The Express.
London, England, 1847-10-25 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, MONDAY EVENING, OCTOBER 25, 1847.

realised upon the first _ in the market.
Consols, which opened 1 lower, were done at 80 for
money, and 801 for account, showing an improve-
ment of per cent. upon the last quotatiens of yester-
day. The favourable tenor of the commercial and
monetary news by the Sarah Sands steamer from the
United States, from whence the despatch by a vessel
to follow of 200,000 sovereigns was advised, with
40,000 received by the steamer, helped to assist the
market. As the day advanced reports were circu-
lated with more assurance that the deputation
of bankers had succeeded in their object, so far
as to obtain from the ministers an acknow-
ledgment that something was necessary to be
done. Consols gradually advanced in consequence
to 801 money, and 80Z for time, but at the regular
closing hour receded slightly to 79Z, to 801 for pre-
sent transfer, and 801 to .1 for account. Such was
the anxiety manifested to learn the more exact re-
sults of the banking delegation, that the stock ex-
change was still tbronged till nearly five o'clock with
dealers and speculators. Nothing transpired, how-
ever, of an authentic character beyond the fact of the
parties being well received at the Treasury, that their
representations and propositions had been listened to
and discussed, and would be taken into earnest con-
sideration with a view to some remedial action so far
as possible and feasible ; the more formal and definite
answer to be given on Monday. The sum total of this
information, accurate enough in the outline doubtless,
with the report that Sir R. Peel had been consulted, if
not sent for specially, was discussed and interpreted
in the favourable sense generally of a relaxation c
the banking law, upon which some rather extensive
purchases were founded, which Cf rried Consols up to
811 to I per cent. it was said. Reduced Threes left
off at two o'clock, the official time of closing for
Saturday, 781 to 9. Three-and-a-Quarter per Cents.,
801 to 1. Exchequer Bills, 35a. to 30s. die., having
been done at 375. die. India Bonds, 50s. to 40s. die.
Long Annuities, 8 1-16 to 1. Bank Stock, 180 to 3.
The attention of dealers was too keenly and ex-
clusively devoted to the home market, to be diverted
to foreign stocks. Scarcely half-a-dozen transactions
took place in them. Mexican were lower at 17 to
1. Dutch Two.and-a-Half per Cents., 53 to 4 ; the
Fours, 80 to 2. Belgian Four-and-a-Half per Cents.,
88 to 90. Portuguese, 19 to 21. The quotations for
other foreign stocks may be reported the same as
before, no business having been dose in them.
The state and the rates of foreign exchange for
some weeks past have presented some remarkable
features. The rates have been high, and such as to
yield to the buyers of bills, on Paris for example, a
gain equal to 10 or 15 per cent. per annum, and yet
few buyers could be found at those extraordinary
temptations of profit. The largest capitalist exchange
dealers declined to purchase unexceptionable bills for
payment in cash, according to usage, on the
post day following. They required credit from
one week to a fortnight, or, at choice, pay- I
ment was offered by other bills of exchange
instead of cash. This anomalous condition of ex-
change can only be paralleled iu the history of com-
mercial disasters by the state of affairs in Marseilles
from 1770 to 1773, when, through the remarkable
scarcity of money, bills drawn from foreign parts
could only bo paid at maturity, or offered to be paid
by bills upon other places, and when domestic bills
were drawn with the particular clause—payable en
compensation—that is, by other bills. "Ce precede si
funesto a la reputation de eche place," said the Cham-
ber of Commerce, in a report of October, 1770, " l'a
absolument discreditee. Dans l'etranger, on refuse les
papiers sur Marseilles, on on ne les proud qu'i une perte
de trois on quatre pour cent; on regarde nos negociants
comme hors d'etat de satisfaire i leurs engagement par
des valeurs reelles." The excess of usury consequent on
