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THE CARRON CONSPIRACY
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COMMERCIAL.
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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thin" like dismay , an account of a gigantic system of fraud long continued in connexion with a flourishing branch of trade , and we should be filled with apprehensions for the future if we were compelled to conclude that it necessarily grew from trade . To guard our readers against the false impression that roguery and trade are one , we make this preliminary remark ; and shall now state an outline of the ease as it is published in a law plea submitted to the Court of Session in Edinburgh , which corresponds , though in a civil suit , to a bfll of indictment . The statement is wholly exparte , and before the public settles into a conclusion it must hear the other side . p
¦ - *?—— - . ; THE CARRON CONSPIRACY . WHATEVER concerns the honour of commerce has for us a deep interest . It ought to have a deep interest for the public , far deeper than the delight which we all unfortunately ^ take . m censorious talk , because commerce is fast becoming pleading power of the world , Government is losing its prestige , the aristocracy is almost everywhere a by wo ^ d , the priesthood has ceased to be venerable , and commerce , by its growing influence , is throwing them all aside . It represents emphatically the new portions of society , and woe will be the general lot should commerce be corrupt and a source of corruption . We read , therefore , and are about to lace before our readers , with
some-All England , almost all the world , we believe , knows the famous Carron Company . It gave its name to the carronades which our fleet was armed with in the great French war , and has for many years supplied the population with cast-iron pots and ranges and all kinds of iron utensils of the most approved patterns at the lowest prices . It has immense works near Falkirk , and very large warehouses oh the banks of the Thames , in Glasgow , Liverpool and other places . Established as long ago as 1760 , and formed into a company ^ in 1773 , for the purpose , we believe , of working some of the patents for improving the manufacture of iron , taken out by Dr . Roebuck , And others , it has flourished ever since , a model of trading joint-stock companies . Its capital was 150 , 000 / . , divided into 600 shares of 251 . each , and was for
many years the largest work of the description in the kingdom . Its affairs . have always appeared to be well ordered , its dividends respectable , and its prospects , amidst many changes , always good . It has kept faith with the p ublic by supplying it well , but it is now charged with being in itself , and by its managers , a mass of iniquity unequalled by any discredited modern railway or royal bank company . In 1786 a Mr . Joseph Stainton succeeded to the management and kept it . till his death in 1825 . At that period the management passed into the hands of his nephew , Mr . Joseph Dawson . Another
nephew , Mr . William Dawson , became assistant manager . Mr . Henry Stainton , his brother , the largest shareholder of the company , was the agent in London , and other members of the family were agents at Glasgow and Liverpool . In 1850 , Mr . Joseph Dawson died , and then Mi ' . William Dawson became manager . For seventy-three years the whole management of tins great business lias been in the hands of the Staintori-Dawson family , and for more than sixty-five years its several members have worked together , without a shadow of dispute , to keep its aif ' airs in their own hands . Subsequent , however , to 1850 some dissension crept in between the Carron Dawson and the London Stainton , the few independent shareholders then learned how the Compuny was
managed , and now the public is lot mto the secret . By the company ' s dead of incorporation a committee was to bo appointed to look after the managers , but subsequent to 1813 no such committee was ever appointed . The managers gave it the go-bye . They submitted half-yearly balancesheets to half-yearly meetings ; but these balancesheets wore skilfully prepared by them , who withheld all the accounts from tho shareholders . They regularly , year after year , cooked tho balanop-shoots so as to represent tho gains of tho company and tho property of the company to be muoh loss than they aotually wore . A balance was shown , for example , of 9 , 6 " 867 . 10 s . 7 d . for ono half-year , when tho actual profit wns 10 , 0867 . lOjt , 7 d . JBotwoon 1820 and 1838 the profits woro
represented by the managers at 118 , 925 / ., when they actually were 294 , 543 k The mode they adopted is thus described : ¦ - *¦ " Mr . Joseph Dawson used to send to Mr . Henry Stainton , the agent in London , and brother to Mr . Dawson's predecessor in the management , ' trial balance-sheets , ' which were correct , and these were then altered and adjusted to meet the object in view . In 1826 Mr . Joseph Dawson , it is alleged , wrote to his 'dear uncle that the balance then prepared showed profits amounting to 15 , 085 ? : ' This , '_ he said , ' we propose to reduce by transferring
2 , 500 / . from flask goods to pig iron , and reducing the value of the pig iron inventory to that extent ; also by diminishing the inventory of flask goods 1 , 000 / ., and by transferring 1 , 000 / . from weneral charges to the credit of timber , and deducting that amount from the tiinber inventory . ' The total was thus brought down to 10 , 085 Z . But the writer went on to suggest as this sum was ' still rather too much , ' that it might , by certain dealings with the ' insurance accounts , ' be subjected to a further diminution of 1 , 500 / . In reply , Mr . Henry Stainton , the uncle , is quoted to have observed that he Ayould rather not touch
the insurance accounts , as some of the partners had their eyes upon them , and that he would ' prefer operating upon the flask goods . "' This system , together with charging a high commission for work done in London , and charging a large sum , 25 per cent ., for breakages on articles supplied to the Government , which never occurred , continued throughout many years , brought into the hands of the Staintons and the Dawsons vast sums of money , which were invested in London , Liverpool , Glasgow and other places , in various works and under various names . The total is no where stated , but we may form an idea of the amount from the fact that last year the exeeutors of Mr . Henry Stainton , the London
agent , paid to the company , as a compromise , tSe sum of 220 , 000 / ., while before his death he had handed over 96 , O 00 Z . For years individuals connected with the company have endeavoured in vain to get accurate information concerning its affairs , but the managers and the agents , in spite even of the remonstrances Of their own legal adviser in Scotland ( Sir John Gibson Craig ) , who warned them as long ago as 1846 that they were acting wrongly , persisted in their course . The Dawsons and the Staintons have not only been the managers , they bave gradually become the principal shareholders . From 1830 till the death of
