The Express.
London, England, 1848-10-07 00:00:00

MONEY MARKET.

FRIDAY Euxiso
The busir.ess is Consols has been of the same quiet
character as for some time past, and so seems likely
to rea:in whilst so many of the principal jobbers are
out :if town, codas disturbed by political causes. The
doetnations scarcely minded per cent.,but the stock
left off rather stronger for money at 86i, for time it
was still quoted 88} to Exchequer Bills were 31s.
to 34e. premium. India Hoods, 31e. to 345. premium.
India Stock, 234 to S.

Mexican 'occupied some attention in the foreign
house, but the dealings were less animated. The
quotations ranged from 181 to 191. Portuguese
Bonds were done at 26, but quoted 24/ to 6. Spanish
Five., 111 to 12 ; the Threes, 23 to 1 ; Pamirs,
21 to 31. Datoh Two-and-a-Half per Cents. 441 to
61; the Fours, 881 to 91. Russian were again
bought at 991, but quoted 99 to 100. Brazilian, 72
to 4. Chilian, 83 to 6. Buenos Ayres, 20 to 2.
Peruvian were rather in demand, and bought at 301,
but Galled as before 30 to 2.

The quotations of foreign exchange were slightly
In advance in some minor places, but in the chief
drawing cities without VIUiMIOII from last post. There
was not much business doing on 'Change. The nego-
tiations were, on Amsterdam, 12 11 to 1 ; on Rotter-
dam, 12.11 to ; on Antwerp, 25.70 to 75; on Ham-
burg, 13.11 to 111: on Frankfort, 121 to j ; on St.
Petersburg, 381 to 1; on Paris, 25.110 to 75 ;on
Vienna, 11 to 115; on Leghorn, 32 to 32.10; on
Naples, 371 to 8; on Madrid, 47 ; on Lisbon, 611—
all at three months.

The report was current this afternoon that the mail
steamer 1 rem Hamburg had been placed under qua-
rantine. It is possible that this report, which could
not be verified, might have originated from the non-
delivery of the letter to the merchants, owing to her
arrival at too late an hour.

