relations between England and other Countries woro rojrewod us tfbon as thoir accounts could bo adjustod , and if thoy were not nearly so ^ extensive with America and some othor countries l jW .. in 185 . 7 , thoy increased with India , Turkey , £ W » , Ac . Gradually tho Bank coflbrs were tilled * wm gold , . the money market became easier , and the n » w of djecount was successively lowered till it
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We cannot hope for any further ofhcial information of the state of trade for the next six weeks , exqept that which the numerous mercantile circulars , constituting a very peculiar and useful branch of literature , and usually published at the close of every year , will supply , and therefore we must refer to the ' accounts for the eleventh month , the abstract of which we publish as descriptive of the trado at the end of tho year . By that it will bo seen , and no substantial dill ' crenco has occurred in December to alter the relations further than to make them more favourable , that o . ur imports of cocoa , coffee , corn , and flour , cotton , guano , hair , hemp , metals ,
potatoes , rico , sugar—but not molasses—tar , tea , &c , have been groator than in 1857 . Our imports , on tho contrary , of animals , bristles , clocks , flax , hides , oils , provisions— -except eggs—quicksilver , oil-seeds , silk , spirits , tallow , timber , wine , wool , &c , have becu less than in 1 S 57- At tho same time tho prico generally of all commodities has fallen , which has both checked importation and given a smaller relative value to our imports . Accordingly , tho vnluo of these in ten months , of which only wo havo yet . tho returns , waa 100 , 172 , 810 / ., as compared to 123 , 151 , 221 / . in ton months of 1857 , a decline of 11 per cent . As tho excess of imports Qvcr exports constitutes the nation ' s gains , we must
remind our readers that the reduction in the quantities of our imports is not so great as the reduction in their value , and that the difference is further compensated by an import of the precious metals in eleven months of 9 , 916 , 815 / . above the exports . The trade of 1858 has not been either very great or very profitable , but it has recovered , . and is now in a sound condition . The chief elements of future prosperity , however , are to be found in the quantities of food , and raw material imported . We remark , therefore , with pleasure that , although our harvest was good , the wheat and iloiir imported in the eleven months of 1857 , compared with the imports of 1858 , were as follows : •;— 1857 . 1858 . Wheat ...... qrs . 2 , 988 , 933 3 , 988 , 528 Flour . ... cwt . 1 , 702 , 358 3 , 652 , 725 All this is for our own use . Of the raw materials of our manufacture , cotton , silk , and wool , considerable quantities are re-exported , and . our supplies , therefore , of these depend on the reexports . The imports and re-exports were as follows in fche eleven months of 185 8- — Cotton . Raw Silk . Wool , cwts . lbs . lbs . Imported 8 , 050 , 914 5 , 686 , 423 107 , 519 , 851 Re-exported .. 1 , 227 , 150 2 , 104 , 272 24 , 228 , 005 Remains ... 6 , 823 , 764 3 , 472 , 151 83 , 291 , 846 In eleven months of 1857 the quantities of these articles retained for home consumption Were respectivelv , 6 , 523 , 458 cwt . 7 , 969 , 392 lbs ., and 78 ^ 04 : 9 , 943 ^ 3 . ; so that our actual supplies of cotton and wool are in excess of 1 S . 57 ,: while our actual supply of silk is in great deficiency . In 1 S 57 , however , the importation of silk was 3 , 200 , 000 lbs . in excess of 1 S 56 , and we therefore could in 185 S advantageously sell larger quantities : to the other silk manufacturing countries of Europe and not ourselves be in want . Both wool and cotton have been proportionably more in demand than silk , and more accordingly has been retained . In all eases we believe that the demand and the price are the best and most certain regulators of supply , and we , therefore , like the men of Bradford , deprecate giving an artificial stimulus to the-production or cotton , or any other commodity , when the production of wool , or something else , is equally requisite . Iu fact , products , in the lo ** g * un » always pay for products , and it is impossible ^ for one to be stimulated into excess without deranging , in some degree , the market for others . In the month of November , 1858 , the value of our exports exceeded the value in the same month of 1857 . The value in the two months and in the eleven months of the two years , was as follows : — VALUE OF EXPORTS . In November . In Eleven Months . 1857 8 , 285 , 815 115 , 007 , 196 1858 9 , 076 , 480 106 , 555 , 562 Difference l , 690 , 6 fil 8 , 451 , 634 The exports in the month , therefore , were 1 , 690 , 621 / . more , aud in the eleven months 8 , < 151 , 634 / . less than in 1857 . We may anticipate that tho value of the exports in December , 1853 , will be some l , 500 , 000 / . « mor , e than in December , 1857 , so that at the end of the year our exports , as compared to last year , will show a reduction of some 7 , 000 , 000 / ., or ' about six per cent , as against 1 S 57 , while they are now in value somewhat above tho exports of 1 S 56 . By tho end of the year , the value of tho exports of 1850 and 1 S 58 will bo about equal—say 115 , 000 , 000 / .- —a very large amount , and more ' than doublo tho average value of our exports prior to 18-10 . In spite , then , of the . great convulsion at the end of last year , our trade in 1 S 58 has boon tolerably oxteusive and prosperous , and the close of the year tcoins with promises of a groat and prosperous trade in the year now commonood .
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No . 458 , JAyPAtiy . i ,. 18 S 9 . ]_ . _^__^ . _ T , H ^ J ^ -BA ; , gjE : B . , 23 ^
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Tims Bank oj ? Turk by . —It eeoma by tho advices from Constantinople that tho Ottoman Government are etill anxiously ondbavoui'fng to bring about ft combination for tho establishment of this bank , and in doing eo to repair , if poaaiblv , tbolr apparently unsatisfactory treatment of tho onnitallata with whom thoy wero last in corroaponiioncc .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 1, 1859, page 23, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2275/page/23/
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