The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-03-20 00:00:00

• limit their purchasing ability. The want of commercial
equivalents, consisting of the exchange of the respective
productions of countries, is evinced in the fact, that Great
Britain is compelled to offset her imports from the East
Indies by a large annual export of silver, showing conclu-
sively the absence of the materials for the formation of a
trade of barter, the only mutually beneficial commerce of
nations. In thieconnection we must not, however, omit
to state that the supply of East India cotton, for the con•
sumption of the United Kingdom has increased 64 per cent
within the last five years, 55 per cent within the last three
years, and 17 per cent within the last year; whilst accord-
ing to the statement of Messrs. DuFay & Co., of Manches-
ter, embracing the Periods from the 15th December, 1855,
to 15th December, 1856, the British export of plain and
printed calicoes within five years has increased from 398
millions of square yards in 1850, to 548 millions in 1855,
and from 548 millions in 1855, to 6.'.8 millions in 1856.
The greater area in the United States over which the cul—
tivation may be extended, will depend, of course, on the
extent of the emigration from the older and partially
exhausted to the newer and more fertile regions of the
South West, irrespective of the additional command of
labour from the natural increase of the slave population.
The gain from working the rich bottom lands of the Red
River, and the Arkansas, would, of course, exceed the loss
from the abstraction of hands from the less productive
cotton lands of South Carolina and Georgia. The
influence of any diversion of labour from sugar to cotton
in Louisiana and Texas will depend on the comparative
prices of these two staples, and their comparative costs of
cultivation. The recent failure of the sugar crop is said
to be traceable as much to the exhaustion of the soil, and
the deterioration of the plant, as to natural causes. Should
Congress reduce the duty on sugar, it would form an
operative circumstance, to a certain extent, in the transfer
of labour from the sugar to the cotton culture. But it
will be borne in mind that the conversion of sugar into
cotton lands is difficult, and attended with much loss, from
the high cost of machinery for sugar production; although
during the present year there has been in Louisiana
a considerable change of culture from sugar to cotton.
The principles which have ordinarily governed the price
of cotton can have now only a qualified application, not
merely from the fact that one of the constituents of that
price, slave labour, is higher, and that money is becoming
cheaper, but that consumption is outrunning production,
measuring the former not solely by the wants of the
British spinners, but also by the demand of the continental
consumers of cotton goods and the raw material. Under
the combined effect of these circumstances, of a partial
monopoly of the supply (for the United States furnish two
thirds of the whole), and the higher relative rate of con-
sumption compared with the growth, the price must
advance with the increased cost of cultivation. It would
be difficult to conjecture at what price cotton will gravitate
to that centre which will adjust it to this cost ; but, as
casting some light on this point, not alleging that there are
regular cycles between prices and supply, it will not be
uninstructive to look back at historical periods that mark
the alternation of prices with the varying production.
Taking periods of ten years, in the three years ending 1825,
the average annual growth of United States cotton was
about equal to its total average consumption, being respec-
tively between 500,000 and 600,000 bales, the price being
within the same period lld at Liverpool for good Uplands.
In the ten years ending 1835 the average annual production
was 979.000 bales, an increase of about Bff per cent, or 8
per cent per annum, the consumption having increased in
about the same ratio, the price at Liverpool being 9d. In
theldecennial period ending 1845, the average crop was
1,824,000, about the same rate of increase as in the last
preceding period, the consumption having augmented
about 85 per cent, and the price being bid. In the subse-
quent ten years, terminating in 1855, the production was
2,545,000, average increase about 40 per cent, price 50.
the consumption having increased only about 40 per ceui..
But in nearly equally dividing the last period 1850 to 1855 I
we shall find that in the first six years there was a very
small and in the last four years a large increase. The
Equilibrium had been restored about 1852, and prices had
gradually risen as the production lessened and the con-
sumption increased. From 1825 to 1845 cotton fell from
lid to 50, the effect of over production. In coming down
to the last decade, we see the influence of a restoration of
the equilibrium between the supply and consumption,
prices having advanced from 1845 to 1855 about ti per
cent. Now, whether we shall fall back to the period be-
tween 1835 and 1845, 7d for good Upland, as the future
standard, is a subject for conjecture ; but we feel confi
dent that we shall never again recede to the prices between
1645 and 1850.

Commerrtal Entellignice.

LIVERPOOL COTTON ATARBET.-MARCH 19.

The cotton market continues without animation, and
with only moderate transactions, prices are maintained.
The sales—including 400 Pernambucos Sid to 9d, 40
Bahian Si to 8id,170 Maranhams 90, 600 Egyptians 9d to
120, 500 Surats 5d to 6d—are reported 6,000 bales, of which
1,000 are on speculation and for export.