The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-01-16 00:00:00

THE COMMERCIAL YEAR OF THE UNITED
STATES.

The commercial yeer of the United States closed tar
1856 on the 30th of :Time last, to which date all the official
returns, just published- by -the treasury department, are
made up. The financial machinery with which these ends
• have been wrought out ; it sTreedorn from embarrassment.;
the relative absence of inflation, and the light and almost
inconsiderable burden of palmier taxation which it
imposes, demand an introductory notice. The treasury
returns for 1856 show the outstanding public debt Of the
federal, government., to be 30,727,000 dots, and the public,
debt of the States 190,718,000 dols—together, only two
'hundred and twenty-one milliotts dollars. The public
debt of Great Britain before the late war was £797,000,000,
to which £21,000,000 new loans were added during the-
war—together, aa.818,000,000 ste ruing, or about forty
hundred and ninety millions thalars. The indirect taxa•
tion paid by the .people of the United States for the
support of the federal governm,ea in the shape of impost
duties amounts to sixty-four millions, dollars. The (theca
andsindirect.taxation paid by the people of Great Britait
fotath'e sups:Test:She crown, in the way of cnetoms unit
.e-felTe duties, stamps, income-tax and property-tax,
amounts to sixty-four millions sterling, or about five foal
the-burden of the people of the United States. The
expenses of the British government are thus in our
currency for a single year 320,000,000 dols, or about one
hundred -millions more than the whole principal of too
public debt of the federal and state governments. The
treasury returns also show that our system of railways,
which embraces about 23,242 miles, stands in capital and
funded debt seven hundred and thirty-six million dollars,
though costing, by the aid .of • state and city loans, about
829,739,400 dole, or. 35,700 dots per mile ; while the
system of Great Britain, embracing only 8,334 miles,
Stands in capital and funded debt sixteen hundred and
seventeen million dollars, .or 194,135. dole per mile. And
it further appears that the whole• railway debt of the
country, in the shape of mortgages and debentures, is
433,286,000 dole, while the same incumbrances upon the
English system reach nearly this sum in debentures alone,
say 375,806,000 dots ;- while, including what are known
as preference shares, the sum total is 639,966,000 dols.
We mention this by way of qualification to the popular
belief at home that our railway incumbrances are greater
than any other country in the world, and the system
itself more inflated in capital and debt in proportion to
its productiveness and real value. The reverse is the
case in every point of view contrasted with the most
enlightened and powerful empire_ in Europe. A similar
Popular error has, until recently, been held in regard to
our paper currency, in proportion to-specie means and
specie in circulation. The returns before us show that
the outstanding banknote -circulation of the country is
170,000,000 dole, of which sixty millions are specially
secured by the pledge of public stocks under the laws of
New York, Illinois, Wisconsin, Louisiana, Tennessee.
Ohio, and New Jersey, while the outstanding circulation
of Great Britain, by the last official return, is one hundred
and ninety-six millions dollars, or £39,329,511 sterling, of
which seventy-three millions are specifically secured by a
pledge of public stocks in the issue department of the
Bank of England. The treasury returns make the specie
reserve in the banks and treasury of the United States
eighty-seven millions dollars. The last British returns
make the specie held in the Bank of England (which is
the treasury depository of_ the government), _and in the•
provincial banks, seventy millions dollars, or £14,020.729
sterling. The gold and silver estimated in ordinary
circulation in the United States amount to one hundred'
and sixty-three millions dollars. We have no late British,
return for comparison, but the lowest denomination of
Bank of England notes being £5, the awn total of two
hundred million dollars, or £40,000,000 sterling in gold,-
among the people, would not be relatively as large as the
mina estimated in the treasury tables for the United States..
Another pripular error. is the supposed disproportion of
bank loans to capital in the United States. In the city
of New Yorke which shows a little-mote than the average
of the country aalarge, the loans Are 108,000,000 dais to
56,000,000 dols capital. In the city of London the figures
stand 375,787,000 dols to 92,515,000 dols. The treasury
returns also show that of 1,407,518,000 in public debt,
city and' county debt; railway debt and capital, bank,
insurance and navigation capital, twelve hundred and five
miilions are owned at home, and only two hundred ands'
two millions held abroad, and making all liberal allowance
for imperfect data, on both sides, the fact 'that even
eleven-fourteenths of the money capital of the country is
held unincumbered at home, is sufficiently 'gratifying.
We come now to the commerce and navigation of the
year. The figures, pro and con:, of the foreign tradO of
the United States, amount to six hundred and forty one
millions of dollars, of which a6G,438.000 is in the produce
of the soil- and industry of the country, sold abroad;
44,148,000 dollars in the produce of the gold mines of
Calafornia, remitted abroad (being 12,932,000 dollars less
than the total product of last year);•16,378.000 in foreign
merchandise re exported; and 314;63%000 in foreign goods
and merchandise imported, of which 298,261,000 dollars
is retained for consumption, 0f the grand total or
641,225,000 dole, the value of 482.267,000 dots was trans-
ported
rmwa raksewt
iitnh
oAumt
pe rrieccaend
eytiet sisne ltsh. e
tiott
ae cmo tatrokne
tcropmarketed
;
The income from bread and provisions; 77,046,000 dola, is
this the income from abroad' wa5'128,382,000
andopfo r
thetefodry
also unexampled in any previous year, while the exports,
since these returns were made up, go far to justify the
calculation that twenty-five millions will be added to the
fiscal year 1857; thus bringing the relative income from'
abroad to the farming and the planting interests, nearer'
than they have ever been before. There is no other
feature in these returns, suggestive of special remark. To
illustrate it more clearly, aye have dissected the export
and import lists reported by the deArtment, and present
the result in the following tables, to the effect that, in
1856, we sold more to Europe, in American produce,
exclusive of gold, than we consumed .in European goods.
The figures respectively are 200,003,986 dots sold, to
192,254,443 dols bought for consumption. And yet, of the
forty-four millions American gold remitted, forty-two
millions went direct to London, Paris, and Hamburg—
mainly to London. The reason of this is, that, while we
stand more than balanced in the exchanges of the products
of. trade with Europe proper, we are brought forty
millions in debt by the Indies and South America; in
payment of which balance, wo have to remit American
gold, to meet the bankers' credits drawn against sugars,
teas, and coffee. The further fact is interesting, that the
Island of. Cuba alone imposes seventeen millions of this
balance for sugars, while the other Spanish dependencies
of Porto Rico and the Phillipine Islands add 5,502,000
dole for the same luxury. Then we have a balance of
14,591,000 dole to Biazil foi coffee, 3,324,000 dols_ to
Venezuela for coffee and hides, and 8,691,000 dots to China
for teas. Neither the British Indies nor the Canadas
bring us-in debt. Our experts to British Australia for
the year reach 4 909,000 dols, andto the other Indian posses-
sions of Great Britain 6,772,000 dole, together 11,681,000
dols, while we take from them only 10,397,000 dole. In
every point of view our trade proper with the British
Empire appears in favour of the United States, notwith-
standing which, by reason of the Spauish 'colonial'policy
in the West Indite's, within sixty miles of our nava gulf
Oast, and the monopoly of coffee by Bra sal and Veneauela,
and of teas by' China, we have to remit forty millions in
gold, in one of the mpst prosperous years of our, foreign
trade, to London, as the common (treeee of the world's
exchanges. The fact is sugestive an immediate and
liberal reciprocity treaty with Spain in, regard to the
commerce of Cuba, such as we have with Qreat Britain
for the Qanadas,