this scarcity of money, and the discredit arising from
the usage of paying bills by bills, led to a resolution
of prohibiting after a specified period the introduction
into bills of the compensation clause referred to. It
is singular that one of the causes assigned for the
monetary derangements of Marseilles at that period
was the numerous failures of merchants in London
and Cadiz, which had spread distrust in the commer-
cial world, and interrupted all business."
In so industrious a compiler of facts as the Econo-
mist journal, though by no means a steady and con-
sistent reasoner, a remarkable ignorance of the facts
which domineer in foreign exchange represented by
bills, and of the principle or system which governs
sash exchange, is manifested in its number of the 9th
inst., which present circumstances now recall to mind.
It is there observed that " foreign bills were purchased
at better rates than they had previously obtained—
sad capital was thus sent abroad, leaving a fair profit
to than who entered into these transactions." Now,
it is an absurdity to suppose that capital passes abroad
through the ordinary transactions in bills of exchange.
Capital does not change quarters any thing like so
rapidly. The rates of exchange are influenced vari-
ously by balances of trade, adverse or favourable, here
or elsewhere, or by loans and great financial operas
tiou which are represented by arbitrations of ex-
change. As there is no loan or great financial ope-
ration now in progress, the trading balances, direct
and indirect, have only to be taken into account.
Paris owes more to London than London to Paris,
and as there is a great scarcity, and a high rate of in-
terest of money in London, there is the greater diffi-
culty in obtaining money for bill balances on Paris.
The buyer will purchase only on the condition of re-
ceiving 26 francs 20 centimes in Paris for a bill
at three months drawn from London. Upon a
rough calculation, the seller is obliged to submit to
the loss of nearly ten pence per pound on sale of his
bill., reckoning the par at 23 francs 23 centimes;
that is, he pays at the rate of 15 per cent. per annuls.
Bat that heavy rate does not carry capital away.
There is great difficulty even in negotiating bills at
those excessive prices, and the reason is that money
commands nearly as great a rate of usance at home,
with less risk. Therefore capital does not move,
except in the sense of profit and leas. Twenty shil-
lings 18
paid in London to receive twenty shillings
and ten pence in Paris. It is a transaction of dis-
count just the same as the Bank of England charging
8 per cent. for a three months' bill. It is the differ-
ence between hard cash, and credit resolvable into
cash at a specified period. No capital is expected in
these transactions, save the profit, and that does not
remain abroad. The buyer of a bill at high rates
gains ; the seller, who is a manufacturer,
or exporting merchant, loses by the difference. He
exports at prices to receive a pound, and the pound
is discounted to him at 15 per cent. loss. In remark-
ing some months ago upon some loose observations
in the Manchester Guardlln, about this doctrine of
high foreign exchanges carrying away capital, these
same explanations were briefly given. High rates
of foreign exchange benefit chiefly the exchange
dealers and the Bank of England, by bringing gold
in. On industrial and exporting commerce they in-
flict a loss. They export upon a calculation of prices
in pounds. They are paid in high rates of exchange
at so much discount on the pound—so much loss or
deterioration of profit expected. As to Capital being
exported under circumstances at home when it can
command from 10 to 20 per cent. profit, it is an ab-
surdity. There is the consolation that under
high rates of exchange the country is exporting
more than it is importing. But there are
exceptional circumstances which role exchanges tem-
porarily; and assuredly imports or exports have much
less connexion with present rates than the money
penury which exists. Money commands at this pre-
sent time 11 and 12 per cent. upon the beat commer-
cial securities.

