The Express.
London, England, 1867-10-14 00:00:00

HIGH WATRZ AT LONDON!AIDGIL

IZIII DAY Lianiag.-2i:l7aa:::::AfternocZ, 2h. 33m.
Mslioasow—Morateic. 12). .5122..--A262nrooe. 3h. IL.

LONDON, MONDAY, OCTOBER 14.

THE two great problems of English commerce—
corn and cotton—have come into prominent
notice during the past week. In both these staples
the changes have been adverse. It is difficult to
tell which is the more disadvantageous—a rise in
the one or a fall in the other. The latest accounts
respecting the harvest show that the wheat supply
has been deficient, and in some of the country
markets a rise of 3s. or more has taken place.
There appears little doubt, however, that this
movement has been chiefly produced .by purchases
en foreign, and especially French, account. Not
only haa a large portion of the supplies from
Southern Russia, Turkey, and her dependencies
been diverted to Genoa, Algiers, and Marseilles,
instead of being sent to Liverpool and London, but
there is alsogood reason to believe that some conside-
rable quantities of English grain have been bought
for export. Thum operations can of course exer-
cise only a temporary influence, since it appears
beyond the bounds of possibility that this country
will becmue, as she was two hundred years ago,
an exporter instead of an importer of corn.
Trade, however, constantly experiences the
strangest and most unexpected revolutions. When
the excitement caused by the gold discoveries in
California was at its height hardly any one enter-
tained, or at least expressed, the slightest opinion
that this particular State would, in comparatively
few years, take its rank among the grain-exporting
districts of the world. The event has nevertheless
happened. Returning to the present features of
the day, it is evident that, making allowance
for the increased harvests in Southern Europe and
America, the general yield for the year is, on the
whole, deficient. Northern Germany, from whence
we used to receive large quantities both in the
shape of grain and of flour, is suffering from
scarcity, and, instead of being as heretofore a
seller, has become a buyer. The development of
modern trade has of late years attained such
complete proportions, that the question of the food
supply is elevated now to a cosmopolitan in place
of a local interest. Thirty or forty years back a
failure in the harvest of oven the nearest nations
excited here little more than a languid sympathy.
Today it comes home to our own doors. The
English workman may have to pay a penny a
pound more for his bread on account of misfor-
tunes that have only partially affected his own
country, but, on the other hand, press hardly
upon comparatively remote parts of Europe.
Probably the question would be of subsidiary,
although still of much importance, if the crops in
France had turned out even moderately favourable.
It is well known that no subject engages the
anxious attention of the French Government more
than the rise in the price of bread. Already
ominous placards have appeared on a question that
affects every household in the empire. Paris espe-
cially shows signs of being intractable. There
can be little doubt that the Go%eniment are taking
measures to remedy the evil. It is no secret that
large purchases of corn have been made abroad,
and that in consequence the specie in the Bank
of France has decreased in a fortnight by about
2,040,0001. In the present stagnation of French
enterprise only ono cause can be assigned for this
sudden drain, and for a similar reason it
may be inferred that public rather than
private operations have been carried on. It would
be no new thing for the Government, in order to
keep down the price of bread, to take measures
which, according to our views, would be totally
antagonistic to every sound principle of political
economy. How far this may have been done it
is, of course, impossible to tell. The matter is
notwithstanding of great importance to ourselves.
The violation of the best established principles of
trade is sure to recoil heavily upon the originator,
but does harm to bystanders in the meantime. A
continues! s•ipply of artificially cheap bread may
enable the French artisan to work on terms which
would have the effect of underselling our manu-
facturers. It is only one of the many forms for
giving a bounty. However mischievous bounties
in the long run turn out to be, the history of the
worldproves that sometimes they command a cer-
tain amount of factitious success. The French
nation at large would be the loser in the end, but