TaAlm WITH RUMPS, EXCI.USIVB OP SPECIE, 1851.
Produce sold to Goods bought from
Dols. . Doh.
England
Scotland
Ireland
France 34 827,889 .... 46,587.7'54
Germany .. .. 11 715,637 .... 20 183,545
Switzerland - ••• . • . 8.568,0/4
Holland ..
Belgium
Au.tria 2,239,783 .... 476 545
Spain'
Sardinia
Turkey in Europe 1,1,69,321 ~ .. 46 274
Sweden and Norway ...., 1.871,645 .. ..
441 93%25
573 .. •
... ... . ..• 1 , 8623 :3' 7601 1, 2581 6081 5611
, TwoP Tuscanyousisagl Portugal
iki s ''''''''' '.' ••
''
'' • •
97 32i ,
:,95
267
065 ...... . • . . • . 1, 4 318 :51 23
06
Gibraltar ..• •.•...• 39,126
Malta '
281,045 •• • • 41 224
Other points •
1P,084 •• • ^ 200,235

197.627,463
'4,373,020

Re-kparted to Europe

Total 200 003,900

192 231,443

. .."..-- ------
TRADE WITH TIIR INDIES, BRAZIL, CHINA, &C.
Produc" sold to. Machin-Idg. bt. fm.
Dols. Dill.
Island of Cuba 7,030,035 .... 24,435,693
Other Spanish
British Indi.i.. --- '. ......
British North America
Brivil ....., •. • .
China • ...
Mexico ..
Venezuela ... .
Chili •. 2.591.33 t .... 2 467,891
New Granada
Hayti...... 1,758,724 ..... 1.924,259
Buenos Ayres 1,013 112 .... 2 322 161
Africa
Other points not in Europe.. 5,093,641 .... 4,994,427

11,012,479
10,005,558

Re-exported to above places..