The Express.
London, England, 1853-01-03 00:00:00

THE IRON TRADE.

BIRMINGHAM, JAN. I.—The usual meeting of the iron-
masters of this district, preliminary to the quart. rly one,
was held on Thursday at Dudley. The attendance has
unusually large, and in view of the extraordinary position
of the trade the discussion is said to bare been long and
animated. A very strong opinion was expressed igs to the
impolicy of attempting to prices, with a demand for the
commodity so large and so constantly increasing that the
quotations o' one day afford but little criteri In as to the
terms on which orders will be received on the next. •
resolution was submitted to the meeting for adop.io
setting forth that in consequence of the large amount of
artless on the manufacturers' books, the scarcity of coals,

and the speculation existing in the pig iron trade, it
would be inexpedieat to declare prices at all. We
very much incline to the opinion that adoption of some
such resolution would have been the more prudent course,
but the majority of the meeting being in favour of the de-
claration of a further advance, another rise of 11. per ton
was actually agreed upon, so that the value of this descrip-
tion of iron has well-nigh been doubled in little more than
seven months. The price of hoops was fixed at 121., and of
sheets and plates at 131. a ton; the wage of the puddler*
is to be advanced 101.6 d. a ton. Such is the nature of the
information which has reached us, and we have the fullest
assurance that it is strictly accurate ; amongst the manu-
facturers consuming iron in this town and the district,
there is but one opinion on the subject of this last advance,
and that is that it is moat unwise, impolitic, and uncalled
for, and likely to be productive of most inischievood
eonselunces. The same view of the subject is taken by the
Birassaphbass Journal, always cautious and well-informed
cia issuers connected with the iron trade. In that paper
te-dey wit observe the following : " We have repeatedly
expressed oar opinion of the policy of this sudden, and, as
appears to us, unjustifiable advance of prim.. Undoubtedly
the discovery of new uses for iron, and the increasing wants
oteensumers, must gradually and permanently increase the
production, but these legitimate causes combined could not,
without an extraordinary amount of speculation, have
effected so marvellous as advance in price, an advance to
which the insane mania of 1846 offers no parallel." AU
well-informed persons on iron-trade matters will concur in
the sentiments above expressed : we fear, indeed, that the
day is not very far distant when the mi,chief arising from
this continued advance in the price of the commodity will
be most keenly felt, helping, as it does, to cripple some of
the most important branches of our manufacturing industry.
We have reason to believe that there are even now some
large stocks of iron in the hands of speculators, and although
there are no bounds to the ideas which some persons entertain
on the subject of further advances (it has been hinted that
bars may go as high as 141. a ton)—we feel assured that in
the present state of things the prudent course for consumers
is to make nothing beyond baud-to-mouth purchases. At
the present time there are 115 furnaces actually is blast out
of less than 130 in South Staffordshire ; but from one cause
or other—chiefly the high price of coals and the scarcity of
the commodity—the weekly make is probably not more than
three-fourths of what it might be. Last week it is said to
have reached 13,000 tons, but this is perhaps beyond the
average. There are very large orders in hand for America
and India—for the first-named especially; but we have
been assured that even within the present week a gente-
man who came over to this country with the intention of
ordering a thousand tons of iron, declined '.o do so at the
extravagant prices now soling. The price of pigs
varies between 61. and 61. a ton, according to the make and
quality. The trade of the town and district continues
healthy, without anything varying from ordinary sufficiently
to be worthy of especial remark. This has been very much
of a holiday week with the artisans, but the manufacturers
generally are fuller of orders on theist of January than they
have been for many a year.