The officious and imprudent intromission of the
governing power
is the main source of the raiment
embarrissments in foreign as in internal exchanges.
It has undertaken the task of regulating and controll-,
ing credit. It might as well attempt, Canute-like, to
hold the tides and the ocean in subjection. This year
it decrees that four millions leas of credit circulation
shall serve all the more extended purposes of industry
and commerce than last year. Exportable and im-
portable values fall in consequence, excepting in
articles where the supply falls short of the tonal
rate of consumption, as in cotton, in which
there are famine crops. The fall is still more
ruinously accelerated by bankers and capitalists
hoarding four millions of credit notes more, in dread
of an extra demand for deposits for twice the amount,
or in hopes of making more profit as the scarcity of
money and the contraction of credit shall raise the
rates of mance usuriously higher. The circulation is
deprived of eight millions of gold and eight millions
of credit notes in one year, substantial values are re-
duced to a discount of 50 per cent., substantial traders
and capitalists ruined, or struggling vainly against
the di&ulties of their position, are recommended
in ribald leaders and in the more soberly virulent
" money -market" articles of the Times, to diminish
their • ' by 50 per cent., to consign hen-
dreds of thousands of labourers employed on rail-

ways to starvation, and millions of money cir-
culating and daily returning into the national and
banking treasury for rc-issuo and the re-invigo-
-1 ration of industry, to the winds. The government
looks on appalled, yet in the desperation of despair
awaits the worst, which in the exercise of calm rea-
-1 son, and listening to the counsels of men of sound
judgment and experience, with the lesso"s of the past
before them in history, might be readily averted or
tempered. The current y theories, perfect as they
may superficially appear, which will not stand the
first trial, must be rotten at the core. Leave banks
and credit, as well as trade, alone, they will take
care of themselves, as, the example is there patent, in
Scotland before the law intermeddlcd.
The stoppage of the old and respectable firm of
Messrs. Scott, Bell, and Co., in the East India and
Mauritius trade, was reported to-day. It is under-
stood that, as regarded the India relations of the
house, they were almost altogether confined to Ma-
dras. The Mauritius was a very secondary item of
their business. The house is said to have values in
hand quite sufficient to meet all present engagements,
but, as from their letters, the remittance of bills upon
other and insolvent houses were advised, with drafts
upon themselves besides, which they would be unable
to meet, the more honourable course of suspending
payments now was deemed proper, in justice to all
parties concerned.
A report appeared in the Daily Niars some days
since, under the head of Brussels, referring to the
embarrassments of a provincial joint-stock bank in
Belgium, the capital stock of which was mostly sub-
scribed and owned in England. There is only one
bank in that country to which the description applies
--the Bank of Flanders. From the result of in-
quiries by parties interested, it appears there was no
foundation for the report, which no doubt arose out
of the failure of a private banking house at Brussels.
It is proper to add, that the Bank of Flanders, like
other banks, experienced a sort of run or pressure in
consequence of that failure, whirl was promptly met,
and concluded shortly.
We announced a few days since the failure of two
large houses in Courtrai. One of these is the firm of
Veoein and A. Giells. The liabilities amount to two
millions of francs.

The meeting of the creditors of Messrs. A. A.
Gower, Nephews, and Co., was held to-day to receive
the balance-sheet of their affairs, prepared by Minns
Quilter, Ball, Jay, and Lestock Wilson
in the chair, chairman of the London Assurance
Company. Mr. Maynard, of the firm of Crowder and
Maynard, solicitors, read and explained the state-
ment of accounts to the meeting, and it is but justice
to that gentleman to say that no statement could be
more clearly and intelligibly stated and elucidated or
inquiries more unreservedly and satisfactorily an-
swered. The balance-sheet below will exhibit the
state of the concern. The Mauritius involvement,
as in the similar cases of Messrs. Reid and Irving
and Messrs. Barclay Brothers, swallows up the ca-
pital of the house. Tree cash advances direct to
Messrs. Henry Barlow and Co., on that island alone,.
are stated at 246,4361., and other indirect payments
at 20,2831. more. Securities were obtained on estates
for these advances, but in actual circumstances they
are of little value comparatively. The house was
gradually drawn into this embarrassing absorption of
its capital. Some two years ago the amount was less
than 100,0001., but the anxious desire of recovering
what was already involved led to the more unfor-
tunate extension of credit. Some observations were
made about the transactions of the house in railways,
but Mr. Maynard explained that the partners had
been chairmen of some companies with a limited
amount of shares, but in their official capacity had
had to sign for the associated bodies for a very large
number beyond what they held. The shares of their
own property had besides yielded a considerable
profit, as the accounts would testify. Of the returns
to be expected from the Mauritius property, held as
security, no estimate was made ; but it was expected,
if no forced sale was attempted, that government
would, by facilitating the more easy and cheap supply
of labour, if not by other measures, enhance its value
considerably within a short period.

STATEMENT OP AFFAIRS OF A. A. HOWER, NEPHEWS
AND CO., Nwr. 11. 1847.

To ereelltong unc.;;;Nd. as per state-
ment. folio
To credltors perils/1y sr
cured, as per state-
ment, rm. tartril

E a

The amount by told& the claim e:•
coeds the amain:dated taw vf the

Total claims wil
tlCh Oualit. id; ow
To sundrye
Isal.ellUen::
rig., on our own ac-
ceptanoes which should
be reUred by the
drawers, as per Atal.u-

L' a. d,
300,982 18 6

Of which it I e‘tirnsuid these will
On Nil% rt.ctivable,
per stateinunt,foL ..057.T65 0 1

Of which It Is estimated there will be
Deduct—
Sundry Is:dances due from surplus,
sweetie. in the hands of
holding the above bills,

10,762 2 4
311,711 0 10

;;Uarecredltert In MI,
teT statement 1,013 11 4
tiAlmatod expenses of
llqultlatton 1.000 001

120 All 0

17.17 1

141.76 1

8,648 13

d. Balm*.
.0
1,373 3 4
4.074
= 12 I

32.848 12
212.0113 11
42,717 8
15,907 2
816 0

246.456 7
20.235 6

139,081 8 1

460.112 8 11

SA/6,W 10

3013 13

?meal V.M.lu
d.

