The Express.
London, England, 1865-08-28 00:00:00

'OEM IMOODENSGOLD.

;ORN BROODZNI3 GOLD BROOCH CHAINS.

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LONDON mast have a GINTLEMAN'S
Sti PPIE and MUM 1001L—"=YANG,', alter Alfred
llelloes comae&

IThe enreoO•

TO 0012.111P0ND111711.
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mad be u the Mae, 10, loaverlo4lllooo. NTdo
=IL co Ow day od yoldlosaos.

RAYMARKET.
Tun Evenmas. THI MIDDY AMIORL Mir Denvinc
—Ttl•-•
E. IKON CHM Mr. W. Montgomery wad Misa Cogan
And ECION ROIL Leeds Wingsnid. Mr. Robins, and
Mr. sinews; Misses Maitland. Howard, Cavendish, and Pelham.

PILINCIAB3.
Tem Inwood,
_Ervarentinus AND tramirrantaa.
RAH NA POGULArc D. Dos -sa. JeM
. Dzooghard,
Vandeethaft. D. Asher, D. Iltured,ileytes,
B.
loackault and Mai Oilver.—And AILPIA 40011.1111 f.

SRITLNNIA.
THIS ETlsnio, THE LAST SHILLING. MA. Z. Ters•id.•-•
The Hackie Troops -Gymnsatlea by the Cbantreils-Coulia
Voceisel p
by M
ar AIEERATIVS
D./WOW.& Was.bert Steele.—aed THE OONITIC

NIGH WATIIt AT LONDON-MD(IK
2 DAT -.• man a& 6d taid....Marseed SIAM.
T 041012.011 K. OD. DIM....AIMIMOOO. tlat. Um.

LONDON, MONDAY. AUGUST 28.

AT this period of the year the question of the
harvest is, as usual, of paramount importance.
During the whole of the present month financial
events have been almost entirely influenced by
the constantly changing prospect of a good, a bad,
or an average crop. The weather, without being
absolutely unfavourable, has been variable enough
to warrant all sorts of conjectures, and the pre-
vailing uncertainty has in consequence materially
affected business. This is especially shown by
the state of the discount market. Week
after week the demand for money has been
diminishing, while the available supply has,
if anything, increased, but there are hardly
any signs of that downward movement in
the rate of interest which under these
circumstances would ordinarily be expected. As
long as the result of the harvest is in suspense it
is only natural that extreme caution should be ex-
ercised. It is well known that nothing affects the
money market to a greater extent than a deficient
supply of corn, since the purchase and importation
of grain from abroad cause more than any other
event an immediate efflux of bullion, and a
corresponding advance in the rate of interest. Bill
discounters and bankers, therefore, refrain as
much as possible from doing a large business for
the present, preferring to lend their mousy on
short loans in the Stock Exchange until the great
question is decided one way or the other. Hence
the apparently anomalous spectacle is presented
of persons being able to borrow money at IjE per
cent. to hold securities yielding three. A very
short time, however, will put an end to the tem-
por►ry stagnation in trade that at present exists.
Not only has the discount market been affected
by considerations respecting the harvest, but the
same influence has acted upon the prices of nearly
all public securities. During the whole of the
month Consols have varied with each change in
the weather. At the commencement the price for
money was as high as 901 ; after several interme-
diate fluctuations it went down to 89, re-
covered to 89 to 1, and is now 89} to
It may appear surprising that the reaction
has not been greater, but there are several reasons
why the public funds are likely to suffer a compa-
ratively permanent depreciation. Among these
may be reckoned the increased cost of living, and
the competition which is offered in the shape of
new companies, &c., affording much highee rates
of interest. The first of these causes is especially
to be remarked. People with fixed incomes have
found themselves becoming every year relatively
poorer, and scarcely able to subsist upon what was
formerly comparative affluence. Wb4e the coun-
try in general has been growing in wealth
they have gone back. The gold discoveries
of Australia and California, and the exten-
sion of trade and enterprise have combined
to render money of little more than half the ex-
changeable value it bore some fifteen years
back. Hence the small proprietors of Consols have
been gradually selling their investments in order to
lay out their means at a more profitable rate though
with less security than the public funds can give.
At the same time that these sales have been taking
place, numbers of new companies have been intro-
duced, which thus exactly met the opportunity
produced by the changed state of events. The ex-
pansion of trade also has enabled bankers and capi-
talists to find ample employment for their money in
discounting, and has, in a great degree, prevented
them from adding to the government securities they
already held. The result is that the floating
supply of stock in the market remains large, and
as there are no present signs that it will be cleared
off, but will rather increase, prices are necessarily
depressed. At this moment also there are ex-
ceptional reasons for Consols being flat. The
cattle disease is certain to cause the high cost of
living to be materially augmented by the rise in
the price of meat, and hence the change in invest-
ments already mentioned is likely to continuo on
an increasing scale. Secondly, the losses sustained
by farmers and graziers must inevitably lead
to a diminution in the deposits of the country
banks, and possibly to au additional demand
upon their resources, with consequent sales
of government stocks in London. Happily it does
not appear that there is any chance of a calamitous
deficiency in the harvest, otherwise the pressure on
the country banks might become of greater
importance.
As regards other securities, they have been com-
paratively little affected by the doubts respecting
the crops. Next to the public funds, the largest
investments of capital in England are in railway
stocks, and although in exceptional instances prices
have given way, particularly in Great Eastern and
Metropolitan, in several of the most important
descriptions they have actually advanced. Rail-
way management is not yet as perfect as it may
easily be made, but an improvement has
so far taken place that the public are
looking upon these securities more in the
light of a solid investment than as mere channels
of speculation. As a matter of course railway
profits would be considerably diminished by a
deficient harvest, but the growing importance of
the pleasure traffic would probably be considered
a sufficient compensation. It is at all events
satisfactory to find that the English public) are
becoming more alive to the value of securities at
their own doors, and lees disposed to sink their
money in the bottomless pit of foreign finance.
At no period, indeed, for many years bas there