The Express.
London, England, 1860-09-03 00:00:00

LONDON,. MONDAY, SEPT. 3.

Ix the interest of legitimate commerce a hearty
welcome must be given to a little pamphlet which
has been addressed by Mr. SAMUEL P. WARD, of
Cheapside, to the wholesale manufacturers and
warehousemen in the shipping trade. It is printed
for gratuitous circulation, and comprises an ear-
nest denunciation of the mischievous yet growing
practice of hypothecating goods bought for expor-
tation. Mr. WARD starts with the position that
the practice of obtaining cash advances from

bankers and other capitalists on goods bought for
foreign shipment has now become so common, and
affords so many opportunities to unprincipled
adventurers of surreptitiously possessing them-
selves of large sums of money, that
it is imperatively necessary for wholesale
houses to establish some well-considered plan to
arrest the evil. We will not follow Mr. WARD in

his ieferenee to the system of plunder organised
by commercial sharpers, who have devised a plan
of fictitious referenees with such skill that even
firms of experience and caution are stated to have
been duped by it. Neither is it necessary to hold
up to reprobation thu trick of fabricating false in-
voices. In these cases, in order to obtain a more
liberal advance on goods intended to be pledged,
an unscrupulous merchant induces an equally un-
scrupulous niantitscturer or wholesale dealer to
invoice goods at 20 or 25 per cent, beyond their
actual cost price. The deceived lender may
nut discover his loss for months. This is
mere swindling. There cannot be a doubt
that the system of false references and
false invoices will be readily taken cognisance of
by the criminal or civil courts. Nothing is re-
quired in the interest of commercial justice save
for traders to take care that every such delinquent
inivicdiately pilloried. The practice of making
large cash advances upon goods undoubtedly acts
as an eaeouragement to frauds of this dimeription;
but these are its grosser features, and penalties
are already provided.
It is when Mr. WARD quits this exceptional
portion of the subject, and portrays evils which
run through the greater part of our vast export
trails-, that we can follow him with real advantage.
IL. rightly points out that the opportunities and
eiwouragetitents hebl out for hypothecating goods
present a strong inventive to well-meaning per.
&ion of imultspiatu capital to embark in the ship-
ping trade. Naturally anxious to improve their
position, and having through this artificial means

'was o: moue; at their command, at least
for a tune, they are allured into speculations out
' of all proportion to their own resources. As soon
as the course of trade gets out of joint they are
borne down by the overwhelming pressure of their
cog...gement'. Perhaps they struggle desperately
on, loss their moral equilibrium, increase their
ultimate embarrassments by increasing their ven-
tures at the exclusive risk of their unfortunate cre-
ditors, and end by scattering ruin over a wide circle.
Instances of this kind have been painfully nume-
rous. EVI:11 persons whose intentions are good
are deluded into a false course by the temptations
extended to them. Few trades can long be con-
duct.•d succe•.dnlly ent:n.ly upon horrowod money.
Its fact, a inert:hint i:t this vAition has no nide-
fuleuve of action. It natters nut whether tho
course of the foreign or colonial luarketa is favour-

abli or the reverse—whether they ars glutted or
empty; he has sent out goods on borrowed money,
and whim his loan account approaches maturity he
nowt buy more, even if they be unsuited to his
wants, and pledge them likewise, in order that he
'may tiU up the chasm of his urgent neces-
sities. The deeper he plunges into difficulty the
more listly is he to be driven away from first-class
houses of a conservative character, and to nego-
tiate with others of less 'scrupulous practice, who,
when an opportunity occurs, which is usually not
long d layed, extort exorbitant profits, without
hesitation. In such case•, the false principle of
buying goods sod pawning them only widens the
Tortes in which embarrassed traders aro lest. The
run-Nous elect estends to the foreign markets,
which, in consequence of the stimulus given to the
reckless speculations of persons without capital,
become surcharged with goods. In the abeerioe of
any adequate 'lemma.% the consigns:4:e abroad sell
goods at prices far below their current value. In ad-
dition to the ruin thus entailed npon the specula-
tive shipper, who had no right to embark in ven-
tures so much beyond his means, the legitimate
merchant, who trades with his own zapital, and
confines himself to a sound business, is seriously
injured. Ho must either sell his goods at the
reduced prices which have been established by the
forced sales of the speculator's commodities ; or he
must hold them on hand for an indefinite period,
at a considcrahle loss of interest, not to speak of
the inconvenience occasioned by the delay of those
r•turns upon which he had a right to calculate. It
ht, t'ereior•, an inevitable consequence of the itre-
g-.11.1r 1.1...::tet winch we hare described, that they
are felt through every link of commerce,. A false