25,000 0 0

ZWV346 6 3

L 873.801 18

3,013 12 4

11;221 12 11

The following passage wears in our letter from
Liverpool:
" There is a letter here to-day from one of the
Liverpool deputation still in London, saying that
ministers are disposed to to something. that some-
thing is to be shadowed forth in to-morrow's Econo-
mist. Ministers know of its appearance, and if the
merchants approve of it, it will be done."
The expected passage to which our correspondent
refers is doubtless this:

-
Th. Chanoollor of the Exchequer aged do tit. 11. sight adtvanat
to be. Bonk tbo credit et the MAW on the stasswilag nun of no
quarter. I proms would be thie : tho Clondor of their/awn
unfits's@ Is be. pbosy three Wiliam of Exchequer sir sr
wog a in on, without lonnot immediately an ne
Best noldoods Sautury, sulhoring the ktalt Is Imo
than so adiunn en On* and other awned returns. non
fr:xelom.atr. no=emseit airlbelutr,, %Get
ItzL
at their dal rain YrMtn
no ono as bok Mo • sad ado het
to • Nana noon noun Una onion
to;
is Exchequer Bills only on kW to ;
and 1M or tin not Wang intern won be • ontiont
ortanne ant in would only be applied 4 be n eon:
ow we Mod On of ea equal value wttk non s. The operant
would limply MOM itself into an Munn on the noroatee of Os
solo. of Enamor BOK or non or ouch • domoninatban as own In
used in meakeles ak kw the mon at dune ; and be
web, to • inn noon, stay would drain no freely as Lk
mg at Os km who.
tollbk it kaki be Or kik.*
knit Go =lrk th• nolowe its
gown knita% I MO B rtly baYl
nßeelt
sky
Sr the but kw kook of ko greser. lbo lank, of mOO%
sesumit tito kpayant of ib• kmMk Oa at
end oakas rat* by Mberrolem sr sink Or
c„. be •• kerkes lbsteniisoborion big •
ki••••• kr book risk vial be as mita et So ask lot
or me 1 bed en In no Brant line
)orals, oak • 1••••kk of to • •••••kry
It wan be as inillood no a awn of no ono anontot ban
sou% lava be wenn dillnanon walk sit be in
eloblionottlio kw. thank en owns of nib Won he wt.
inn on *kW by tb• oninolonno; non on minty,
taw kikkvor kis aft bin wake la kb •• impik but
wig worivable Ms the Illakryks la mirk of kik,
kill
no
le vbasow slat
km nom it bilk kw be m
ark. vst
wlo aleskomk Oe well= of Orb
olbolos au a:be. ...trivraNg
ond garli dna a trek sink Is win le
Mk OM*, me et de or be. skimpriA damn% et
'blob kink to Is • (ski non On Open V tag inv.
ram not "os lba ask GI kb pons'le Is le
know a 11•111111, wag la asi f mai
s cons noun MO non ming W it h BrOundo ar
in the prank rack thin an s• Mk. to to pia b tb•

flank from the accruing revenue. The deport'. In the flank not only
have been sufficient to pay all the iividenda due but week; butt•Tund
the emu necessary fur that portiere they leave a balance In hand to the
creditor th • Excheqiier ut upward,if 'even hundred thiniund pounds.
So thud In reality what the Clusenellie would do would hi to advance to
the public, m • temporary ban, in anticipation of the revenue, repel to
un the cuar.inbse of public ',sock, in Exchequer /tills, payable for duties,
• sum which be not uniniquently has to pay the Bank in redemption
of deficiency bill. This, however, would be at best but a tempiirary
measure, nod could only be recommended on the around that it would
tend to iliwipate panic, restore confidence, and induce to a more free
use of the boardsof capital which are alleged at present to exist unem-
ployed, to meet unknown contingencirk

ENOI

y:ssrT.

Bank Stock. 103 -'
[n du Hunde, under .Cl,OOO, 40
3 per Cent. Kw'. Ann., 79 8} 1a 9 51)M, .
3 pm Ct. Cons. Anus., $0 79f 60f Routh New New Annultiee, 784
191 Coneols for Acct., 884+ 19 g
New 31 per Cent. Anne., /306 791 Exchequer HOle, £l,OOO, 21., 7027
el 6 3,1 .r 2 37
Lune nnt., exp. Jan. 5, 11183, Ditto .6500. 1610 27 2230
$ 3-18 1.16 Ditto
10REIG. DUN DS Small, 2 pm., 3 diA., 3 pm.
tper Cl. Mexican. 1848, 171 46 per Cent. Belgian Bond., Ex.
itto Amount, Oct. "..,i, 176 17 g 26 franca, eS
4 per Ct. Portuent,e Bowls, 13e 91 per CL Dutch Exchange, 12
1 per Ct. Dutch Certif., 81 gull, 63