Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-07-31 00:00:00

LIVERPOOL TIMBER TRADE.

On the 17th instant, the date of our last, we adverted in
terms of pleasing anticipation to the promising condition
of the approaching harvest, both at home and on the
European and American continents, as holding out reason-
able grounds of hope for an increase of the general busi-
ness of the country. We also alluded to the recent large
arrivals of gold and the slight diminution in the rate of
discount charged by the Bank of England as increasing
the prospects of prosperity, held out by the promise of an
abundant and early harvest. These prospects, we are
sorry to observe, have not as yet been realised; the
harvest prospects still continue cheering, but, unfortu-
nately, the disturbed state of our Eastern possessiots and
connections are sufficienlly urgent and perplexing to
counteract, for the present at least, the golden expecta-
tions we should otherwise have been entitled to indulge in.
Previous to the reception of the last Indian mail, so
gloomy an opinion had been formod in the manufacturing
districts as to our Indian relations, that many of the first
houses in Manchester had intimated their intention of
limiting production, until the state of India could be more
conclusively understood ; an intimation also given and
acted en by some of the Yorkshire and other manufac-
turers. The intelligence received within the last few
days, although by no means such as to justify any
additional uneasiness, unhappily is as little cal-
culated to allay apprehension, and the dullness
occasioned in every branch of manufacturing industry
congruent upon this state of anxiety, if not of alarm, has
acted injuriously upon every item of commerce. The
check given to manufacturing enterprise has operated to
its fullest extent in arresting the erection or commence-
ment of buildings which had been in part resolved on to
meet the expected necessities of an anticipated extension
of trade. It has also in an equal degree operated in
stopping the construction of dwelling house accommoda-
tion for the increased number of workers which the
desired improvement in trade must have necessitated.
While these adverse causes have been at work in circum-
scribing the general building operations of the country,
and consequently in limiting, if not absolutely diminishing,
the demand for wood of all kinds, unfortunately other
causes have equally unexpectedly conduced to a similar
result. The chief of these may be set down as originating
in the very large supplies which, during the last few
months, have literally been poured upon our markets.
This will be to some extent perceived from the single
statement that since the let of February last 98,868 tons
of shipping, wood laden, have arrived here, against 63,540
tons during the same period of 1856, and against 75,378
in the same period of 1855. Such a statement requires no
comment ; it furnishes at once an explanation of the stag-
nant state of the wood trade, and a key to the probability
of the duration of the dullness. Diminished import for a
considerable time to come is the only reliable means of
restoring the market to a vigorous and healthy tone.