Joseph Dawson in 1850 , no stranger was auoweu to purchase a share , and of the 600 original shares , 154 have been absorbed by the company , 328 ai-e held by members of the family , leaving only 118 in the hands of independent members . Out of this gradual absorption of shares has grown the present action and the present exposure . LieutenantrColonel Henry Dundas M'Lean was a holder of twenty shares * which he was induced to sell , in 1847 , at 700 / . each . Their value in the market was determined by the half-yearly dividends , and these having been systematically falsifiedand the property of the company
, systematically concealed , the shares sold for much less than they were really worth . Colonel McLean now brings { in action to recover from tho managers the money of which he alleges ho was defrauded by the system described . Tho question is yet before tho courts , the accounts are very complicated , some different circumstances may yot come to light , and therefore we have rather understated tho enormities chai'ged than otherwise . But aocording to this expartc statement , for upwards of thirty years a gigantic swindle has been carried on by respectable men , who have all that time been
reckoned amongst the aristocracy , great masters , and leaders of industry . If wo could not explain their conduct without referring it to commercial competition— 'considei'ed to Bo a stimulus to roguery but tho very soul of improvement— -wo should despair of sooicty . , Tho whole thing has been more than seventy years a close monopoly . From tho first tho object was to get and preserve , as against tho shareholders , uncontrolled power . In the hands of tho Dawsons and the Staintons tho Carron Company was a close corporation , tho officers of whion selected each other , ft was called a trading company , and so it was , in respect to the public , and towards tho public tho Company has done its duty . Carron woro stands well in tho market , though tho Carron
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THE TRADE OF JULY . The trade in July , of which we now have the accounts , was very flourishing , and yet it has _ not come up , say our contemporaries , to expectations . We hardly know what threy would have . The value of the exports for the month is £ 11 , 285 , 997 , which is , £ 1 , 692 , 000 more than in Jamiary of this year ; the increase having taken place gradually , month after month . It is £ 2 , 237 , 000 more than in January , 1858 , and 4281 , 000 more than in July , 1858 . Moreover , it is . £ 1 , 000 , 000 more than the average monthly value of the exports of
1857 , a total of 4122 , 066 , 107 , which is the greatest year on record . In the six months the value of our exports exceeds that of tho six months of 1857 by £ 1 , 200 , 000 , and in that period it was not less than £ 73 , 000 , 000 , % vluch would have made a sum of £ 146 , 000 , 000 in the year , had the exports continued to the end at the same rate as they promise to do this year . It is true that the value of the exports in July , 1850 , is 41 , 000 , 000 less than in July , 1857 , but in that month speculation was at its height , and trado is now sound ana
steadily progressing . . We arc glad to see by those returns that the import of tho raw materials of our manufactures continues large Cotton in particular , nbout which some alarm has boon expressed , and some political action evoked , has boon imported in tho six months ofthis year to tho extent of 700 , 000 owts . more than in tho six months of lust yoar . On tho whole , tho returns arc oxtronioly favourable , and show a largo and continual men-use in all tl > e elements of prosperity .,
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MONEY MARKET &STO 0 K EXCHANGE .
The Carron Conspiracy
works , once the largest in the empire , have been surpassed , even in Scotland , by those of Gartsherie , and of Calder and Clyde , and by many in England . It has been exposed to competition as a trading , company , and thereby been made to act honestly towards the public . In respect to its own shareholders it was a fraudulent usurpation . In its dealings with them it has its counterpart in the Government , not in the trading competition of individuals . Government is a Close monopoly , all the shares of which are in the hands of a few , or an aristocracy . The disfranchised multitude are hot only excluded from its advantages , but to them false accounts of profit and loss are continually rendered , that they may be contented under very small dividends , or rather
very large privations . Merchants and manufacturers can only succeed as this Company succeeded with the public , by serving other men well . If they cheat they are found out and discarded ; and knowing that others are always ready to take their places , competition keeps merchants honest and makes them useful . Government is under no necessity to be honest and useful ; it is subject to a little inspection , but no competition ; and the Treasury , with the assent of Parliament , like the Dawsons and the Staintons , continually levies enormous sums on the people for mock services . Our Chancellors of the . Exchequer , with their utter want of respect for the property of the people , may see themselves accurately reflected in the conduct of the Dawsons and the Staintons to
their shareholders . Such scenes should rouse them , and should rouse the public to consider the consequences to the general honesty and to morals of their pernicious example . It is from imitating them , and striving to be great and rich , like the aristocracy and the servants of the State , and pensioned ex-Chancellors , that these other monopolists , and that men in every rank of life , disregard the rights of property , like Chancellors of the Exchequer , and expose themselves to the punishment of the law . The complaints rather unthinkingly made of competition as provoking dishonesty , when it " is the means of keeping ^ people honest , should be directed against the Government ' s profligate disregard of the people ' s right of property . The public and commercial men should not disparage commerce on account -of acts at variance with its character , but consistent with the daily proceedings of Government .
Commercial.
COMMERCIAL .
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No . 492 . A ,, » . 27 . 1859 . 1 THE LEADER . 993
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JMqiiy Evening . Tjim money , markot is very oaay . Trado / it appears , is rather dull . America , it ia suid , lias boon again running too fast ahead * hor ports aro overstocked with goods , and tho commercial intelligence from that quarter has checked business . Tho joint-etoclc
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 27, 1859, page 993, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2309/page/21/
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