The Press.
London, England, 1855-11-03 00:00:00

NOVEMBER 3, 1855.

glontg glarktt atO Citg

FRIDAY EVENING.
PREPARATIONS for to-day (the 4th), when an un-
usually large amount of commercial bills will reach
maturity, have tended to enhance the demand for
money, and raise the rates of discount during the
current week. By the inevitable reaction from this
cause, speculation has beer. dull, " accommodation "
difficult, and prices depressed. Continued rumours
of diplomatic entanglements with the United States,
and the incessant rains, have also contributed to
keep the quotations down, insomuch that in the
absence of any real or permanent influence Consols
fell nearly per cent., being marked as low as 87(,
both for money and account. From this extreme
depression, however, the market has more than once
experienced a partial recovery, and towards the
close of business this afternoon a much firmer tone
was exhibited, the quotations rallying finally to Bs.
Similar fluctuations have been experienced in other
'stocks and shares, followed by a corresponding im-
provement before leaving off to-day.
Yesterday (Thursday) was observed as a close
holiday both on the London 'Change and the Paris
Bourse. On the former, because the day was appro-
priated to making up the half-yearly balances at the
Bank ; in Paris, as being All Saints' Day.
_s__

The increase of interest on Exchequer Bills, ga.
zetted last week, has not sufficed to keep those
securities floating above par. The bills have been
at a discount all the week; the price ranged to-
day as low as from ss. to 10s. dis. 31. 16s. o,lcl.
per cent. at a time when money is so much in re-
quest, is obviously not enough to sustain the floating
debt in its proper condition of negotiability.

. .
Our statement, in the last PRESS, that large con-
signments of gold had been transmitted to the Bank,
is fully borne out by the return published this
evening. In fact, our estimate of 000,000/. as the
net amount of bullion furnished from the Australian
diggings, and received into the Bank cellars, appears
to have been considerably exceeded. Hitherto, all
the receipts of this sort, extensive as they may have
been, were largely exceeded by the aggregates of
the precious metals weekly shipped for the Con-
tinent, for India, and for the seat of war.
This week, for the first time, the incomings
have at length surpassed the outgoings. The latter
still exhibit a huge total, and must so continue to
do, as long at the outlay on the war remains what it
is. But in the Bank returns published in last night's
Gazette we welcome once more the appearance of
an actual increment in the stock of bullion. From
week to week this precious basis of credit and circu-
lation has progressively declined by some half-mil-
lion, more or less, until the total sum in reserve had
fallen from twenty millions to little over eleven mil-
lions. In the return now before us, exhibiting the
Bank status of Saturday last, Nov. 27, this stock of
metallic currency shows an absolute increase. The
expansion may be small in comparative amount,—
being only 77,1581., as the difference between
11,230,2071. on Oct. 20, and 11,303,365/. at the date
Of the last return ; but the mere fact that there has
been an increase, and that the late rapid drain of
gold has at last sustained a check, is not a little con-
solatory. The apprehensions so widely entertained
of commercial crisis on one side, and the furious on-
slaughts against the Bank Charter and Currency
Acts on the other, are allayed, if not extinguished,
by this improved position of the great regulator of
our financial machine.

Since the date to which the last published Bank
return extends, the influx of precious metal has, we
know, been considerable. From the half-million
received from Ballarat, more than a moiety—it is
stated at 350,0001. worth of gold—was lodged in the
Bank on Wednesday last. Other consignments
received in the course of the week have raised this
vast sum to between 500,0001. and 000,000/. On the
other hand, we find abundant tokens that many of
the chief causes which lately resulted in an extensive
outflow of gold or silver, have ceased to operate. In
Hamburg, for example, through which emporium
such headlong torrents of the precious metals have
lately streamed towards Austrian and Russian mar-
kets, the rates of discount are now somewhat easier

even than those in Lombard-street. The last con-
signments of silver from South America have also
commanded lower prices than antecedent arrivals,
the dollars brought from Vera Cruz by the Echo
on Wednesday having sold at only Ned. per ounce,
showing a decline of Id. on the last quoted prices.
Contemporaneously with this reduction the East
India Company have diminished the rate at which
they accept cash for their bills on India by one penny
per rupee, equivalent to four per cent. The rates
are now fixed at 2s. Id. per Company's rupee for bills
on Bengal and Madras, and 2s. lid. on Bombay.
The rapid drain of silver towards our Oriental empire
has thus ceased, at all events, for the present.
The remaining items of the last Bank return
evince the results which were to be anticipated from
the heavy strain lately made upon the resources of
the establishment. The Chancellor of the Exche-
quer has drawn out 124,177/. of the public deposits
beyond the payments on Treasury account ; while
the commercial public has instituted a still heavier
pull upon its balances in hand, the aggregate of
" other deposits" having deci eased from 11,764,080/.
to 11,327,3211., showing a reduction of 436,7591.
The Government securities in the possession of the
Bank are diminished 300,4041., proving that the
Directors still find it expedient to realise assets ;
while the decrease of more than a quarter of a
million (254,9121.) in "other securities" exhibits
the consequences resulting from the enhanced stin-
gency in discounting commercial paper at the Bank
of England.
That the current rates of discount may not be
materially lowered, notwithstanding this increase in
the metallic basis, is very probable. Nevertheless,
the continuance of such a state of things affords no
ground whatever for interfering with the Bank
operations, or for impugning the principle of the
act passed in 1844. Money, like every other com-
modity, must fluctuate in value according to the
laws of supply and demand. Where the article is
scarce the price will be high ; and, wherever the
profits to be derived from its employment is
large, the dealers will find it worth their
while to pay liberally for accommodation.
Such is, and must be, the case so long as war con
tinues. The expenditure arising from that souree
may be exceptional, temporary, and wasteful, yet as
it returns an ample surplus to the parties concerned,
to contractors, merchants, manufacturers, and pur-
veyors of every description, the inevitable result is to
raise the average tariff of profits, and consequently
the rate at which the parties engaged in productive
business can afford to pay for the capital which keeps
them going. This rate is quite irrespective of the
actual residuum of gold in the Bank cellars, but, as it
represents a real, and not a speculative or fictitious
aggregate of transactions, we can entertain little
apprehension that the country can be thereby driven
to the extremity of discontinuing cash payments,
either directly or by any of the various indirect
methods so ingeniously suggested on different
hands. While Australia and California continue to
remit their abundant supplies of gold, we cannot
believe that any necessity will be found to adopt
measures whose immediate consequences must be, as
they have been, to make every guinea worth a
nominal 275. ; to augment the price of every necessary
of life in a still greater ratio ; to rob creditors with-
out doing any good to debtors ; and to spread ruin
and chaos over the whole commercial system of the
country.
In the Foreign Market Turkish Stock has shown
some weakness. The Six per Cents. (unguaranteed)
were done today at 781 79. The New Four per
Cent. Scrip (guaranteed), at 8 discount. Mexicans
are heavy, owing to the unsettled condition of that
Republic.
The returns of railway traffic, published this
morning, show a considerable increase in the re-
venue of all the principal lines. The quotations of
Shares are nevertheless hardly supported, and busi-
less is very inactive.