A private letter from Trinidad, addressed to a re-
spectable house in the City, speaks not uncheeriagly
of future prospects there. The writer observes that
" we shall send you next year more sugar, and at a
less cost, than any we have hitherto shipped."
The stock exchange practice of " time bargains "
when construed upon the merits, and as originally
understood when credit was first introduced as an
element in the trading in public securities, really
means no more than the same practice of business as
applied to valuator commodities of any other descrip-
tion. A dealer in Mincing-lane, for example, pur-
chases so much produce, on a promise to pay at •
given date. But he may have no intention in reality
to take it into stock. His object is to resell it
before pay day arrives at such profit as,
upon revocable calculation and experience, he
may be able to obtain. So also merchant, con-
tract for produce to arrive months forward, and even
for the yield of growing crops, upon a similar calcu-
lation of re-vale and realisation. The " jobber "of
the stock exchange, which is only the technical and
convertible term for the " dealer " in produce or any-
thing. else out of doors, acts upon precisely the same
principle. In each case the principle may be strained
on undue speculation to the excess of gambling. Thus
there have been speculations in tallow, spelter, &0.,
carried to such an extraordinary extent in excitable
times that twenty times more of each has been bought
and sold, all to arrive, than the whole
world could produce. As the settlement of such spe-
culations could not possibly be made in commodities,
the result has been, that the differences betwixt the
buying and selling rates at the respective dates were
struck, end the balances adjusted, where they were
adjusted, in money.
Bat when business is done between jobbers; where
one buys and the other sells shares for account, it by
no means follows that the one is baying what he does
not want, or the other selling what he has not, or
may not have, to deliver at the time agreed. The
bargains between any two parties may be, often are,
the result of similar and previous bargains with and
among a score of other parties. A sells to B because
he has already purchased from C, and finds
himself with a profit. B and C bay and
sell the very same shares for the very same
resins, and so on through the alphabet. Sup-
pose one parcel of 100 shares only to be so traded
in twenty-four times, as between buyers and sellers,
eo that on the account day there are actually 2,400
shares to be dealt with, all growing out and
reposing upon the basis of the one single
first parcel of 100 really existing. Oar friend
of the Scotch Railway Gazelle, so ingenious
in making out mare's nests, would conclude of
course triumphantly that the bargains for 2,300 out
of the 2,400 must be " fictitious," mere gambling
transactions, and that no stock had really passed, or
could pass. Yet the reverse would absolutely be the
fact—is the fact of every-day and account-day occur.
rence. Every transaction of the 24 would be as
much latele as if the shares passed at the moment
and were paid in cash down. The 100 shares ac-
tually passed, and registered at last in a new name,
represented as fairly the whole 2,400 dealt in, as the
two or three hundred thousands in bank notes repre-
sent daily at the banker's clearing house, the millions
of bills and country bank notes which are brought
there for payment and inter-balance of accounts. The
process is simple. When, or before, account day
arrives, A, the seller, asks B, the buyer, whether the
100 shares shall be assed to his name for registry ;
B rejoins that, having sold them to D, he must con-
sult him, and so on through the series, until Z is
found the final purchaser, gives his name, is daily re-
gistered, and then the shares are finally paid for, and
the differences between all parties adjusted. Day
by day, meanwhile, these various sales and purchases
figure, so far as the price at which each targain was
done, in the official last, where doubtless our friend so
far north sagaciously sets them down as so much
"fictitious" dealing, when, consulting the registry
office of the Caledonian, or the Aberdeen, he finds that
after so much daily flourish in Wetenhall, 100 shares
only have come in for registration.
Stock Exchange practice is thus, after all, but one
and identical with mercantile and trading practice, as
might be exemplified further by the system of war-
rants, were it necessary. But, for final illustration of
this part of the question, let us refer our Scotch friend
and his readers to examples of more homely apprecia-
tion. How many times, we ask, does a bale of
cotton change hands before it actually reaches the
factory for the devilling and blowing machines—for,
in fact, the first process towards consumption ? Pro-
bably not less than a score of times betwixt importers,
dealers, and 'winners. In each case of buying or
selling a bill at some date passes as a general rule,
say the bill is for three months, which must be called
a time bargain operation. Suppose the bale on
average of transactions to realise 101., and we have
twenty bills of lOL each, say 2001., in circulation, all
reposing upon, and represented by, one simple
quantity worth no more than 101. The final delivery
of the bale through all the stages from A. to V. brings
the multiplied transactions to a close; all the bills are
paid ; all the time bargains are fulfilled ; there has
been no " fictitious" dealing after all—and yet it may
be that during the whole course of the business the
bale of cotton shall not have left the Dock Company's
alleys. The same may be said of the dealings in eve,
sugar, and all other commodities imported, or fabri-
cated at home.

Something remains to be mid on another occasion
about stock exchange practice in respect of differences
where no stock or shares may chance to psis, and
where a " making up " of another kind takes place.
The Chili papers to the 22nd of July received by
the West India mail report, as well entitled, favour-
ably of the financial state and progress of that pros-
perous republic. The local six per cent. stook had
been for some time paid off. Of the Three per Cents.,
281,060 MMus bad been redeemed by the sinking
fund, having, oat of 1,748,000 dollars, 1,494,000 only
to be dealt with.
Tbe Bank of England returns for the week ending
the 30th ult. give, u compared with those for the
week pruosdieg, the following results :
araillYa Wee ...8127.114702
082814118 a mew 17,314010
P 1211811.88114 7,8445114 Imre= 204883
Oirr &pelts
asaserret re:Asa
lakilisiDepartaist66.66!.766
Oast somidso
Oda eel Balsa 11,876,414
alms 47,427141648011 e 1,070,1113
TY 11.227,472
_ _

The reserved setae stood at 9,671,6861., befog a
decrease spore the week of 364,7461.
A lean of 4,600,000 mares bunco, or 330,0001.
sterling, proposals for which were issued a few
months ago by the Norwegian government, has
been concluded by Messrs. Hambro and Son, of Lon-
don, and Solomon Heins, of Hamburg. The rate of
interest ie 4 per cent., the principal will be liable to be
paid off in 30 yeam, and the price at which it has
kma taken is 93.